ABN AMRO, the international banking group, has appointed Pitch PR to oversee a global PR campaign around its team sponsorship in the 2005 – 2006 Volvo Ocean Race, the round-the-world yacht race which starts in November.

ABN AMRO’s involvement in the 2005 – 2006 Volvo Ocean Race marks the first occasion the company has undertaken a major international sports marketing campaign. The aim of the innovative sponsorship programme, which involves the bank entering a two boat team with the ultimate aim of winning the race, is to raise the profile of the ABN AMRO brand and unify the bank’s various business units around the world.  ABN AMRO, is one of the 20 largest banks in the world, with home markets in Brazil, the US and the Netherlands and origins dating back to 1824.

Pitch has been appointed on a twelve month contract to create and oversee an international PR strategy for the campaign.  Pitch will be responsible for maximising publicity opportunities, managing all media requests during the race including crisis communications, and running a press office and press conferences at stop over ports. Pitch will work in conjunction with ABN AMRO’s existing PR agencies in their three home markets, such as Golin Harris in the US, and will also be responsible for implementing a proactive consumer PR campaign in the UK and France.

The Volvo Ocean Race is one the world’s toughest sporting events. The race starts in Vigo, Spain on Saturday 12th November 2005 and finishes in Gothenburg in July 2006. The race covers 32,000 miles, with nine stopovers in the following ports: Cape Town, Melbourne, Wellington, Rio, Baltimore, New York, Portsmouth and Rotterdam.

The Volvo Ocean Race (originally the Whitbread Round the World Race) has a rich history and generates global media interest. During the last Volvo Ocean Race, there were an estimated 800 million cumulative viewers on television, and over a billion cumulative radio listeners.

ABN AMRO has entered two boats in the race and its crew includes sailors from the UK, US, New Zealand, Australia, France and Holland. ABN AMRO 1 will be crewed by some of the world’s top sailors, whilst ABN AMRO 2 is being crewed by a team of ‘high potential’ sailors. The crew of ABN AMRO 2 are all under the age of 30 and have won their place on the boat via an international competition.

Pitch PR is a consumer and corporate agency which specializes in working with clients involved in sport. The London-based agency was founded by Henry Chappell in 2002 with the backing of Freud Communications. Chappell, 31, started his career at IMG, the leading sports management group, and is a former Associate Director of Freud’s.

Henry Chappell, founder and Managing Director of Pitch PR, commented:
“This is a fantastic new business win for us and a massive project to be involved with. The sponsorship is of major global importance to ABN AMRO and their objective is that the campaign delivers over €60 million in media value worldwide. We have undertaken a number of similar international sponsorship activation campaigns since our launch so we are confident we can play a significant role in helping ABN AMRO to achieve their aims.”

For further information please contact:
Henry Chappell at Pitch PR
Tel:  020 7494 1616    
e-mail: henry@pitchpr.co.uk