One last Coast to Coast related post, this time event marketing related!

Last year the Scottish Coast to Coast was sponsored by Nokia, as part of their outdoor event series which also included the Windsor Triathlon, Thames Swim and Royal Parks Foundation Half Marathon – very much something for everyone. This was a good way to reach Nokia’s target market (and beyond), showcasing specific outdoors and fitness related features of their products.

This was good for the event too, as it extended it’s reach with a strong marketing drive from Nokia behind the event and the series. This included videos with race and training tips from (eventual winner) Bruce Duncan and other athletes involved in the individual events on a dedicated website (which has now sadly disappeared) and interlinked with the individual event websites. Interestingly the series included a bit of blogger outreach, some of which fell a bit flat which is an interesting case study in itself.

I’m sure Bruce will be delighted with me posting this, but the video shows some of the things the Nokia Outdoor Series website had to offer.

As such, the Scotland Coast to Coast event website was heavily Nokia branded last year, with interactive maps  showing the route (and showcasing Nokia’s Ovi maps), as well as the training tips videos and links through to the Outdoor Series website.

This year Nokia had absolutely no involvement whatsoever, so the 2011 race website has lost all the Nokia branding, bar some legacy branding on the route map, and there was no Nokia branding to be found anywhere out on the race route.

Despite this, I’ve noticed that a large number of people, including some competitors, spectators, supporters, charities and the  media were all still referring to the race as the Nokia Coast to Coast.

 

This is pretty fascinating for me, as having looked at event and team sponsorship for my Honours dissertation many moons ago when the Rat Race was starting out, some of my findings were still pretty relevant in this arena.

Without regurgitating that entire 20,000 word tome, a key point from looking at sponsor recognition and recall included the fact that title sponsorship of an event is pretty inconsequential unless properly supported by marketing efforts from both the event & brand. Keith Byrne of the North Face suggested the actual sponsorship itself should only be seen as a part payment for the marketing effort needed to activate that sponsorship.

Now this may not sound very earth-shattering in the world of sponsorship, but for niche sports like adventure racing I still don’t see too much evidence of sponsors properly activating sponsorships to get better returns.

Maybe for outdoor companies, the traditional sponsors of these events, they feel that association is enough to get their required return. For companies with a less obvious fit as sponsors, such as Nokia, the need to support the sponsorship activity is a bigger requirement.

Nokia clearly activated their sponsorship well, and in sponsoring an event in its first year when it became an instant classic (sold out with 1000 competitors in year 1, 1000+ again this year) they’ve enjoyed the legacy of their initial naming rights.

In recent years Adidas have got involved in sponsoring adventure races and teams, and with nice looking websites and tie-ins with particular product lines, they’ve backed up their involvement and shown they don’t just do streetwear. However, I’ve not seen much other evidence of activation outside the adventure racing sphere (would be interested to see examples if there are any?), although having James Cracknell on board to race the Open Adventure Coast to Coast certainly gained some column inches.

What both Nokia and Adidas have managed to do with their title sponsorship of these events is form a significant naming bond in the first running of an event. And this is particularly evident with Adidas sponsoring the 2nd Open Adventure Coast to Coast event, while the name was mentioned everywhere in press about the event, there didn’t seem to be the same brand association with competitors as Nokia enjoyed.

So for events it seems there is some sort of first mover advantage for sponsors. Sponsoring the first year of an event might seem a risky strategy, it appears that if properly supported it could have a longer lasting impact than expected, even beyond the actual lifespan of the sponsorship itself.

Nice little video & stills put together by Dominic Taverniti of the Scotland Coast to Coast, shows the diverse course and terrain, wonderful scenery (and decent weather) we enjoyed last weekend!

You can also read his thoughts on the race, unfortunately he took a detour further up Ben Nevis than necessary!

One of the best things about last weekend was that it was great to find people travelling from so far afield for the race – on the Friday beforehand I’d never seen so many folk milling around in Nairn!

Scotland Coast to Coast – multi-sport endurance race from Dominic Taverniti on Vimeo.

On Saturday after a week of watching the weather I woke up freezing cold, to the sound of rain, so dragging myself out of the house into the dark, cold, wet weather wasn’t great, especially after a lousy sleep and waking up with a headache.

Dropped my big bag off to be transported to finish, had a jog down to the beach to dip my shoes in the sea, then headed up to the start with just a few minutes to spare.

Nairn > Cawdor
11.4km, +84m – 64:10

Set off steady and soon realised that running & staying with Ross until Fort Augustus wasn’t going to happen, even halfway down the field in the first few kms I was getting frustrated with the pace (or lack of) of those around and knew the opportunities to overtake were only going to decrease, so set off on overtaking intervals wherever I got the opportunity.

There was a lot of people who had set off too quickly and slowed, and these bursts of overtaking had the adverse effect of raising my HR higher than liked, peaking when I had to go on a sprint after ages stuck at the back of a long slow train. Kept picking off folk though all the way to transition, and saw Dan & Rowena setting off on the bike as I arrived.

Had planned to do this in <60, and probably would have done comfortably without the crowds, but that is my own fault for not doing my own thing at the start and going off alone nearer the front. Looking at the times of others I should really have been targetting around 55 to be properly in the mix.

Transition: 7:22

Faffy. This should have been in, chuck kit in bag & food in waist pockets, throw a bagel down throat, change shoes, and out. But wasn’t quite so slick.

Cawdor > Fort Augustus
70.8km, +510m – 2:44:33

• 1st hour: 25.9km
• 2nd hour: 27km
• Remaining: 17.9km (23.6kmph)

Lovely cycle this, though steadily uphill for the first hour under the A9 at Daviot, then more steady climbing and a bit of undulation for the next hour, then the slog up to the top of the pass before dropping down to Fort Augustus.

It started off badly getting twinges of cramp in right calf in the first 20 minutes, so ate a lot of my savoury stuff and proper food early on, and my back was hurting after a little over half an hour, so lots of attempted stretching on the bike.

Thanks to my slow transition and slightly slower than planned run, I was constantly flying past people in the first hour, and was slightly concerned I had gone off too hard, but the legs were turning over nicely and I was very glad to be on my crosser!

Second hour and the final climb and descent into Fort Augustus saw much fewer folk, but I was still breezing past people despite considering trying to share some work for a while. Was pretty comfortable on the big climb, and caught a number of other riders on it, and managed to beast the descent too (hitting 62 65.5kmph according to cycle computer) – very glad it was dry!

Had estimated 3 hours for this section, so was glad to come in ahead of that, and not sure I could have been too much quicker on the day.

Fort Augustus: Run/Kayak/Run/Transition
3.1km, +20m – 26:22

Was hobbling a bit off the bike on the run to kayak, combination of the bike shoes and a few hours on the bike. Cramped up almost instantly in the kayak, and getting up a steep bank at the end of the paddle kayak killed the legs completely and I had to walk and eat for 5 minutes before getting the legs moving and hobbling back to transition.

Another faffy transition but better, and time well spent. Bottles filled, salty food eaten, more food dug out for the next section, and off we go.

Fort Augustus > Fort William
54km, +420m – 2:42:38

• 33.5km +320m: towpath/singletrack/forest tracks – 1:54:42, 17.5kmph
• 20.5km +100m: road – 47:55, 25.8kmph

First hour of this was probably the darkest hour of the race, was feeling slow on the first section along the towpath, then two steep muddy singletrack climbs up off the road had to be walked. Rest of the singletrack was muddy fun, and although a bit sketchy I did enjoy it, but it was hard going. Only person to pass me on the bike the entire day was at the end of the singletrack, and he was one of the top 3 in the expert class. A couple of 1.5km long, 70-80m climbs on forest tracks followed, but after the second I got back into a decent rhythm and picked up the pace, and was soon flying past people labouring on MTBs again.

Hit the road section and stopped to grab food just as the leading lady left, and it took me a long time to reel her back in not long before Fort Bill where I also saw Dan & Rowena again.

Thought I was moving reasonably well on this part, but the first half had cost me quite a lot – this was at least 15 minutes down on my target time.

Transition: 42:57!

Yeah, a ridiculously long transition as it was timed out. It should have been much quicker, but in hindsight I’m glad it wasn’t, as it meant I had great company for the run stage!

Grabbed some tea, crisps, coke and my remaining bagel, and transferred more food into pockets for the run. Dumped a lot of gear with the bike, but still carried too much kit (and food) with me. Was really struggling with my back at this stage, couldn’t bend to pick stuff off the ground, and had to use fence to change shoes.

Fort William > Loch Leven
24km, +770m – 3:23:28

This was brutal, and cruel.

First section took you up the walkers path up the side of Ben Nevis, and after an easy km on the road my legs were getting into it, but they weren’t up to the rocky climb (where the only other person to pass me outwith transitions did so), so most of this was walked. And then we descended straight back down to the road by the Youth Hostel, again on a horribly rocky stepped trail that I just couldn’t run on. And then we climbed up and up and up what seemed to be switchback after switchback of forest tracks onto the West Highland Way.

I ran where possible, and walked quite a bit on this, but thankfully fell into a small group including the woman who ended up second. The pair of us ended up running away from the others and we kept each other going well over the remaining blast out of the forest and along the West Highland way. When we turned off this there was a massive slog up the trod/stream onto the top of the hill from where we could se the finish, but not before the long steep descent back down to Loch Leven and a final km on the road to the kayak.

I think I might have struggled on this section a great deal without such good company and the motivation that it brings – especially from a woman who was going really strongly right ’til the end! I had though this would take under 3 hours, but had really underestimated the climbs, so would have struggled to be much more than 10-15mins quicker on the day.

Loch Leven Kayak & Finish:
1.7km – 17:35

Sit back (or rather lie back by the end), paddle and enjoy the fantastic setting. No cramp this time until twinges when I tried to climb up the bank at the far side to run to the finish.

Further reflections

Overall I’m pretty pleased with how this all went, I could maybe have knocked off some time on the day but there are always ‘what if’s', and despite a couple of bouts of cramp my body held up well to the punishment.

Without having done a race anywhere near this length, with a mix of disciplines, for some time (closest training being 52km road bike followed by 25km trail race), it is always hard to know what an extra few minutes of effort at one point might cost you later on.

The journey was a fantastic one, and we were lucky to see Scotland at it’s very best. While it rained at the start, the rainbow over Drummossie as we cycled up along the Nairn valley was an indication of a day of reasonably good weather ahead.

There were memorable views galore, particularly along the Great Glen, and the highlight was probably leaving the forest section into blazing sunshine on the West Highland Way, seeing the valley open up ahead of us. The sight of the finish from the top of the hillside and while dropping down to Loch Leven was beautiful and welcome, while the kayak across to the end was equally memorable.

I’d heartily recommend anyone to do this race, in either its one or two day formats. I love the fact that it can provide a good day long challenge to the very top athletes, while also being manageable by those at lesser levels of athleticism, and as a way to see some fantastic bits of Scotland it cannot be bettered.

I’m sure I’ll have a crack at it again some day, the 10 hour target remains, and those additional 54 minutes and 6 seconds may sound a lot, but removing them is tantalisingly achievable.

Find out more about the event on the Scotland Coast to Coast website and see the results here.