Tour De France and Cure Leukaemia shake up the Charity world.
Have you tuned in to our NEW podcast series yet? Every month we unpick the ingredients from a range of successful integrated client campaigns and deliver their tasty details! Each month we visit some of our EPIC clients and talk to them about some specific campaigns that we have worked on with them – why was that campaign successful? What happened and how did we make the campaign work and bring that brand to life?
This month we caught up with 2 members of the inspiring team at Cure Leukaemia. CEO James Mclaughlin and the fabulous cycling superstar and all-round football legend Geoff Thomas MBE. To the meeting we brought along a Pineapple Cake (sweetening up our clients as always!). This cake was particularly fitting for TheTour21 campaign that was on the cards for the podcast – the upside down cake connects with this inventive campaign, which aimed to turn past ideas on their head, be disruptive and different to what other charities are doing and take the charity to new exciting levels!
TheTour21 Campaign – a challenge of a lifetime.
TheTour21 campaign was particularly special, the fully integrated campaign turned the charity world upside down with its unique innovation, something never seen in the charity sector before. Geoff Thomas was heav
ily involved in the campaign from the beginning, a week after being given the all clear from Leukaemia he agreed to cycle the Tour de France route. This was 9 years ago and this is now Geoff’s 5th time riding the gruelling route which was close to his heart having fought and survived Leukaemia.
A week ahead of the professional race TheTour21 team take on the full Tour de France route, (a gruelling challenge to say the least – 21 days of cycling and over 100 miles per day through the French mountains!), with the aim of raising as much money as possible for the charity and delivering the vision of making the campaign BIG, £1 million was raised in 2021. This is a life changing experience for all those involved physically and mentally, each rider driven by the fact they were doing something momentous to make a huge difference to many others lives. The responses and awareness generated from the campaign has been phenomenal since its inception 9 years ago.
The charity was awarded national status last year and has a relentless focus to keep campaigns innovative, powerful and punch way above their weight with the ultimate goal of course to raise money. Tour 21 is now standing the test of time, for being so different to anything in the charity space and continues to be a massive revenue stream.
Creating a professional and engaging brand identity
OWB have worked with Cure Leukaemia for many years on branding and strategy and TheTour21 is one of many events the charity holds each year to raise awareness of leukaemia. OWB worked to not only reposition the campaign but also create a new identity and brand for the event. It needed to stand out both nationally and internationally in order to gain the high profile status, involvement and most importantly, sponsorship. This has enabled the charity to gain large sponsorship opportunities, including THE Tour de France charity partnership status and Santini (the clothing supplier for the Tour de France).
Cure Leukaemia are now clearly an organisation operating commercially with a charity purpose, yet in keeping with a professional image.
This refreshed brand identity (ranging from the kit the riders wear, the packs that riders get, to TheTour21 buses, signage, marketing) – the whole marketing execution! This helped to take the campaign to a new level, to widen connections and most importantly get more people involved and signed-up to the event, increasing fundraising efforts, generating wider awareness and cementing the charities identity for the future!
LISTEN HERE for the full thrilling insights and discussion.
For more information on TheTour21 and to register for 2023, visit: www.thetour21.co.uk
