With the build up of Lance Armstrong's visit to Vancouver on Sunday, the Vancouver Sun Newspaper is publishing a three part series on cycling. Part one of the series, written by Jonathan Fowlie, focused on road cycling and the Symmetrics fueled by FarmPure team. Since it was published I have received numerous phone calls and emails congratulating our team on its success and commitment to the sport of cycling in Canada. After hearing many comments from others I realized that this article spoke volumes about who we are as a team and what we stand for. Wrapped in Jonathan’s story about our success, the issues around drugs and the profiles of riders like Svein Tuft and Andrew Pinfold is an important story about the underlying values of this team.

I encourage everyone who supports our team to take the time to read this article: Canadian Team Cycles Clean

If you want the PDF to download with full size images click here

Mark
President & CEO
Symmetrics
Mark My Words Blog
Symmetrics Corporate
Symmetrics Pro Cycling Fueled by FarmPure

Well the summer has passed, labour day has come and gone and the kids are back in school. I always find this time of year interesting because it reminds me a bit of New Years. I always get a bit more of that “roll up my sleeves and get down to it” attitude when summer is over. It must be that internal clock that has been set over the years. Ok then….so it is Sept 16 and my sleeves are rolled up and I am ready to tackle part two of my series on sponsorship.

In my previous post, Mark My Words – On Sponsorship, I summarized the importance of creating a true partnership with sponsors which provides a solid foundation for any successful business relationship. The next step is to look in a little more detail as to why a company would sponsor a sports team like ours. Generally speaking sports properties have always been the most popular area for companies to sponsor and our experience shows that most companies do not use sponsorship to replace advertising, public relations or sales promotion. Instead it gets used as an integrated extension of their overall corporate strategy which includes the marketing plan. But selling more products or services is not the only way that companies use sponsorship. What we see is a trend toward integrating sponsorship with community responsibility. I believe our sponsors are realizing that customers are willing to reward or punish companies with their wallets based on corporate citizenship. In Canada’s Millennium poll on Corporate Social Responsibility people said that “social responsibility” is the number one factor that influences their impression of a company – more even than brand quality or business fundamentals. The needs of society and the interests of business overlap. Buyers are demanding to know where a company stands before they purchase its products. Making the world a more livable place is a prerequisite to achieving consumer affinity. Sponsorship, which allies companies with community responsibility and improved quality of life, is precisely the kind of statement consumers will respond to. When a company sponsors, it is providing something for its customers.

So how does a cycling team fit into all of this? First, I see our team as a development platform for Canadian cycling. Yes we call ourselves a pro team but if you go back to the reason why Kevin and I started this team in the first place it was to help Canadian cycling grow. It was to create an environment that young riders could aspire to and eventually grow within. I tell people regularly that I believe sports shaped who I am as an individual today. I learned more about myself during the last hour of my first Ironman triathlon at the age of 18 than I would have in that Phys Ed 12 class I was missing. Competitive sports most definitely helps create a set of core values that can be carried for life. A sports team like ours is a “community cause” in many respects. We are not hiring Lance Armstrong; we are looking for the pimply faced 16 year old Canadian kid who really wants to be a bike racer and who is interested in become part of a program that is more than just winning bike races. One of the reasons why we have been successful as a team is that we have invested in younger riders like Cam Evans, Christian Meier and Marsh Cooper. We have grown our team rather than just trying to hire “stars.” We are known as Canada’s team for a reason and I believe our sponsors and their customers relate to this worthy cause and value it.

Second, our team is community driven via our Cyclist for Charity program. We have done extensive work with BC Special Olympics in our “Future Olympians riding for Special Olympians” campaign. Last year we developed a relationship with BC Hydro to participate in the BC Hydro Power Smart \ Vancouver Food Bank Live LED Billboard event which in turn led to a cash sponsorship deal with BC Hydro in 2007. We have also offered our commitment to support Team H2V::Coast to Coast Ride for Juvenile diabetes in 2007. Most recently, we have begun working very closely with Coast Capital Savings and the Cops for Cancer organization to help build awareness around cancer research and the Cops for Cancer organization. Last week our team participated in a group ride with many of the Cops for Cancer riders and some of the Coast Capital Savings employees. It was a fantastic way for Coast Capital Savings to show off their commitment to community by rolling their “cause” over the roads of Surry and White Rock. The police laid out the red carpet for the group by creating a rolling enclosure with lead and follow cars, flashing lights and blocked intersections. It definitely gave the ride a bit of profile that helped attract the attention of the local community who happened to be out walking or strolling down the beach. Check out the pictures of the event in my gallery below.

As we progress my hope is to see the connection between charities like Cops for Cancer, our sponsors and the Symmetrics team grow. It demonstrates the social responsibility of an organization and it provides an opportunity for innovative fund raising activities that can interconnect the company’s sponsorship and charitable interests.

Until next time…

Mark
President & CEO
Symmetrics
Mark My Words Blog
Symmetrics Corporate
Symmetrics Pro Cycling Fueled by FarmPure

Symmetrics, Coast Capital Savings and Cops for Cancer Ride

[Show as slideshow]

A few weeks back I was swapping emails with Coast Capital Savings' VP of Retail Services, Ian Maguire, regarding our recent hospitality event we hosted at the Tour de Gastown. Ian emailed to thank us for putting on the event and to congratulate the team on its success. Here is Ian’s email:

I appreciated the email and my response to Ian went like this:

This interaction really sums up what makes a successful sports sponsorship property. It is a combination of building a great product (i.e. the team) combined with the necessary funding to take our product to market (i.e. the sponsors). It is a partnership from beginning to end.

We have not even finished the 2007 season and I have to say the success of our team this year far exceeded our expectations with amazing wins like the US Open, Tour of Cuba, two national championship titles and overall dominance at BC Superweek. Combine these wins with the team’s ability to capture the UCI Americas points lead and Svein Tuft’s #1 UCI Americas ranking as an individual rider, and the end result is an unprecedented Canadian cycling success story. Did I ever think I would see one of our riders winning the US Open on NBC Sports broadcast to millions of viewers? Ummm…No! How about a solo victory? Ummm..double No! Well we did and I am not complaining. We had to buy a new web server to handle the traffic on our website but that is a small price to pay!

So now what? The season is far from over but we are in the planning phases for 2008 already. This is the time of year that we must reflect on our progress as a team, analyze how well we aligned with our goals and begin setting objectives for next year. We must look closely at our rider roster, race schedule, significant titles and many other key areas to assess how successful we were as a team. Next, we assess the team’s efforts and results with the overall business related goals we set out in our partnerships with each of our sponsors. We will ask ourselves many questions including: Did the sponsors get what they expected? How well are the sponsors using the team in their PR and marketing endeavours? What were the most successful activities or events we did with each of our sponsors? Did they receive the ROI (return on investment) they were expecting? Where do we need to improve?

Over the coming weeks I am going to highlight several areas of our sponsorship and provide specific examples of how we have worked with some of our sponsors. I am hoping to reveal a little inside knowledge on what makes our partnerships successful and highlight the efforts that our sponsors put toward our team. Keep your eye on my blog for updates on this.

2007 has been a very successful year and with that success comes greater exposure for the team and the sponsors, something that enables the partnerships to continue to grow and prosper. But it also means we have a greater responsibility in representing our sponsors, our nation and our race fans in the most professional and ethical manner. In addition, there are greater financial demands on the team in order to maintain and advance its growth and amazing results. Which leaves me wondering:

Can we win the UCI Americas tour in 2007?
Will Svein keep his white jersey and be the #1 UCI Americas rider?
Can we repeat this success in 2008?
Can we be the #1 team in the US?
Can we be the first all Canadian team to ever ride in the Tour de France? Now that would be a wild idea!

I don’t know the answers to all these questions, but what I do know is we are embarking on a new era for this team. Our goals are getting bigger and sponsorship is the most critical component to our future success.

Do you agree? Tell me what you think by leaving me a comment below.

Until next time…

Mark
President & CEO
Symmetrics
Mark My Words Blog

With 28km go in our Canadian National Road Race championships I decided it was time to launch into my first Symmetrics Pro Cycling team blog. Svein and Ryan Roth are sitting 30 seconds off the front and I am crossing my fingers for Svein. Only 20 km to go..I just have to wait.

On to blogging for the past few months we have been working on implementing a real blogging software application into our website that will allow anyone on the team to post blog entries along with photos and videos. Over the past few years our team site has included rider blogs but the process for us has been manual which limits the riders ability to add a quick entry to their blog and make it live within minutes. Having the flexibility to post race updates, perspectives on training and opinions about cycling related events in a near real-time manner changes a bloggers mindset. I know for me I am much more motivated knowing that I can post something in a self serve format. Add to the fact that our blogs will now have the benefits of RSS to enable applications like Google Reader (or the like) to tap into our content will open many doors to spreading Symmetrics word across the web.

One of my main goals for 2007 is to create a better mechanism for communication in all of the companies I am involved with. I now have blogs rolling out in Symmetrics Cycling, Symmetrics (the corporation) and a new start-up that I launched a few months back. Each of these blogs will focus on providing an insiders perspective or the latest scoop. On the cycling front I get numerous emails every week from race fans, sponsors and media asking questions about the team and it prompted me to launch Mark my Words to help communicate the day to day happenings as well as the more strategic insights into the team.

Now back to racing 1 lap to go and Svein and Roth have been caught. Cam has launched an attack with Perras chasing and Randell sitting on. Let's hope our numbers help us here. Comon admit it my live reports are better than Rob's any day! ?

Yes!!!! Cam wins with Randell 2nd, Perras 3rd and Svein 4th. This is a good day for Symmetrics!! Nice work boys. A national title and more UCI points.

I better sign off Kevin will be calling soon with his in the car blow by blow any minute.

Drop me a comment below if you have questions or ideas on great blogging topics.

Until next time

Mark
www.symmetrics.net
www.symmetricscycling.com