Tour de France is Twitter-revolution for Saxo Bank

Released on: July 29, 2009, 6:51 am
Author: Jeanette Nielsen
Industry: Sports

Team Saxo Bank had another successful Tour de France with Fabian Cancellara winning the opening time trial stage as well as two other stage wins, and two riders in the top five in the overall competition rankings including a second place for Andy Schleck who also won the youth competition. This led to a high increase in online mentions, specifically on micro-blogging site Twitter.

Saxo Bank, the team's main sponsor and a consistent winner of industry awards itself, launched www.saxotakingthelead.com prior to the Tour, a new and unique concept combining video, audio and text into a free website for cycling fans. The website helped accelerate Google searches to new highs for the online bank in Denmark, where the bank is headquartered and, also, in Luxembourg, the native country of the two Schleck brothers, as well as in France, Singapore, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates.

The news reference volume also rose during the Tour's initial weeks when Team Saxo Bank's Olympic Time-trial champion Fabian Cancellara won the Tour's Yellow Jersey and kept it until the seventh stage of the Tour.

Statistics show that this year's Tour de France became a Twitter-revolution for Saxo Bank, with an increase of tweets of more than 50% compared with before the Tour. Also, according to Nielsen Company BlogPulse research, the number of blog posts mentioning Saxo Bank quadrupled during the event.

Saxo Bank's entry into the world of sport sponsorship was confirmed in June 2008 when its joint CEOs signed an agreement with Riis Cycling A/S. The agreement meant that Saxo Bank became co-sponsor of Team CSC, in time for Team CSC Saxo Bank to participate in the 2008 Tour de France.

In July 2008, Team CSC Saxo Bank won Tour de France. Other wins in 2008 contributed to building Saxo Bank's brand in key markets, such as France, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. On 1 January 2009, Saxo Bank became the sole main sponsor of Team Saxo Bank. The duration term of the contract is three years.

In explaining their decision to sponsor the team, Saxo Bank's founders and co-CEOs, Kim Fournais and Lars Seier Christensen said that, in addition to being one of the world's most popular and watched sports with an audience of billions of viewers, cycling on this level expresses the same kind of values and attitudes that Saxo Banks identifies with. "Winning and team work, is what Saxo Bank has been about from the outset. Endurance and passion are some of the other features that we have in common. We are proud that we now will have the opportunity to highlight these values and show what sports and business can do together."

About Saxo Bank
Saxo Bank is an online trading and investment specialist, enabling clients to trade Forex, CFDs, Stocks, Futures, Options and other derivatives, as well as providing portfolio management via SaxoWebTrader and SaxoTrader, the leading online trading platforms. SaxoTrader is available directly through Saxo Bank or through one of the bank's global partners. White Labelling is a significant business area for Saxo Bank, and involves the Bank's online trading platform being customised and branded for other financial institutions and brokers. Saxo Bank has more than 120 White Label Partners and boasts thousands of clients in over 180 countries. Saxo Bank is headquartered in Copenhagen with offices in Australia, France, Italy, Japan, Singapore, Spain, Switzerland, UK, Czech Republic and the United Arab Emirates.

PR Contact:
Jeanette Nielsen
Saxo Bank Corporate Communications
Philip Heymans Allé 15
2900 Hellerup
Denmark
+45 5159 5275
www.saxobank.com