Shampoo brand Alpecin has quietly (and unsurprisingly) dropped its ‘Doping For Your Hair’ tagline from its latest multi-market TV commercials for its C1 caffeine shampoo as it refocuses its activity around its Team Giant-Alpecin sponsorship during the Tour De France.
Obviously, the mention of the term ‘doping’ in its previous TV spots is entirely inappropriate for any pro cycling commercial partner,
so the German shampoo brand has rolled out a new campaign (with a new tagline) fronted by team leader John Degenkolb.
Alpecin also shot other versions of the same spot starring other members of the Giant-Alpecin team including star sprinter Marcel Kittel (who eventually wasn’t chosen for this year’s Tour team),
and Nikias Arndt.
Like Tour principal partner Skoda, Alpecin is one of the few brands with an official Tour de France or team commercial partnership running a major, multi-market TV ad campaign – as many official sponsors focus more activation around the mammoth Caravanne Publicitaire and on digital platforms and rely on their logo’s getting sufficient air time through race-programme rider footage for TV presence.
Indeed, Team Giant-Alpecin itself fits that marketing framework and in 2015 is pushing much of its own marketing content through digital channels.
It began this strategy back on 6 January for the official team launch (it was formerly known as Team Giant-Shimano).
The launch press conference at the French Embassy in Berlin was livestreamed on its website (at www.teamgiantalpecin.eu) and the brand ran online films (posted to its YouTube channel) to launch the team,
and to highlight its #KeepChallenging marketing concept through behind-the-scenes style web video.
Again, during the Tour itself, Giant-Alpecin continues to use online spots on its YouTube channel as a key promo and engagement platform .
This tactic was employed to unveil its team line-up,
and to offer a pre-tour #SneekPreview series,
and posting the generic, stage-by-stage #InsideOut GoPro onboard footage clips to the team’s site.
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The four year Team Giant-Alpecin partnership is a marketing sponsorship that the shampoo brand owners, Dr Wolff, hope will significantly boost its global brand awareness.
Marketing services partner Acdoco is working with Dr Wolff and other agencies to amplify the bike team sponsorship through the summer (including campaigns based around the inaugural Tour de Yorkshire (in the UK) as well as the Tour de France.
Alpecin wouldn’t be the first cycling sponsor to find itself struggling with sponsoring bike racing and the ‘doping issue’ – after all, the title sponsor of the Tour Of California (the USA’s top race) is pharmaceutical outfit Amgen which, yes, you guessed it, manufacturers EPO.
Links
Alpecin International YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/alpecininternational
Alpecin Website:
Alpecin Google+:
https://plus.google.com/107069448978566251240/videos
Team Giant-Alpecin YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LVAs7IFM35I
Team Giant-Alpecin Instagram:
https://instagram.com/giantalpecin
Team Giant-Alpecin Twitter:
