Well, pip pip, skipper
It sounds tone deaf, but I think it may be a cultural thing: I'm not sure the British (maybe especially British executives?) honestly understand exactly how "yacht race" sounds to most of the US.
Several years ago, the company I worked for got bought out by a British firm. We'd been fairly small, and this suddenly gave us a much larger marketing organization behind us. We were very excited to see what this would bring to the table. What they decided to do was put a bunch of the year's global marketing budget into, and design essentially all of the marketing collateral around ... sponsoring a team in a yacht race.
The most frustrating part of it at the time was that you can make this work (well, better) with a few minor changes to language. Yacht racing in general, and particularly ocean-going races like the one we sponsored, look at lot more like Deadliest Catch than champagne on Lake Union. That should be something you can sell into the whole extreme sports vibe.
Use the term "yacht" and, fairly or unfairly, your image is stuck as, well, this:
Several years ago, the company I worked for got bought out by a British firm. We'd been fairly small, and this suddenly gave us a much larger marketing organization behind us. We were very excited to see what this would bring to the table. What they decided to do was put a bunch of the year's global marketing budget into, and design essentially all of the marketing collateral around ... sponsoring a team in a yacht race.
The most frustrating part of it at the time was that you can make this work (well, better) with a few minor changes to language. Yacht racing in general, and particularly ocean-going races like the one we sponsored, look at lot more like Deadliest Catch than champagne on Lake Union. That should be something you can sell into the whole extreme sports vibe.
Use the term "yacht" and, fairly or unfairly, your image is stuck as, well, this:
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