Great Content Marketing: Mini Team Sky

Team Sky Wins Tour de France Content Marketing Yellow Jersey

If there was a yellow jersey for great content marketing, British pro cycling team Team Sky could have displayed two prizes at its Tour de France celebration dinner last night in Paris.

The first, of course, would have been the yellow jersey won by team leader Chris Froome. Froome, the 2013 and 2015 winner, returned to the 2016 edition as the heavy favorite and comfortably won. Sky was dominant for three weeks as Sky’s carefully developed sporting plan was confidently executed on French, Andorran and Swiss roads.

The second yellow jersey would have been deservedly awarded to whomever planned and implemented Sky’s absolutely delightful “Mini Team Sky” video series. As content marketing goes, Mini Team Sky was absolutely gold. (Excuse the mixing of sporting metaphors).

Utility of Training Wheels

The series is comprised of seven sub-two-minute videos, featuring Sky’s top three British cyclists; Froome, Geraint Thomas and Ian Stannard, along with “younger” versions played by three boys who appear to be 4-5 years-old. Sky Team Director Sir Dave Brailsford is played by an equally small version who encourages his squad to demonstrate core principles of cycling success; from equipment and the fundamentals of teamwork, to fueling and recovery. It’s brilliantly executed. Unveiled the week before the race began, the first video has earned almost 1.4M (Facebook and YouTube) views. 

What is Great Content Marketing?

In the content marketing world, you can’t turn around without tripping over a recommendation to create great content, fresh content and engaging content. But what is great content? TL; DR: This video series.

Mini Team Sky is a really great example to point to if you’re ever asked to define what is great content marketing? It educates and entertains. By incorporating unforgettably cute kids celebrating the joy of bike riding and food, it also engenders viewer engagement to generate shares and likes. This is the trifecta most content marketers shoot for, isn’t it? (At least in the context of content marketing that isn’t created for direct response purposes).

Now, will the series move the needle in terms of sales? Perhaps although it clearly wasn’t conceived for that purpose. In terms of brand reinforcement, however it’s awesome.

Creativity Will Set You Apart

I loved the Mini Team Sky project within the first 30 seconds of watching the introduction video. The concept was great. The script and tone were on point. The production excellence was obvious. What I especially loved was the fact that this is the world of pro cycling, an industry where tradition, and a “this is how things are done” mentality have ruled for decades.

Creativity on the marketing side of cycling team operations hasn’t exactly flourished, notwithstanding Team Sky and Orica GreenEdge’s Backstage Pass (BSP) video series, which is now in its third year. Other than launching websites, most cycling teams are following the same marketing script teams have been using since the mid-1990s. Yet, the success of both of these video series proves that opportunities exist. Content marketers who want to stand out can by committing to being creative content marketers. If you’re a content marketer, or pay for content marketing, this should be your goal or expectation.

Creativity Isn’t Easy

I loved the Mini Team Sky project within the first 30 seconds of watching the introduction video. The concept was great. The script and tone were on point. The production excellence was obvious. What I especially loved was the fact that this is the world of pro cycling, an industry where tradition, and a “this is how things are done” mentality have ruled for decades.

Creativity on the marketing side of cycling team operations hasn’t exactly flourished, notwithstanding Team Sky and Orica Bike Exchange’s Backstage Pass (BSP) video series, which is now in its third year. Other than launching websites, most cycling teams are following the same marketing script teams have been using since the mid-1990s. Yet, the success of both of these video series proves that opportunities exist. Content marketers who want to stand out can by committing to being creative content marketers. If you’re a content marketer, or pay for content marketing, this should be your goal or expectation.

Distribution: 75X More Reach With Facebook Video than YouTube

I don’t have details on Sky’s promotion activities but what was clearly evident is that Facebook was far more effective than YouTube for promotion. Look at this chart with views as of 7/24/2016 at 5:00 pm PST. The views are pulled from Sky Loves Cycling, a program Team Sky runs in parallel to its official race-centric online marketing presence.

Video	Facebook	YouTube
Introducing Mini Team Sky	1,361,278	106,107
Aerodynamics	632,135	3,285
Teamwork	577,655	2,302
Hydration	548,737	3,206
Recovery	92,147	1,981
Culture	312,727	3,706
Nutrition	368,762	1,821

Up until this summer, Team Sky had demonstrated its sports marketing acumen with one-off projects such as Chris Froome ride cycle from the UK to France via the EuroTunnel.

Not Their First Video Rodeo

Up until this summer, Team Sky had demonstrated its sports marketing acumen with one-off projects such as Chris Froome ride cycle from the UK to France via the EuroTunnel.

Riding beneath the English Channel was definitely cool but not a departure from the cycling-marketing-to-existing-cyclists approach that has persisted for at least a half-century with the exception of the Lance Armstrong period.

As a marketing campaign, Mini Team Sky was different in a “Man, I’ve got to share this” kind-of-way to people who may not even own a bike. It had a virality that was a perfect accompaniment to one of the biggest sporting events on the international calendars. No question one of the great content marketing projects so far in 2016.

Chapeau to the Team Sky marketing team, and Froomey, of course for doing his adult thing pretty well, too.

2019 UPDATE: Team Sky is no more, becoming Team INEOS shortly before the 2019 Tour de France began. Chris Froome has maintained his winning ways, adding several more cycling grand tours to his palmares. Those delightful little kids in the video have long abandoned small trikes for big kids bikes, yet this remains a really creative and effective content marketing example.