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