Tour de France for B2B marketing

B2C marketing event

The Tour de France is mass media event, followed by millions of people in many countries during 3 weeks.
During the entire tour during every “étappe” the cyclists, their cycles and even the team manager cars are pictured nicely and get a lot attention during the event this adds up for viewing minutes. Additionally the winner crossing the finish line will be broadcasted almost worldwide on every TV news show and newspaper.

The tour is preceded by a show on the road too: The Publicity caravan
- A 20 km-long procession
- 200 brightly decorated vehicles
- 43 brands represented on average each year
- 15 million gifts distributed
- 45 minutes of rolling entertainment
This adds up to the totals costs, but gives local visibility.
All this is very B2C marketing.

Marketing B2B companies

One would expect only B2C companies sponsoring the “équipes”, however several of the 21 teams are being sponsored by B2B companies:
- CSC Consulting, Systems integration and Outsourcing.
- Saxo Bank Forex and currency trading
- Barloworld Materials handling and warehouse equipment
- Lampre Pre-coated steel production
- Agritubel Equipment for farmers made from tubes

Some of these companies are only selling into 2 or 3 countries, whereas the Tour de France has European and even worldwide reach.

B2B Sport sponsoring

Sponsoring of these sport teams is very expensive. How can these expenses being justified as only a small portion of the total viewing population is to be addressed?

This sponsoring sure will motivate their employees and their customers; still this is only a minor part of the total population watching and following the Tour.

So we wonder why B2B companies sponsor a cycle sports team? During the whole year?
How many leads doe this generate, or has it all to be attributed to customer relationship and branding?
Or are these marketing people are on dope too?

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