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Aston Martin makes a splash at Henley Royal Regatta 2017
The Henley Royal Regatta has kicked off. For the last two months an empty stretch of river and some adjacent well-tended grounds between the town’s bridge and the Temple Island folly downstream have been transformed into what must be the most beautiful international sporting arena in the world.
Blue and white, candy-striped boat tents, whitewashed pavilions for officials and press and VIPs all built of wood and sat on wooden piles driven into the Thames and hung with blue bunting, plus the greenest lawns this side of Wimbledon; it’s hard not to imagine that Henley’s always looked like this since it was first held in 1839. And that’s its charm and the reason you won’t get near the Steward’s Enclosure unless you meet the strictest of dress codes. The HRR makes Ascot look like Glastonbury.
But there is a change this year in the form of sponsors. Nothing termed as crudely as that, of course, but “partners”, three of them; local boys Bremont, Hackett and Aston Martin, all carefully chosen no doubt for their shared and overwhelmingly English identity. The branding is discreet of course but it is no doubt considered a seismic shift among the committee members of the HRR.
“The initial contact came through mutual acquaintances who were scoping out interest for a few select partners for HRR,” says Simon Sproule, VP and CMO at Aston Martin. “It was the first time Henley had look at partners and so it was immediately an interesting idea for us to pursue.
“The first contact was made around the time of last year's regatta so I had the chance to visit and meet Sir Steve Redgrave and the team. They also took the time to come to Gaydon to get to know us. I liked that they were very careful and cautious about who they wanted to work with, not always the case with partnerships between the corporate sector and sports.”
Aston Martin will provide transport for officials and will have a car - a specially commissioned one-off celebrating the partnership on display - on display. Given that this weekend marks another now essential date in the summer season, the Goodwood Festival of Speed a more obvious place to find Aston Martin, the partnership with the HRR is clearly strategic.
With the company again making an operating profit and long-term and sustainable plan for growth in place for maybe the first time in its 104-year history Aston Martin is pro-actively seeking new prospects and customers. Says Sproule:
“In the last couple of years we've been starting to raise the Aston Martin profile through sports. The start of that was with Red Bull F1 and our innovation partnership born from the Valkyrie hypercar project. More recently, we've been working with Serena Williams and Tom Brady, respectively the most successful in their sports. And connected with our new plant in St Athan in Wales, we are supporting Glamorgan County Cricket Club and youth cricket in Wales. Our global growth strategy is driving the most aggressive product launch plan in the company's history which in turn calls for to us to reach more new customers across the world. Sport is a very effective way to reach prospective customers and so was a natural area for us to invest.”
And for a hardcore at least Henley is all about the sport. This year’s entry is the second biggest yet with 577 crews from 15 nations, 60 of them from the USA. There are no less than 24 medalists including 10 who won gold in the Rio Olympics last summer. Highlights on the Saturday and possibly the Sunday (Henley is knock-out event) include the The Double Sculls Challenge Cup featuring four of those Rio Golds and in men’s eights the new European champions from Germany will face off against the New Zealand and British boats. Every member of the Great Britain rowing squad will be taking part.
Given then the quality of the competition and the undeniable appeal of the event it’s remarkable that the Henley Royal Regatta has not before set out to find partners. Richard Phelps, Steward of the Regatta admits it has been a long time coming: “We have looked at it before,” he says, “and over time there have been corporate organisations who have affiliated themselves with our event on an unauthorised basis. We felt it was the right time to formally engage partners so that we were in control of who was represented as a commercial partner for the regatta.”
Just don’t expect anything too intrusive. That would not be very Henley.
