If there is one thing that Alex Thomson Racing is known for – it’s sweating the asset! With a relatively sparse racing calendar, the boat(s) are used for all kinds of publicity stunts, designed to be seen by a wider audience than the one that follows IMOCA Open 60 events.
Amongst the extra-curricular activity performed by the British sailor are: Foiling wakeboarding being towed by the yacht, guerilla sail-pasts in sporting competitions like golf events and the Monaco Grand Prix, and a glitzy launch for London’s fashionistas.
In 2009, Alex Thomson was photographed standing on the keel of his Open 60 yacht in a Hugo Boss suit. Of course the pics were cut and paste into a wide variety of sailing websites and even the glossy magazines featured the pictures.
And since it worked once, why wouldn’t it work again? Only with social media and the abundance of online video – it can be bigger and better.
So the first thing to do is to create a conspiracy theory that never exisited – suggesting that the original might have somehow been faked or ‘photoshopped’, and then re-do the stunt for the Facebook generation.
It’s impressive and professionally done. The big test will be to see how viral it goes. Who will pick it up? And the other question has to be – will it sell any suits?
Here’s the pitch:
8 tonnes of carbon fibre yacht, a 255 horsepower jet ski, 45 combined years of sailing experience, and one crazy guy in a suit.
But the images, and the video doesn’t really need any selling. It is fantastic activation – the kind of thing that Red Bull does, the kind of thing that is more at home on Top Gear.
But the activity is also authentic to the Hugo Boss brand values which include ‘dynamics, perfection and precision’.
Alex Thomson said:
‘We’ve got a safety boat, a film boat, a jet ski… all we need is a plane, man!’
Everyone always assumes it was ‘Photoshopped’ and I was determined to prove them wrong, so we decided to try again.’
‘We’d wake up one day and the conditions would look just right, so we’d sound the alarm and get the boat prepped, bring in the jet ski guy, the RIB driver, the photographer, the camera guys… I’m in the suit, ready to go…and the wind drops. It was hurry up and wait, hurry up and wait.’
