Škoda launched a campaign centered on cycling to improve brand perception, leveraging its heritage as a bike manufacturer and sponsor of cycling events, particularly the Tour de France. The campaign involved creating a mapping tool that allowed UK cyclists to experience sections of the Tour de France, along with a partnership with The Telegraph to enhance engagement. Results showed a significant increase in brand consideration among readers, with a 55% increase in consideration and a 140% increase in recognition of Škoda's cycling heritage.

1.
Client: ŠKODA
Campaign: ŠKODA Life on Two Wheels
Executive Summary:
Cycling is in ŠKODA’s DNA, they started as a bike company and still produce them
today. With cycling increasing in popularity in the UK we found that people who are
aware of the ŠKODA heritage in cycling are more likely to buy a ŠKODA. Most cyclists
dream of riding in the Tour de France, so what if we could demonstrate our
involvement in cycling and help them get a taste of that experience. So we created a
cycling routes tool based on the Tour de France.
The Telegraph, who also have a long and distinguished heritage in cycling was the
perfect riding partner for us and together our campaign delivered a +55% increase in
brand consideration amongst readers.
Background and objectives: How can we connect emotionally to an audience that
thinks ŠKODA is a rational, sensible car to get people to like us more?
Over 120 years ago ŠKODA started life as a bike company and cycling has remained
important to the brand ever since. Alongside still making bikes, and cars built for bikes.
ŠKODA keep their love for two wheels alive by supporting many different cycling events
around the world; including Tour de France as official sponsor and vehicle partner, as well
as RideLondon, The Tour Series and the Tour of Britain, to name a few.
However, ŠKODA struggle with brand likeability in the UK as the brand is seen as a very
rational, sensible purchase, or still remembered for its historic legacy as unreliable – all of
which pose barriers to getting on new car buyers consideration lists. Our comms objective
was to create an emotional connection with ŠKODA to improve brand consideration and
cycling was the vehicle to do this!
Insight: People who like cycling, like ŠKODA
Cycling is a massively popular and growing sport in the UK, with more than three million
people across the country now cycling at least once a week1
, an all-time high according to
British Cycling. Bike sales are soaring, with 25% of this coming from the premium end of the
range – these consumers have money to spend2
.
ŠKODA knew that cycling enthusiasts who are aware of ŠKODA’s association with the sport
are 24% more likely to have bought a new ŠKODA than the average new car buyer3
, so we
saw an opportunity to leverage this further by broadening awareness to drive consideration
amongst more consumers.
The Plan: Life on Two Wheels; Ride your little bit of the tour
1
http://www.cyclinguk.org/resources/cycling-­‐uk-­‐cycling-­‐statistics
2
“Pedal
power
-­‐
the
unstoppable
growth
of
cycling”
4
th
Jan
2016
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-­‐
35101252
3
TGI
NCBS
Fusion
2013-­‐14

2.
We wanted to connect with the cycling community in the UK. Working collaboratively with the
creative agency, Fallon, ŠKODA developed a mapping tool which matched sections of the
Tour de France route with areas in Britain so that cyclists could experience their ‘Little Bit of
the Tour’ here in the UK for the first time.
We used this piece of relevant and useful content to fuel our campaign and set it at the heart
of our wider activation covering 2 digital partnerships, TV sponsorship idents, bespoke TV
content, online video and Social to grow our relevance and engagement around cycling.
However, we needed a central content presence in the campaign, a place that had cycling
heritage too and that consumers related to and where they sought out cycling information.
We ran a partnership with The Telegraph at the centre of our campaign. The Telegraph are
known for their cycling editorial and have event tie ups with Ride London and Tour of Britain
they also aligned with our audience so were the ideal lead partner to work with.
Together with The Telegraph, we created the ŠKODA Cycling Club 4
– challenging 21
cycling club members of varying abilities to ride their ‘little bit of the tour’ in the UK and
create content for us about their experience to inspire others. The content was released
throughout the Tour de France, alongside lifestyle features written by editorial teams. Native
ad units, alongside competitions for Ride London and Tour of Britain prizes drove traffic to
the cycling hub where the content was housed on an interactive map.
The editorial partnership was supported with cycling channel sponsorship and Tour De
France roadblocks throughout July to embed our association.
Results: ŠKODA and the Telegraph win the Yellow Jersey
We have seen significant uplift amongst Telegraph readers from the pre-wave in both
understanding our association with cycling and in our key brand goal of consideration:
• +140% increase on consumers who strongly agree that ŠKODA has a strong cycling
heritage (jumped 10 percentage points from 7% in our pre-dip to 17%)
• +55% increase in consideration for ŠKODA (vs. +9% increase amongst ‘all cycling
fans’)
Client View
“The Telegraph partnership is the perfect example of how knowledge and insight can be
combined with innovative ideas to help develop an effective, targeted plan that resonates
with the target audience. ŠKODA have been extremely pleased with the results to date and it
provides a great platform for us to build on our sponsorship strategy for 2017”
Peter McLeod, Comms Manager, ŠKODA
4
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/cycling/tour-­‐de-­‐france-­‐skoda-­‐club/