Partnership & Marketing Success Factors for Building a Top-Tier GranFondo By Michael Merrall

Corporate, Municipal, Police & Charity

Cycling Event Partnerships

What I Do

Cycling Bona Fides

(since 2013)

PwC Epic Tour  Canada’s largest GranFondo; launched in 2013  Close to 4,000 riders

Corporate Riding Events  A partnership with Curt Harnett & Gears Bike Shop which organizes private corporate cycling events (CIBC, Blakes, Barometer Capital, Hatch Engineering)

Kelso MTB Fondo  Annual mountain bike event launched in 2015  Kelso Quarry Park

Cycling Bona Fides

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Halton Hills Bike Challenge  We challenged the community to ride 384,000 km  Donor/sponsors make donations to the Georgetown Hospital when we’ve reached our goal  Program has raised over $160,000 in 3 years  1.4% of the population engaged

Our Work in Cycling Tourism 2014

2016

PwC Epic Tour Overview  Launched in 2013  Canada’s largest GranFondo  Close to 4,000 riders  Lifestyle cycling event, not a race nor a pledge ride  Cycling combined with a post-ride Festival  Live music  Fresh BBQ lunch and complimentary beer  50+ exhibitors

PwC Epic Tour Overview ďƒ˜ An event built on partnerships:

Sponsors

Suppliers

Charities

Communities

Who Are The Road Cyclists? …and why they’re worth your time and effort.

The PwC Epic Tour Cyclist Profile

75% male

87% between 35 – 64 62% between 35 - 54

Cyclist Profile

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Highly affluent: 58% HH income over $150,000

They’re pack animals Highly social sport

Cyclist Profile

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They are committed to their sport

They are MAMIL’s (and MAWIL’s)

Cycling Tourism  Cycle tourists have a higher level of education and household income than non-cyclists in both the Canadian and U.S. market.  Around 10.8m Americans cycled on vacation in the last two years, which is around 5% of the total population.  Several studies have found that cycle tourists stay longer, spend more and participate in more activities than non-cycle tourists. Cycling holidays also appeal to visitors that are concerned about their environmental footprint and wish to have a lesser impact when travelling.  Relaxation is a key driver for cycling tourism and cyclists tend to come from a wealthier socioeconomic group and prefer good quality accommodations and B&B’s over campgrounds or low standard accommodations.

Our Tourism Partner

89 International Cycling Holidays

South Africa in November

Marketing to Cyclists

The Marketing of Cycling in Today’s Market  Cyclists are hard to find and hard to reach  Conventional advertising is not efficient and not recommended (print, radio, television, magazine)  The battle is won and lost digitally and in social media  PwC Epic Tour key marketing platforms:

6,137 385 19,503 in Ontario

AdRoll  Implants a cookie on web browsers of visitors to your website  Chases prospective customers with ads  Very effective & very powerful

Paid Facebook Advertising Sponsored Newsfeed Ad:

Exact targeting:

Social media Sponsor / partners Cycling affinity groups

Bike Show Contest / Data Capture

Affiliate Marketing Research Would you consider riding Epic Tour again in 2015? 

Yes or maybe 95.3%

P.O.S.

Trial

Partnerships

Major Cycling Event: Partnership Ecosystem

Traffic Departmen t Sponsors

Traffic Management Vendor

Municipal Government

Police

Charity

LCBO

On-Course

Municipal Permits

Medical On-Course Mechanical

Why do companies engage in Sponsorship?

First thing to understand is that sponsorship is simply part of the marketing mix for a company.

Series of strategies and tactics available to achieve a sales and marketing objective.

Famous expression “Half of advertising works and half doesn’t. The trick is figuring out which half is which”.

T r a d i t i o n aS lo D cE Di Aia ig dar Si r ln otSv e e cape c m d i l or t e a nt idm lM Mssie aaoad mrri r i eksn k m a dehg e a i ti t r( a(

Selling Sponsorships A. Who are they talking too?

B. What are they trying to accomplish?

How do you know the answers to these questions?

1. Meet them. Ask them. Mutual discovery.

2. Do your homework. Google is your best friend.

Remember that sponsorship is about the company’s needs; not yours.

Activations / Leverage is the Key to Sponsorship Quick Case Studies:

Quick Case Studies:

Quick Case Studies:

Municipalities How To Be A Better Partner

Do You Want A Major Cycling Event in Your Market?

Remove Barriers: 

Appoint a Champion who can walk an organizer through your complex world

Traffic Department  Are they there to help or throw up barriers?  Without their cooperation, there can be no major event  Can often mean over-lapping jurisdictions  Construction and road re-surfacing is a major issue year-to-year  Traffic management companies are a difficult vendor to pin down

Municipal Permits  Don’t let your organizer get caught up in your own bureaucratic red tape  Why charge a permit fee if you are embracing an event as a community asset?  Make it easy for the organizer to understand the right department and what might be expected of them to acquire appropriate permits

Police  Single biggest expense on any cycle event’s budget  Key part of your event safety team  Anything you can do to reduce or eliminate this expense is directly proportional to the prospect of you landing an event  Can auxiliary police be deployed?

Special Event Permits  Regulations now require you to designate any licenced event as an “Event of Municipal Significance”  Usually requires a Town/City Council Declaration  Lead times are considerable to navigate through the approval process  Police play a key role in re-assuring the LCBO

Good luck building your own winning partnerships!