Tag / sport

by YannigRoth

Can responsible sports sponsoring increase brand equity? Help a student find out (take his survey)

Many years ago, I started this blog to write about cycling and sports sponsoring. It was my passion, in in some way still is. I have written about charity sports sponsoring or a Breton cycling team’s sponsors in 2009, or about one of my students’ masters thesis about female sports in 2015, or Sunweb’s “indefinite” cycling sponsoring agreement in 2018 (it lasted a couple of years only).

I have been less active in past years, especially on this blog, which receives less attention than in my years as a curious, avid student & cyclist. WordPress blogs are for boomers anyway, right? Anyway, I recently got referred to a very smart student who is investigating the cycling industry – especially the notion of sponsoring.

His name is Skylar Ross, he’s a master’s student at ESCE in Paris, and he’s majoring in international marketing, conducting his thesis investigation on brand equity, loyalty and effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives within professional road cycling teams.

I’m publishing this post to support him. With a passion for the sport and industry, I encourage all cycling fans and supporters who read me to take 5 minutes to answer his survey.

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by YannigRoth

I cycled through France & Spain for 1 month, here are my 10 preferred, cycling-friendly places to stay

Departure day in Paris, on June 15th

Bikepacking is one of the latest trends in cycling-land, like gravel racing or the development of the e-bike. Interestingly, these various trends all play towards individuals’ desire for more freedom and discovery, away from performance and technicality.

As I was going through a phase of professional transition, a break in which some thinking time was very welcome, I took the opportunity to embark on a self-organized 2800km #TourdeFranceSolo in 21 stages, spread out over a duration of 1 month.

I set out to a journey that combined visiting family & friends, riding some of this year’s Tour de France stages, and simply testing myself on places I always dreamed to ride in, like the Alpe d’Huez or Mont Ventoux climbs.

Here is a really home-made video of my journey, which I purposefully wanted to keep on paper, and below I’m sharing 10 great places I discovered along the way. I found them through a combination of Les Collectionneurs, Airbnb & Google Maps-based hotel or Bed & Breakfast search. I can reassure you that all of them were very cycling-friendly, which was obviously important for me!

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by YannigRoth

My Favorites of the last months: Beautiful videos about sport, two Netflix documentaries & more

faroe priest runner.jpg

Do you see the running pastor? (image via The Atlantic)

It’s been a really long time since I haven’t published one of these “My Favorites of…” blog posts, right? Well, when starting a new position, you need to be 100% dedicated and settle in your job, which is what I have been doing since my last post here.

Yet if you follow me on Twitter, you’ve noticed that I have been actively reading and watching stuff anyway. Here’s a digest of what inspired me most since the beginning of July. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

In July: Sponsoring the Lakers, watching #TDF2018 while working & vaporware horseshit

Zoox Bloomberg Businessweek PrintIn July, we became FIFA World Champions and the Tour de France has provided us with 3 great, entertaining weeks of racing. In this post I share my 5 favorites articles of the month: why Wish sponsors the LA Lakers, how Dribble’s product team works, where Belgian striker Romelu Lukaku comes from, when Airbnb adopted storyboards and what “vaporware horseshit” product Zoox’s team is working on. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

An honest blog post about training for, and finishing, #EmbrunMan 2016

what my friends think I do - ironman

There is something irrational about participating in Ironman-distance races : running a marathon after hours of swimming and biking, doing that within one day, aiming to finish before the time limit, enjoying the excitement, the effort, the pain and the pride. It seems reserved to an elite few with superior capabilities, willpower and a perfect lifestyle. Organizers and athletes sustain this image because it just makes them look good. But reality is different : it is also made of a lot of doubt, a fair amount of junk food, regularly snoozing the alarm clock and delaying training sessions.

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by YannigRoth

My Favorites of February: Unicorn Branding, Bible Redesign & Creative Xenophobia

Image by Adam Lewis Greene (via 99u.com)

Image by Adam Lewis Greene (via 99u.com)

This short month of February is over, and it’s time to look at some of the most interesting – from my perspective – articles to read and look at.

There is some unicorn in it (Uber’s logo(s) change, WeWork’s stories to investors etc.), but also some interesting strategy cases (like Facebook’s effort to connect the developping world to its services) or  creative projects (like Greene’s crowdfunded Bible redesign, see left). I hope you had an interesting set of February reads too, and wish you a great start in the next week. Continue reading →

by YannigRoth

My Favorites in October: Importance of Self-Discipline, 100 Years Contour Bottles & Meaningful Branding

Image via VSA Partners (click to see video)For the first time since I started blogging, I’m sharing a self-improvement a.k.a. life advice article written on Medium, which seems to be the top of Silicon Valley entrepreneurs’ Hierarcchy of Needs. Entrepreneur and blogger Oskar Nowik writes about the importance of self-discipline in life, and it’s geniunely a great article. Other cool stuff in October include a fantastic interview of Coca-Cola’s brand historian Ted Ryan, a feature about the most prolific of all Wikipedia editors, and a short video called “IBM on Brand,” part of a series of short films created to capture the current thinking behind leadership brands. I hope you’ll enjoy it, and I’m looking forward to an inspiring and exciting month of November now! Continue reading →