The sports marketing division of Network18, Sports 18, will be holding the ‘BSA Hercules Cyclothon Bengaluru 09’ on October 11.
This event is being dubbed as the first ever mass mobilising cycling event in the country. Sport18 who has also partnered with the Cycling Federation of India is the national governing body of cycle racing in the country for this annual event. It has also tied up with the Youth and Sports Council in Bangalore. The TOI is the print partner for this event.
Speking about the event Satish Menon, CEO, Sport18, said, “Cycling as a sport is catching up in India and the number of cycles and cycling clubs are increasingly on the rise. I believe that cycling as a sport is easy to adopt for the youth and can be used as the best mode of transport for short distance travel.”
Menon further added, “Cycling events are being held in India in small parts, but like any other sport, unless you do a ‘mother of all events’, the sport will not really blast through the horizon, and that’s exactly what we are going to do.”
It is being learned that the BSA Hercules Cyclothon Bangaluru 09 will reportedly have nearly 7,000 taking part, of which around 500 would be elite professionals from the sport itself, followed by amateur cyclists and the general public.
Sport18 will undertake a 360-degree campaign and besides mainline advertising, on-ground activities will also play a big role in the promotion of the ‘Cyclothon’. Menon further said, “Our own partners will leverage it in a big way. We have an HR initiative, wherein we go to various companies in Bangalore, especially the IT companies, as they have youngsters who use cycles more often. There are already over 20 cycle clubs in Bangalore and we are working through cycle federations and local cycling bodies in other states, which have cycling enthusiasts who would be brought to Bangalore on that day. A lot of BTL activities like road shows, meeting the HR heads of various companies, and mall activities will be part of our promotional plans”.
Although he declined to share the marketing budget, Menon said that ‘Cyclothon’ was a big budget product and the company was going all out to take it to the maximum number of people.