The Drum Awards for Marketing - Extended Deadline

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By Laurie Fullerton, Freelance Writer

March 16, 2016 | 3 min read

British round-the-world sailor Alex Thomson and his sponsor Hugo Boss had already created award winning videos including the best use of PR at the 2015 BT Sport Industry awards last year for his MastWalk viral marketing campaign which reached more than 4.5 million viewers from around the world.

While the remarkable #MastWalk is hard to top, a video released this week by Hugo Boss and sponsor Mercedes Benz called 'Skywalk" sees Thomson driving in a Mercedes Benz along a road in Portugal, wearing the signature black Boss tailored suit and watch, where he then proceeds to sailboard 25 stories above his IMOCA yacht named "Hugo Boss" in a feat of extreme athleticism, skill, coordination and sheer guts.

There is really no other stuntman, skilled yachtsman and brand spokesperson quite like Thomson, at least in the sport of sailing. As he kite surfs more than twice the height of his Hugo Boss mast, a height equivalent to a 25 story building, he then detaches himself from the boat and expertly controls his descent back down, landing on the kite board and skimming along on the board, attired in his Boss suit.

Dubbed the "Skywalk," the stunt required over 35 people to plan, co-ordinate and execute it, including professional kite-surfer Susie Mai and kite-surfing coach Ray Kasper, along with Alex Thomson’s' racing operation manager Ross Daniel.

"The previous two stunts that we carried out - the Mastwalk and the Keelwalk - were so successful that as a team, we just knew we couldn't stop there. We were all in agreement we wanted to do something even bigger and better," Thomson said. "“I’ve always had a love for all things wind-powered so naturally a stunt which involved kite surfing was the next step. The idea of combining two of my favorite sports and executing something that, to our knowledge, had never been done before was really exciting.

“The team and I have been planning the stunt for a long time. There were lots of things that could have gone wrong. What was most concerning for the team was the prospect of an uncontrolled descent, causing me to come back down too fast. Water can be as hard as concrete if hit with enough velocity, so this was one of the most dangerous aspects of the stunt. But I had a brilliant team around me and, with their help; we managed to pull it off.”

As the third daring stunt to be unveiled by the yachtsman, Thomson is also scheduled to compete this coming November in the Vendee Globe, a single-handed race around the world which he will compete in on board his IMOCA-60 Hugo Boss - known widely in the sailing world as simply 'the Boss'. He finished this race in 2013 in third place, and this November he is hoping to become the first Brit to win the prestigious title.

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