Pedal The Plains Digital Outreach

PEDAL THE PLAINS DIGITAL OUTREACH

Client: Pedal The Plains

Date: September 2012 – September 2016

Project: Help establish the brand identity and outreach strategy for Ride The Rockies’ sister ride on Colorado eastern plains.

THE CHALLENGE

OnSight was tasked with branding and developing an online presence and social media plan. Having worked with the USA Pro Challenge previously, OnSight knew the challenges of branding and promoting a cycling ride. As a new event, Pedal the Plains provided another list of obstacles, such as:

  • How do we entice people to cycle in a region that has an agricultural landscape?
  • How do we turn this event into a tourist draw that highlights the culture of rural communities in Colorado’s eastern plains?

THE STRATEGY

Publish an ongoing stream of interesting content, interact with existing social hubs, and utilize fan-generated content as much as possible. Promote the ride as a mutually beneficial endeavor for cyclists and local plains communities—guests get a chance to see a part of the state that they may not have visited before, and local communities will see a tourism boost during the week of the event.

See more PTP Social Media content here.

THE STRATEGY

Publish an ongoing stream of interesting content, interact with existing social hubs, and utilize fan-generated content as much as possible. Promote the ride as a mutually beneficial endeavor for cyclists and local plains communities—guests get a chance to see a part of the state that they may not have visited before, and local communities will see a tourism boost during the week of the event.

See more PTP Social Media content here.

THE TACTICS

  • Built Pedal The Plains website using customized WordPress and branded with logo, colors and language.
  • Developed and managed social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube and blogs.
  • Created an extensive Social Media Roadmap, which provided guideines, content ideas, timing and posting best-practies, as well as a sketch of target benchmarks for the weeks and months leading up to the event.
  • Prioritized responsiveness on social media to individuals posting questions, items that could be shared or responded to by the existing community (e.g., requests for carpool coordination), and posts to promote sponsors, participating towns, and partners for the event.
  • Created blog series called “The Plain Pedalers,” where participants submitted daily updates and posts, giving the public an insider’s view of the ride.

See more PTP Social Media and web content here.

THE RESULT

Pedal The Plains became not only a story in the paper for the public to read about, but an interactive experience for riders, as well as spectators and non-participants.

  • Website, email list, and social media followers showed strong growth every year.
  • We continued to experiment with new social platforms as they became more popular with our target audience, including Vine, Instagram, and Snapchat.
  • OnSight teamed up for 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016 Pedal The Plains Tours, doing event photography, social media management, creating videos, and running the Plain Pedalers blog.