Team Ellen

BT Global Services

Objectives

When BT Global Services became sponsor of Team Ellen – led by yachtswoman Dame Ellen MacArthur – the company asked us to help create VIP corporate hospitality opportunities in association with high profile sailing events. The main objectives were to underline its association with a great sport, to show how enhanced communications and technology can create a better world and to ensure that BT Global Services’ C-level clients enjoyed world-class hospitality. A key event was the start of the Vendée Globe, a single-handed, round-the-world yacht race.

Our Response

The changeable weather and limited accommodation for the launch party in Les Sables d’Olonne, France, created technical challenges that we overcame by transporting groups by chartered helicopter, aircraft and train carriages. The VIP guests experienced at first hand the thrill of the start of the race aboard a specially chartered, traditional three-masted tall ship.

The Result

Even with the challenging environment, we ensured that everything went smoothly and to budget, in the run-up to the Vendée Globe launch event. Inviting corporate guests to go onto the yacht and talk to the BT Team Ellen crew in person made the event extra special and inspiring. More than 500 VIPs, customers, media and BT executives have attended the series of sailing events, for which BT Global Services says “feedback is always positive and enthusiastic”.