International online tour operator Sunweb teams up as large co-sponsor with Team Giant-Alpecin while aiming for international growth.
From the 2015 season onwards, Sunweb will join the newly rebranded Team Giant-Alpecin as an important partner of the team. The online holiday company looks to increase its already expanding international presence in the holiday industry by being present in the highest tier of cycling and to be a part of the continuing growth of the sport.
As a large, successful and well-known online tour operator in several key European countries, Sunweb is currently rolling out its strategy for future growth across Europe. The corresponding and well-planned marketing approach to support that strategy will, amongst others, be centered around the activity of cycling.
Sunweb’s Head of Marketing, Nicolette Burger explains: "The connection between our international marketing activities and the activity of cycling is based on three pillars.
"A large and diverse part of society is regularly in touch with cycling, in different ways and for different purposes. That group has an interesting overlap with the target group for our product, holidays; consumers who are into cycling are more interested in holidays than the average person. This isn't so strange when you look at the fantastic imagery that is broadcast during WorldTour cycling coverage. Cycling is a very accessible way of enjoying your surroundings.
"We care about our customers and always wish to reach out to them via the activity of cycling because this activity represents fun, it’s healthy, you can enjoy nature, and it connects people. And as a sport it’s challenging to do or it generates pleasure and even passion amongst the viewers when watching. We therefore see a great match between the associations of cycling and the associations of the brand, which we want to communicate.
"Due to volume and characteristics of the reach of international cycling, it supports our efforts to strengthen our brand recognition and preference across Europe for Sunweb."
Sunweb’s founder and Chief Executive Officer, Joost Romeijn, underlines the match between his organization and the team: "Although in different industries, the similarity between our two organizations is truly remarkable. Both industries in which the team and Sunweb are active are about passion and emotions, and both organizations are built on very similar and well-anchored principles and performance models. The team’s "Keep Challenging” elite sports approach, based on the continuous development of the athletes, the staff and the organization and as a result developing and building the team from its core, perfectly matches our vision to expand Sunweb’s business. It’s like two organizations but one spirit.
"We are looking forward to developing this new relationship, embracing the activity of cycling and being present with this team in the WorldTour. We see this partnership and the way how we plan to exploit it as a great tool to further strengthen the synergy between our product, holidays, and our expanding target group."
Team Giant-Alpecin founder and general manager Iwan Spekenbrink commented on the new partnership, saying: "It needs no explanation how excited we are about this partnership with Sunweb. We can only be very impressed by the smart and intelligent processes which make Sunweb’s operations so performant and reliable and consequently guaranteeing its clients a great service around one of the most beautiful products that can be offered, holidays.
"We are extremely thrilled that cycling in a broad sense and our elite sports team in particular are amongst the driving forces of the international marketing strategy of such an absolute first class brand, Sunweb. Sunweb’s large commitment enables our team to continue our mission, to expand our opportunities and to keep pursuing our dreams.”
Sunweb and Team Giant-Alpecin have agreed on a two year partnership as a large co-sponsor with the clear intention to continue that partnership in the period beyond 2016.
About Sunweb
Sunweb is an international tour operator and currently one of the largest travel companies in the Netherlands. Annually, Sunweb organizes summer holidays for around 900,000 customers to various destinations like Turkey, Greece, Spain, Portugal and Egypt. More than 90% of the bookings are done online through www.sunweb.com. Besides the Netherlands, Sunweb also operates in Belgium, Germany, France, Denmark, Sweden and the UK. Sunweb is part of Sundio Group International GmbH and has around 200 employees and 350 hostesses in the different destinations.