Audi Victoria Week replaces Geelong Week

9:04 PM Fri 31 Jul 2009 GMT

'Living Doll - Skandia Geelong Week 2009' Teri Dodds /Skandia

German luxury car maker Audi has assumed the naming rights to Geelong's iconic annual sailing event in a re-branding that will see the region's identity removed from the event's title.

Geelong Week, formally Skandia Geelong Week, will now be known as Audi Victoria Week, the Geelong Advertiser discovered yesterday.

Event organiser Doug Jarvis said the Victorian re-branding was needed for the historic event to gain a greater foothold in a national market that had failed to embrace the event because of its regional identity.

'It's very difficult when you start a yacht race (in Melbourne) that has the name of a regional city because quite often it's ignored by the capital city because of its name,' he said. 'The reason they're not watching it is because they don't know anything about it. The reason they don't know anything about it is because (Geelong) doesn't capture the mainstream metropolitan media.'

Mr Jarvis said the name change was not a precursor to the event leaving local waters in the coming years.

Instead, he said the event was set to expand in Geelong in the coming years, with four days of competition planned for 2010, five days in 2011, and a bid in place to host a championship event in 2012.

'It's owned by Royal Geelong Yacht Club, it's very much part of the fabric of the local community and it won't be going anywhere,' he said.

Mr Jarvis said Audi would have the same organisational power as former naming rights holder Skandia, which ended its sponsorship because it no longer operated in Australia.

Geelong Otway Tourism chief Roger Grant said the broader name would widen the exposure net for the region and showcase Geelong to a previously untapped market.

'Obviously from my point of view I would like to see Geelong in the name, but the event will still have a wonderful opportunity to market Geelong in Melbourne and throughout Victoria, as well as nationally and internationally,' Mr Grant said.

However, Ken Howell, a lecturer at Deakin University specialising in tourism and international marketing, said losing the Geelong brand could impact on the region's broad exposure.

'I think it will because obviously it's not place-specific any more,' Mr Howell said.

by Nick Wade, Geelong Advertiser

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Audi Victoria Week replaces Geelong Week

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