Three months out from Richmond, Va., hosting the 2015 UCI Road World Championships, event organizers have narrowed a once-sizable funding gap by signing sponsorships with regional companies.
In recent months the organizers have brought on the Virginia-based wing of national health insurance company Anthem, regional bank TowneBank, Virginia Commonwealth University Medical Center, packaging company MeadWestvaco and industrial real estate company Cushman & Wakefield | Thalhimer, among others.
A source familiar with the event valued the deals in the high six to low seven figures.
Lee Kallman, marketing and communications director for the event, said the deals have boosted revenue to approximately 70 percent of the event’s operating budget of $21 million. Kallman said revenue from VIP and hospitality, merchandise sales, travel programs, television and additional sponsorships should cover the remaining $6 million.
“We’re in a good place now,” he said.
The weeklong event awards individual world championships in road races and time trials at the elite, under-23 and junior levels. Since its debut in 1927, the U.S. has only hosted it once (Colorado Springs in 1986). With no gate receipts and minuscule media revenue, cycling events rely heavily on sponsorship dollars.
Kallman attributed the regional sponsorship success to a shift in sales strategy. The UCI awarded the event to Richmond in 2011, and in the early days, staff promoted the event’s international media component — it is televised in 158 countries. In the last two years, however, organizers have positioned the race as a health and wellness event, with activation opportunities throughout the months leading up to the race.
“To see [the event] as a traditional media sponsorship was a tough road to plow,” Kallman said. “We had to look beyond that.”
Genworth Financial will hold a cycling training camp during the race week for its key clients. VCU Medical launched a yearlong campaign called Shift, which promotes exercise and healthy living through a branded website. TowneBank helped the event launch a small business engagement program called Société 2015, which shows local businesses how to get involved with the event.
Anthem, which employs 6,500 people in Virginia, recently created a wellness campaign for the event called Pedal to Health. The company created an Anthem-branded website that guides new cyclists through the bike-buying process, and includes regional maps showing bike paths in U.S. cities. Customers also receive discounts at national bike chain Performance Bicycle.
Scott Golden, director of corporate communications at Anthem, said the company plans to launch Pedal to Health nationally later this year. Golden said Anthem also is providing upward of 300 volunteers to help with event operations, and the company will use hospitality opportunities to reward clients.
“We’re using it in a big b-to-b capacity,” he said.
Like Anthem, Genworth Financial also is supplying volunteers for the event and creating both business-to-business and consumer-facing activation during race week. John Apostle, chief compliance officer with Genworth Financial, said the event’s mix of international media and local focus convinced his company to sign a deal.
“It’s one of those once-in-a-lifetime events for the city of Richmond,” Apostle said.
Fred Dreier is a writer in Colorado.
