EF Pro Cycling Tour de France Campaign

#exploretheworld lead generation activation

How do we turn cycling fans into language learners? This was the question posed to me and the design team in EF Education First’s Language Campuses division after the company’s purchase of a UCI World Tour pro cycling team in 2019.
The result: A lead generation campaign targeted at cyclists driving users from Instagram and Facebook to a landing page on EF.com where they could fill out a form to be entered to win an all-expenses-paid trip to EF’s private event at the final stage of the Tour de France.

With precise audience targeting, engagement in the ads and lead generation on the landing page was not an issue, but converting cycling fans into hot leads for language courses… this was the real challenge.

Finding the leads in the weeds

After converting the leads, we needed to qualify them to be reached out to by EF’s sales team. To do this, I laid out a five-email automated journey with the goal of encouraging qualified leads to opt into a sales consultation to learn about EF language courses abroad.

Speaking directly to the cycling fan, we introduced EF as not only a team sponsor but a genuine investor in cycling as a global sport. After establishing credibility with the cycling core, we presented the importance of speaking multiple languages to the team’s communication and life on the road through a series of blog posts and videos.

Plugging EF’s immersive language courses abroad as the “fastest way to learn a language,” we converted 5% of the leads generated through the Tour de France campaign into qualified, contactable leads. This influx of leads reinforced the company’s belief in the benefit of owning a UCI team not just for brand awareness and preference but also as a lead-generation and sales tool.