KEY POINTS:
After 156 years, the America's Cup still evokes an image of wealth, elegance and luxury.
For luggage, bag and accessories maker Louis Vuitton, principal sponsor of what sailors call the Auld Mug, this aura is crucial to the unique appeal of sailing's most coveted prize.
The luxury brand draws a parallel between the innovation that drives the development of the America's Cup boats and Louis Vuitton's products, in areas such as technology and new materials.
"We share the same philosophy - keep the tradition and respect history but also try to innovate and develop new things," said the brand's cup director, Christine Belanger, at the Louis Vuitton headquarters at Valencia's Port America's Cup.
For Belanger, the America's Cup is unique among sporting competitions in the image and appeal it embodies.
"If tomorrow, the long life we shared with the cup came to an end, I'm not sure we'd look for another sporting event because it would be very difficult to find something with the same spirit, background, history," she said.
Louis Vuitton, part of the LVMH luxury goods empire, will be running a classic car event in China next May, but this is the only other event sector where it promotes the LV label.
The most significant change for Louis Vuitton in this event - the 32nd America's Cup - is that after 20 years it is no longer responsible for communicating it to the wider world.
This role was taken over by ACM, the organisation set up by Swiss billionaire Ernesto Bertarelli to run the cup.
Bertarelli's Alinghi beat Team New Zealand in 2003 and brought the cup to Europe for the first time in 152 years.
The change has created tensions between Louis Vuitton - which has invested tens of millions of euros in the event - and the management team, which has its own vision of the future.
"I know that some people want to make this event much more popular, but it's also still a very elitist event that has always attracted very wealthy people, which is not exactly the same as any other sports," said Belanger.
"[It] cannot really be compared with any other event."
Louis Vuitton wants the event to get global exposure, targeting customers in the Americas, Asia and Europe, but not if its luxury tag is lost along the way. "For us tradition is important, elegance is important. But for them that is not really a concern," said Belanger.
ACM's focus was more on bringing in money and people.
Louis Vuitton does not reveal how much it spends on the America's Cup, including the Louis Vuitton Cup qualifying event which decides which team gets to challenge the holder.
"What we pay to be partner of the event is approximately the same as a medium-sized team," Belanger said.
Teams in the middle rankings have campaign budgets of more than ¬50 million ($87 million), with big syndicates such as Alinghi and BMW Oracle spending well over ¬100 million.
ACM has raised the profile of the event by taking the build-up events - known as Acts - to venues including Marseille, Malmo and Trapani in Sicily - attracting more than five million people, but costs also rose.
"The cost of this event has increased quite considerably," says Belanger, "but as a luxury brand I don't think the return on investment is at all comparable."
- Reuters
