Comments on: Social Media and the Tour de France

By: Rick

Rick — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 09:50:29 +0000

Trek has a good performance

By: adam@thebutlerbros.com

adam@thebutlerbros.com — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 21:52:42 +0000

Cervelo is also running a genius film series that gives people a reason to stay on the web. I feel like what they are doing really drives conversation. They are producing the richest content for sure. CHK it – http://www.bartape.net “Beyond the Peleton” This is the content they are cutting broadcast spots from. No doubt having riders win stages makes the spike but this is the class of the group for driving convo and brand equity.

By: -p-

-p- — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 19:56:53 +0000

Agree with Josh – Trek should spend some extra money so that Lance is riding for ‘RadioShack – Trek’ next year.

By: Mojave

Mojave — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 21:18:54 +0000

Thanks for the comments – to be clear, we only looked at these brands in relation to posts/conversations about the Tour de France. I’m sure in the overall blogosphere, Trek is one of the top mentioned bike brands. We were more interested in looking at how the brands fared with organic conversations about the TDF, especially with all the money spent for the event.

It makes sense that Cervelo is mentioned more as a team, but they also do seem to get more organic buzz from their die-hard fans. It’s interesting to us that the link between Astana and Trek may not be as strong as some people think. Although we can’t go back at look at the data, I think the Postal/Trek connection was much stronger in people’s minds. We also believe that the Schleck brothers’ relationship to Specialized is not well understood to the casual fan, which is a shame given what amazing riders those two are.

We aren’t making any sweeping proclamations with this data of the failure of one brand over the other, nor judge the sponsorship strategy of each. But it is interesting to see the relationship between paid media spending vs social media conversations around each brand. They aren’t necessarily linked, and we think there is a great opportunity for these brands to embrace social media in a strategic way.

By: Josh Kadis

Josh Kadis — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 16:59:49 +0000

This is more about the merits of Cervelo’s sponsorship strategy than it is about social media marketing. Because Cervelo is the title sponsor of their team*, they get mentioned whenever anyone blogs, Tweets, Facebooks, etc. about any of their riders. That’s not the case when someone talks about the Trek-sponsored Astana team or Specialized-sponsored Saxo Bank.

I’d be willing to bet that Astana (with Lance and race-winner Alberto Contador) was *by far* the most blogged about team and that Saxo Bank was blogged about more than Cervelo.

Without taking this into account, it’s not a true comparison of social media marketing among the three bike brands.

*: Cervelo is actively looking for a non-cycling brand to come on board as title sponsor.

By: Social Media Final Exam: The Test Is Over, Here Are Your Grades. « RVMS Blog” Marketing, Bicycles, and Marketing Bicycles

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 01:43:36 +0000

[...] showcase his company’s expertise in social media metrics than with a running tally that follows four major bike company’s social media performance through the ups and downs of Le [...]

By: Trey Pennington

Trey Pennington — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 18:03:29 +0000

Intriguing presentation. Especially appreciate Rick’s concept of “hijacking the conversation.”

By: amymengel

amymengel — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 02:03:43 +0000

Interesting analysis… would have loved to see Felt in the mix as I was drooling over Wiggins’ TT bike. I also wonder if language plays a role at all (e.g., Orbea is popular in Spain and Euskatel rides them, but Twitter and many social media platforms are predominantly in English so the Orbea audience may not be there).

I wrote a similar post a few weeks ago comparing Trek and Cannondale’s use of social media: http://www.amymengel.com/2009/07/01/social-media-smackdown-cannondale-vs-trek/

By: Bernie

Bernie — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 23:27:55 +0000

I was definitely checkin’ out Cervelo when Haussler won stg. 13. Not surprised at these stats.

Check out projectletour.com.

By: Rick Vosper

Rick Vosper — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 05:55:04 +0000

I can’t help but note which company talks the most about themselves…and gets the least buzz in return. Indicates to me that Social Media viewers are tired of the same old *We We We* mentality, same as why they mistrust corporate blogs.

The company I refer to has just hired a full-time Social Media guy; perhaps he can convince them to become a part of the online conversation instead of continually trying to hijack it and turn it back on themselves, like that really annoying guy at the party.

By: orv curry

orv curry — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 02:53:22 +0000

When I think about TV media: I remember Specialized and Trek ads.