Skoda: Little Bit Of The Tour

Credits & Description:

Title: Little Bit Of The Tour
Agency: Fallon London
Brand: Skoda
Country: United Kingdom
Entrant Company: Fallon London
Advertising Agency: Fallon London
Production Company: Fallon London
Planning Director: Henry Kozak (Fallon London Ltd)
Digital Account Director: Jon Sloneem (Fallon London Ltd)
Executive Creative Director: Nick Bell (Fallon London Ltd)
Campaign Description:
The idea is to give cyclists in the UK a taste of what it feels like to ride in The Tour de France without them ever needing to leave the country. We achieved this by taking the topographical ride data from all stages of The Tour de France and mapping all of this data onto over one million roads in the UK. By organising this data and building a brand new tech interface, we were able to create a desktop and mobile platform on which cyclists could search for rides anywhere in the country that matched exactly to sections of the Tour de France. This world first platform enables riders, wherever they are in the country, to find, ride and experience their own little bit of The Tour de France.
Synopsis:
Situation:ŠKODA are long-term title sponsors of The Tour De France globally. Brief:How does the ŠKODA brand in the UK make more out this global sponsorship. Without just relying on traditional advertising. Objectives:Use the brand’s sponsorship of The Tour de France to create a meaningful relationship between cyclists in the UK and the ŠKODA brand - adding to their culture, rather than cluttering it.
Execution:
We took existing data from existing APIs to reimagine the possibilities of what can be achieved with technology. For the first time ever we combined the power of three deep publically available data sources (plus the French road data) to such a creative effect, translating publically available data into a web and mobile tool that enables cyclists to experience something completely new. Through our invented web and mobile web interface cyclists were able to search and filter rides anywhere across the UK, making their choice based on distance, difficulty and location. They could download their rides as a usable file or as written instructions, as well as see them on the on-screen map. They could also use the platform to share their found rides and experiences.
Strategy:
We had to determine how we could effectively match the gradients of the 3,500km of the 2016 Tour de France to over one million roads in the UK. We used Google Maps API, Earth API and Directions API as the foundation of the data, overlaid with GIS (Geographical information System) and KML (keyhole markup language) geographical data to determine The Tour de France road gradients. Concurrently, we acquired the route data, in 1km segments, from The Tour de France before importing in the 1km segment data for over 1,000,000 roads in the UK into a persisted, relational database. Once the data was stored, we executed the comparator logic/algorithm. The final version of the comparator used SQL in a relational database.Finally, a separate web-based tool was created for effective curation (selection and publication to the front-end) of rides, using filters, map interfaces, KML data, and Google Directions API.
Outcome:
•33,000+ Little bit of the Tour users.•169,964 miles cycled by participants •Responsible for 256% increase in unique page views on the ŠKODA cycling hub YoY from Jun-Sept (17,987 > 63,597).•2m 28” average time spent on page LBOTT web/mobile web page.•+46% growth in consumers aware of ŠKODA’s broader cycling involvement.•“I like ŠKODA”: Increase by 40%.