Supporting UAE Team Emirates in France
The 109th edition of the world’s most famous cycling race kicked off in Copenhagen on July 1st, with 21 gruelling stages standing between the peloton and eternal Cycling glory.
The world’s eyes were firmly fixed upon the Emirati cycling team, UAE Team Emirates, as they were aiming to win a third consecutive Tour de France title. The man to beat was Tadej Pogacar. The Slovenian superstar was gunning for his third Tour De France victory in as many years, a feat that has only been matched by a handful of cycling greats.
UAE Team Emirates started strongly, with Pogacar laying down a staunch marker to the rest of the field, winning stage 6 and stage 7 to take the ever-famed Yellow jersey. Ably assisted by his teammates, Pogacar was able to scythe through the field and attack the daunting mountains in the Alps, showcasing mind-boggling levels of skill, grit, and sheer determination.
Ultimately, UAE Team Emirates and Tadej Pogacar finished second overall in the General Classification standings. Despite not claiming that elusive third win, it was a monumental and at times heroic effort from Pogacar and the depleted UAE Team Emirates line-up, after a string of injuries and covid-issues.
Built on the insights and recommendations from last year’s Tour de France campaign, we ran a strategic paid social campaign, and media relations campaign around the Tour, focusing on maximizing follower growth across the team’s social accounts and championing the UAE amongst local media across the GCC.
Results away from the road were phenomenal – increasing the team’s Instagram following by 22,000 (a 14% increase on last year’s increase) and increasing UAE followership by 16% since 2021. A 4% increase on total coverage (505 articles) was achieved, and a considerable step change was visible in the amount of Arabic coverage (62%) vs English (38%) that was generated (a key metric for the team).
