When international recovery and compression sports clothing brand SKINS wanted to replicate the grassroots loyalty they had secured in Australia and the USA in Europe, they knew that word of mouth chimed with both their early underground viral success and their ambitions to be a challenging and empowering brand.
Proving that with SKINS ordinary people can achieve extraordinary things, 1000heads discovered Quentin Field Boden – a 51 year old UK blogger and amateur road cyclist who had grand plans to ride the entire Tour De France route – and made his dream happen. While Quentin trialled SKINS’ new products by cycling the route three days before the professionals, uploading his experiences and engaging with cross-Channel sports communities along the way, a further set of influential cycling enthusiasts in the UK and Australia were sent SKINS products to trial at home through challenges that reflected the hardships of the Tour.
Spanning three countries simultaneously, Tour de Velo dramatically increased traffic to the international SKINS sites, generated high volumes of positive, independent WOM – and positioned SKINS as the company that promoted the voice of the ordinary fan amidst the saturated brand promotions at one of sport’s biggest events.
A couple of months ago we shared the story of Quentin, who was riding the entire course of the Tour de France supported by SKINS. Well, he did it and he’s back in one piece and we’ve pulled together highlights from his own Tour de Velo.
Check out the video below for our wrap up and let us know what you think!
In our warm and fuzzy social world, corporate has pretty much become a dirty word.
Scan social media on any given day and you’ll encounter a raft of articles called things like ‘how to become a business that cares’, ‘the latest social media fail’ and ‘dealing with detractors’ (yes, a few of them might be by us) that suggest brands are big, bad and struggling to engage with people on and offline.
But they’re what makes all this possible.
Someone has to finance social media, however much we like to think of it as a God-given free-for-all. The investmen from businesses and brands who truly believe that peer to peer conversation is the way forward is what keeps word of mouth innovating and developing to improve things for both consumers and companies.
In our experience, companies are filled with passionate, socially savvy folk who really want to put WOM at the heart of what they do. Yes, it can be damn hard to find a way to integrate that passion throughout a big business so that it brings measurable results, but it’s perfectly possible.
For all the evangelism of the consultants and agencies, the staff of these companies are the guys who are starting to execute people-focused tactics in their jobs every day.
The Sainsbury’s team sharing their passion at our freefrom dinner party
First and foremost, of course, thank you to ours; from Sainsbury’s to Nokia, Universal to P&G, STA Travel to SKINS, they show that industry and size of company is no discriminator when it comes to embracing WOM. All it takes is bravery and an intrinsic belief that consumers should be at the heart of everything they do.
But also thank you to allthose businesses out there who are putting the theory into practice and PROVING that this stuff works.
In our warm and fuzzy social world, corporate has pretty much become a dirty word.
Scan social media on any given day and you’ll encounter a raft of articles called things like ‘how to become a business that cares’, ‘the latest social media fail’ and ‘dealing with detractors’ (yes, a few of them might be by us) that suggest brands are big, bad and struggling to engage with people on and offline.
But they’re what makes all this possible.
Someone has to finance social media, however much we like to think of it as a God-given free-for-all. The investmen from businesses and brands who truly believe that peer to peer conversation is the way forward is what keeps word of mouth innovating and developing to improve things for both consumers and companies.
In our experience, companies are filled with passionate, socially savvy folk who really want to put WOM at the heart of what they do. Yes, it can be damn hard to find a way to integrate that passion throughout a big business so that it brings measurable results, but it’s perfectly possible.
For all the evangelism of the consultants and agencies, the staff of these companies are the guys who are starting to execute people-focused tactics in their jobs every day.
The Sainsbury’s team sharing their passion at our freefrom dinner party
First and foremost, of course, thank you to ours; from Sainsbury’s to Nokia, Universal to P&G, STA Travel to SKINS, they show that industry and size of company is no discriminator when it comes to embracing WOM. All it takes is bravery and an intrinsic belief that consumers should be at the heart of everything they do.
But also thank you to allthose businesses out there who are putting the theory into practice and PROVING that this stuff works.
Hopefully, some of you reading this blog have met a few of the team here at 1000heads. Hopefully, you found us a personable bunch (if somewhat prone to cake eating). You may have even dropped in to ‘heads towers, and enjoyed a bit of true Soho atmosphere (our office apparently used to be a boxing gym).
However, in our birthday week of staff love, we wouldn’t want to forget about the members of the ‘heads team scattered rather further afield, who are doing fantastic work executing our global campaigns. So if you’re roaming the world and fancy some WOM chat, make sure you drop in to see:
Lilian Mahoukou, Paris: A passionate commentator on emerging market trends with a background in customer care, Lilian writes at digital identity blog Le Project Doppleganger and social media site Webmarketing & Com, as well as his own blog E-volving. He’s currently working on our Skins project around the Tour de France.
Tom Hall, Vancouver: Tom is a 1000heads veteran, having been with us since the Oxfordshire days. He’s a seriously social chap with a penchant for sports and mobile technology, and is currently taking creative types on an incredible cross-Canada minivan adventure, the N97 Mini Tour. He’ll also be at Mobile Geeks of Montreal with roving ‘head James Whatley tomorrow if you want to say hi.
Adam Woodley, New York: Ad is spending time in New York helping Mike set up our new offices there. Although we’ve executed US campaigns in the past, we’ve always used office space kindly donated by our friends, so it’s fantastic to finally have our own ‘heads outpost. If you’re interested in WOM and social media and fancy a flat white in the Big Apple, let us know.
And this post wouldn’t be complete without a shout-out to our other fantastic local WOM partners, consultants and experts out in Europe, India and Asia, who help us on an ad-hoc basis to create tailored and relevant WOM campaigns.
WOM is a truly global phenomenon, and needs both consistent and culturally specific strategies. Who are your favourite international WOM stars?
We knew we wanted to collaborate on a project around the Tour de France. And then we discovered Quentin Field-Boden, from Alnwick.
Quentin is a UK cycling coach, not to mention totally engaging human being, but he potentially has a screw loose. He’s planning to ride the entire Tour route three days before the pros battle it out – ‘Leading the Tour’, starting next Wednesday 30th June.
This seemed the perfect opportunity to put SKINS to the most rigorous test and see if their products can really help this ordinary guy emulate his cycling heroes. So Quentin is blogging, tweeting and uploading all sorts of content throughout his preparations and the race itself to share his experiences – and opinions.
He’ll also be hooking up with other sports fans and social media communities en route for moral support, discussion and, hopefully, a sip of water or two, so if you’re in Paris before the Tour, let us know and get involved.
1000heads are delighted to announce our latest client, Skins, world famous creators of recovery compression sports clothing and leaders in their industry.
We relish the opportunity to work long-term with the Skins team to put WOM at the heart of everything they do, particularly because their approach is already rooted in ‘substance over image’. As they say themselves:
“Good news travels fast.
Word got out that there were these things called SKINS that improved your power, speed, stamina and recovery. Pro athletes were the first to start wearing them – normally sneaking them under their sponsored kit. Before long, amateur athletes joined the party.
SKINS are now sold in over 30 countries. We’ve got over 160 products and manufacture more than 100,000 units a month. And counting.
We never stop pushing. Never stop trying to improve – to give you even more of a competitive edge. That’s why we put all our money back into research.”
A company which has evolved from grassroots support, not to mention which helps people become extraordinary and harness their talents to the full, is a pretty great start.
Our first project with Skins will be focused on the Tour de France – its mixture of passion and pain, athletes and ordinary people, on and offline engagement and global interest makes it ripe for some truly mindblowing word of mouth action. We’ll update you as it all unfolds.
Of course, we’re also feeling a bit inadequate about our efforts at Tuesday football, looking at all the incredible athletes who endorse Skins. But we do reckon a few of these would increase our skills by about 1000%. Maybe.
Lilian Mahoukou, Paris: A passionate commentator on emerging market trends with a background in customer care, Lilian writes at digital identity blog 
Tom Hall, Vancouver: Tom is a 1000heads veteran, having been with us since the Oxfordshire days. He’s a seriously social chap with a penchant for sports and mobile technology, and is currently taking creative types on an incredible cross-Canada minivan adventure, the 
Adam Woodley, New York: Ad is spending time in New York helping Mike set up our new offices there. Although we’ve executed US campaigns in the past, we’ve always used office space kindly donated by our friends, so it’s fantastic to finally have our own ‘heads outpost. If you’re interested in WOM and social media and fancy a flat white in the Big Apple, 
