Only 2 and a half weeks left until the start of the Tour de France 2015 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. The city of Utrecht and its mascotte Miffy (Nijntje in Dutch) are ready to receive the Tour de France since several weeks now, as I discovered myself when I was there a few weeks ago: see the photos I took in Utrecht.
The sponsors of the Tour are also getting ready and thus send out information about their different actions around the Tour. From the first electrical car in the caravan of the Tour de France to the new white and green jerseys, via the Tour on Strava with Powerbar, this article will provide you the latest informations from the different sponsors.
Hereunder, the sponsors have been presented in order of their importance in the Tour followed by an alphabetical order to prevent jealousy :).
The Club du Tour de France: one newcomer
The Club du Tour de France, that is the most important sponsors of the Tour, the ones you see most and which - for most of them - are linked to a distinctive jersey.Among the sponsors of the Club du Tour de France we'll find the usual sponsors LCL (yellow jersey for the general classification), Carrefour (polka dot jersey for the King of the Mountains classification), Vittel (the official water supplier of the Tour de France which is pretty visible in the final part of the stage) and Škoda.
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Škoda
As indicated by velowire.com already announced it exclusively on 18 March, the last mentioned sponsor changes colours in 2015: the Czech car supplier has been the sponsor of the white jersey of the best young rider since 2004 but it will now take over the place left by PMU as the sponsor of the green jersey for the points classification.That has been announced officially on 23 March (French only) and it was also announced at that time that the car supplier will also sponsor the points classification of the Vuelta a España (or Tour of Spain). I already indicated it in my article on 18 March and Werner Eichhorn, Director of Škoda Sales and Marketing, confirmed it: The green colour of the jersey is perfect for Škoda, because it's the colour of our company since several years now.
In this context it seems to be a bit surprising though that Škoda's latest publicity invites its customers to the "Time trial days" ("Jours contre-la-montre") instead of inviting them to "sprint" to their garage!
Anyway, this new green jersey will be accompanied by the introduction of a new official car for the direction of the Tour de France: the new red Škoda Superb car will be revealed on 22 June at the Embassy of the Czech Republic when Sébastien Auguin, Director Marketing of Škoda France will hand out the keys of the first Superb of France to Christian Prudhomme, the Director of the Tour de France.
Krys
A newcomer in the Club du Tour de France is Krys, the optician of the Tour. It was a first time sponsor of the Tour in 2014 and in 2015, the brand with a blue/white logo puts a bit of blue on the white jersey by putting its logo on it.This information was also exclusively announced by velowire.com on 18 March and it was finally confirmed on 8 April. As the sponsor of the white jersey, Krys will be on the side of the young riders up to 25 years old since the best one of them will wear this jersey.
According to Krys, Being partner of this jersey, the brand sends an encouraging message to the young runners and the French people, inviting them to run and reveal their potential. A strong message in echo to the brand's signature "Vous allez vous aimer".. The optics brand promisses to set up a communication support dedicated to the Tour de France around the promise of "Made in France emotion" but we'll get to know more about that only on 25 June when Krys organises a press conference about its presence in the Tour de France 2015 and also dedicated to the attribution of the label "Origine France Garantie".
Official partners
Dimension Data
The only real change as for the official partners is the newcomer Dimension Data. Since no new information has been provided since the initial announcement just before Paris-Nice, I invite you to check out the information I provided on 18 March about this new sponsor.Official suppliers
Banette
Banette and its bakeries are present in the Tour de France since 2011 and their caravan will again be made up of 5 vehicles which will hand out 600,000 bracelets and vouchers "1 Banette paid, 1 Banette for free" while the brand will, as usual, distribute 12.000 slices of bread every day at the starts and finishes of the stages. It will invest one third of its annual marketing budget in its actions in and around the Tour de France.This year, Banette will organise an event within the event with its « Grande Boucle des Banetiers », organised in collaboration with Bernard Thévenet. The idea is simple: 4 Banette bakeries which are present on the race route will have an indoor bike in their store and their customers will be able to ride on it every time they visit their bakery during the Tour (from Friday 3 July at 10AM until Friday 24 July at 3PM to be precise).
The bakery which will have done the biggest number of kilometers will be the winner and its "Banetier" will win an exceptional weekend in Paris to assist to the finish of the Tour de France on the Champs-Elysées! Every participating customer can, every time he or she participates, fill in a participation form for a drawing with several prizes, including one year of Banette.
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Bostik
It'll stick with Bostik in the Tour de France 2015. For now, the brand has not communicated at all about its presence in the Tour de France but there will be a caravan of this glue brand on the roads of France, Netherlands and Belgium this July!Cornetto
The advertising caravan will again contain an icecream brand. However, this will no longer be Nestlé Glaces as it was the cas at several occasions in the past in the Tour, but Cornetto which will refresh the Tour. Again, the brand hasn't communicated at all so far, but we do know that 4 vehicles will represent the brand on the roads of the Tour this July.Fruit Shoot
Fruit Shoot by Teisseire will be in the Tour de France for the second year in row. The big news for the fruit drink brand will be that they'll have the first ever electrical vehicle of the caravan of the Tour de France!Indeed, a vehicle with 54 battery cells will be one of the 5 vehicles of this caravan which will hand out 280,000 bottles and 540,000 tattoos all the way long the Grande Boucle. Well, actually, not all the way long, but starting from when the Tour enters France (actually right from the start in Seraing in Belgium) because this brand will only be present starting from Tuesday 7 July!
This 5th vehicle which has a quarter of the size of a normal car (2m50 x 1m20 with a 550 kg weight, with its decoration, a bottle) has been conceived by Welter Racing and will be the first ever electrical vehical of the caravan of the Tour! It'll have an autonomy of 260 kilometers, which would normally allow to do the longuest stage of the Tour de France 2015, the one between Seraing and Cambrai, of 223.5 km, and thus the first stage for the Fruit Shoot caravan.
Have a look at the vehicle in action in the video below, which also contains some images of the preparation of the other vehicles of the brand (images © Fruit Shoot):
Ibis
Historically, Ibis Budget was present in the Tour de France (after the rebranding of Etap Hotel in Ibis Budget), from now on it'll be all the Ibis brands which will be represented (Ibis, Ibis Styles and Ibis Budget). With this extension, the caravan also changes colours, dressing up in red (Ibis), green (Ibis Styles) and blue (Ibis Budget) and will promote the ibis.com website. According to Sport Stratégies, the caravan will be equipped with an high-tech installation and the two trucks with big LED screens which will show promotional offers of these brands. As for the goodies they hand out, we stick to what works for the brand: the caravan will continue to hand out inflatable cushions!CONTINUE READING AFTER THIS ADVERTISEMENT
Kleber
As I already announced on 18 March, Kleber climbs up from the technical partner level to the official provider level.Le Gaulois
As announced previously, the Le Gaulois brand will be another newcomer in the advertising caravan of the Tour and this was announced by its director of the L.D.C. group (the owner of the brand) during the new year's wishes:In this video, at the end, we even get a glimpse of what might be the vehicles of the caravan for this brand ... The managing director of the group, Denis Lambert, would have indicated that It was when the Tour crossed through Sablé, in 2013, that we had the idea. Indeed, the L.D.C. group is based in Sablé-sur-Sarthe.
Since this announcement early this year, the brand didn't communicate anything else about its presence in the Tour.
Powerbar
Powerbar is not new in the Tour since this brand provides the cyclists of the Tour de France with energetic products since several years already (see PowerBar feeds the riders of the Tour de France 2012 - interview) and the brand should be present in the Tour until at least 2018.But there is something new for Powerbar in the Tour de France 2015 and that's what hides behind the hashtag #PowerbarTour. Indeed, this year, Powerbar decided, in collaboration with Strava, to challenge all amateur cyclists around the world: during the 21 stages of the Tour, everyone is invited to upload his bike ride on Strava and the person who does the longuest distance during one of the "stages" will be rewarded with a Rapha jersey. There will also be classifications during the whole Tour, with a men's and a women's classification and a uphill classification. The big winner will win a trip to Mallorca to spend a week at the "Casa Ciclista" of the former pro rider Marcel Wüst.
If you want to know more about it and register for participation, head to powerbar.eu/tour.
Sodexo
While the brand had disappeared from the list of partners of the Tour de France on 18 March, Sodexo is finally back among the official suppliers of the Grande Boucle.CONTINUE READING AFTER THIS ADVERTISEMENT
St Michel
The biscuit producer St Michel will also be back in the Tour de France, for the 6th time in row.St Michel will reproduce in the Tour de France 2015 what made the success of the brand since several years now, handing out madeleines and organising the challenge of the Communes Gourmandes. But there are some new things:
> the caravan will still be formed by the pink and white vehicles (6 in total) but there'll be one newcomer: the truck which is in the front position of the caravan will represent a giant madeleine which will host the caravan girls who are somehow the mascottes of the caravan: Michelle & Madeleine
> the caravan will still hand out no less than 2.5 tons of madeleines every day, but this year the standard madeleines will be accompanied by madeleines with chocolat crumbs!
> the Grand Prix des Communes Gourmandes will be back and will still challenge the small villages on the road of the Tour to invent an original receipt based on madeleines with a specific theme, which will this year be "Les inconTOURnables" and by saying so that's of course about the madeleines and the goal for the villages will be to create a madeleine version of tradition French plates or desserts like for example a chocolate mousse madeleine, a kouign-amann madeleine or a tartiflette madeleine.
Official supporters
Since Courtepaille and P&O Ferries disapeared from the "official supporters" level, only the Haribo and Teisseire brands remain.Teisseire
For Teisseire it'll be the 6th Tour de France and the syrup brand which is thus also present with the Fruit Shoot brand (see above) will renew, like every year, its caravan which will hand out 1.2 million stirring sticks completely!
This year, the Teisseire caravan will promot the Dosing Syrup and the dosing tops of the giant bottles in the caravan will move and release LEDs which will turn on the glasses, while the stirring sticks in the glasses will turn around!
Finally, Teisseire will offer a weekend in Paris for a family which will be able to assist to the finish of the Tour de France 2015 on the Champs-Elysées if they win the prize drawing organised at Facebook.
Technical partners
Among the technical partners, Europcar and Carglass disapear, knowing that the last one was a newcomer in the Tour in 2014.Institutional partners
ERDF
Among the institutional partners of the Tour de France since 3 years is the electricity distribution network, ERDF. For the 4th year in the Tour, ERDF is present and mainly focuses on its 38,000 collaborators, more than on the general public.Indeed, the employees have been invited to ride for Habitat et Humanisme, a caritative association, on 20 and 21 May. On a simulator their goal was to ride at least the total distance of the Tour de France 2015 all together. And they managed to reach this goal since all the employees together actually road almost double the distance of the Tour, thus collecting 10,000€ for Habitat et Humanisme.
Among the participants there will be a prize draw now in order to be part of the "ERDF cycling team" which will do the 20 to 25 last kilometers of the stage which finishes in Valence on Sunday 19 July.
Concerning the ERDF advertising caravan, it will this year be made up of 4 vehicles in the Tour.
All sponsor brands of the Tour de France have not been mentioned in this article. Indeed, if nothing new is known, there's no real reason to talk about it. If you'd like to know the complete list of sponsors for the Tour, check out the sponsors page of the letour.fr website. If you know of any news about another Tour sponsor, please don't hesitate to let me know so I can include any further information in this article. door Thomas Vergouwen
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