LifeTime Athletic Events

Spearheading a new level of earned communications

Brief

As the leading organiser of Gravel and MTB events in North America, Life Time Athletic Events appointed SHIFT to support them in taking international media awareness of their flagship events to new levels. In April 2024 we delivered our first project for this new client - the Sea Otter Classic, including the first round of the Life Time Grand Prix series - the Fuego XL 100k.

Insight

The Sea Otter Classic, a major annual cycling festival in Monterey, California, held it’s integral event in 1991 - 32 years ago.

The industry trade show, professional and mass participation racing that takes place at the show has during that time grown in popularity, gaining media interest and exposure as well attracting cyclists in their thousands.

However, Life Time wanted to significantly elevate the global profile of their Grand Prix off-road racing series, as well as the international public awareness of the event.

Solution

SHIFT adopted a newsroom style approach and identified key areas to supercharge communications to multiple target audiences.

Leaning into our unique industry knowledge we unlocked multiple opportunities for B2B and cycling tech media storytelling, whilst delivering a dynamic comms plan for the Life Time Grand Prix, which led to a drum beat of race-focused PR output pre, during and post event.

On the ground, a redesign of the Life Time Grand Prix’s media mix-zone, organisation and hosting of a pre-race press conference, and close management of the Sea Otter media centre all led to an enhanced media experience and greater content gathering opportunities for the 350 international journalists secured.

Experience

To enhance journalists’ on-the-ground experience during the event, we provided a strategy which disseminated a wealth of timely information. A daily media schedule was circulated to highlight ‘must-see’ activations. SHIFT’s designed online media portal allowed on-demand access to event-specific press releases, videos and photography, while tailored expo, summit and race-focused press releases were all circulated at the end of each day.

Results

338 news articles relating to the Sea Otter Classic, Sea Otter Summit and Life Time Grand Prix were published. That coverage reached a global audience of 668 million people, amassed 18.1 million estimated views, and yielded over 32,000 engagements. 71 YouTube videos were also published, delivering over 884,000 views.