Made In The Shade: Columbia Happy With Tour De France Exposure
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Columbia Sportswear Happy With Tour De
France Exposure From Team Sponsorship |
Columbia Sportswear CEO Tim Boyle said the company's title sponsorship of Team High Road during the just-completed Tour de France was an "unqualified success by any measure," according to Brent Hunsberger of the Portland OREGONIAN. Team Columbia finished the race in seventh place, with its riders winning five of the 21 stages, and Boyle in an e-mail said that the sponsorship "boosted company morale." Boyle: "No other team had anywhere near as many stage wins, which is what gets the majority of the daily coverage globally, and all the coverage in the rider's home market. When you add in the coverage we're likely to get with the riders in the Olympics, this is better than a grand slam home run." Columbia PR Manager Leslie Constans said that more than 11,000 newspaper articles in 85 countries "mentioned Team Columbia in some fashion this month." Hunsberger notes statistical measures suggest the team and its five stage wins gave Columbia's name and its Omni-Shade fabric, a new sun-protection apparel technology, "broad exposure."
GOOD INVESTMENT: Several Columbia execs indicated that the sponsorship "might never have happened ... if it had not been for the appearance of 'Omni-Shade' on the jerseys." Boyle first met with Team High Road Owner Bob Stapleton in April, but when Boyle "called his European managers, the momentum hit a wall." Boyle said that three Geneva-based Columbia execs "feared the sponsorship would drain money from direct marketing planned around Omni-Shade." Columbia European Operations Dir David Kiser said that the Omni-Shade push was "important because Europeans generally express a deeper concern about the effects of global warming." Boyle said that the European execs signed on "when Columbia's sales and marketing team came up with the idea of placing 'Omni-Shade' beneath the company's logo on the jerseys." Columbia would not disclose the spend on the sponsorship, but industry experts said that it "likely cost more than $3[M]" (Portland OREGONIAN, 7/31).
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