Stark & Ari Huusela: a strong tailwind on the journey around the world
8,000 people have climbed to the top of Mount Everest. 600 people have got into space, but fewer than 100 people have made it through Vendee Globe, the toughest test for human performance in the world. Finnish Ari Huusela was the first Nordic participant in the race. The building materials supplier chain Stark joined in to support his participation.
How do sailing and the sale of building materials go together? Great! The coverage hit home with the target group, which showed itself in the form of great interest.
- Ari and Stark enjoyed constant coverage in papers, on the TV, social media, radio and it was namely non-purchased visibility.
- The value of received media attention was 4 million EUR in total.
- Ari Huusela Ocean Racing became the most popular Finnish page on LinkedIn.
- Huusela and Stark showed Finnish determination, “sisu”, and the Finnish people got to experience the emotional journey. These emotions are now associated with Stark.
The boat went by the name Stark, “strong”. Ari gave daily updates to the media throughout the 116-day race, and Stark was always there to provide support. One of the great successes in the sponsorship cooperation was that, in the end, people didn´t talk about “the boat”, but Stark. Ari and Stark, together in the race.
From the perspective of goals, media visibility in Finland was the most important thing for us. The fact is that before the race even started, we had met our goals for visibility.
Our accomplishment will forever be etched in the history of Nordic seafaring.
