UCI Track Champions League

Reinventing Track Cycling

Brief

In Spring 2020 we won a pitch to work with Discovery Sports and the UCI to help them reinvent track cycling in order to attract new audiences. Specifically we were tasked with developing the new brand name for the competition, brand positioning, visual identity, marketing strategy, PR plans and race press office.

Insight

SHIFT carried out extensive research amongst riders, influencers, national governing bodies and key stakeholders from Discovery, the UCI and Play Sports Group. This research uncovered that track racing is cycling at its most thrilling, but for too many (sports fans and even riders), the outcome of track events outside the Olympics don’t seem to matter much. For this competition to be successful it needed to challenge this apathy, inject excitement, and also modernise and elevate in every way track cycling as a sport.

Solution

SHIFT developed the ‘UCI Track Champions League’, giving the exciting new competition a simple yet bold name, that was matched by a modern, progressive brand identity and underpinned by a dynamic and compelling positioning to attract a new generation of fans to track cycling, whilst also taking core track and road cycling fans on the journey as well. This was all done whilst successfully navigating key stakeholders, enticing and empowering the best riders and, critically, getting buy-in from a wider range of event promoters and corporate sponsors.

Experience

The new brand was unveiled to the world in November 2020, gaining global media coverage, driving traffic to the new website, kicking off conversations with commercial partners and paving the way for the full launch of the league in 2021. Over the course of the 12 months from the November launch, through a series of ambitious media events, SHIFT were able to put the UCI Track Champions League on the global stage in cycling media and beyond. This finally culminated in running the league’s race press office across 3 venues, attracting over a hundred journalists, bringing them right to the heart of this new competition.

Results

Over the course of 12 months from the launch to the epic final race weekend - SHIFT’s PR Campaign generated 5471 pieces of coverage and a total reach of 11.5 billion opportunities to see. However, more importantly, reaction to the competition was almost universally positive and everyone involved had definitely put track back on the map.