The Twilight Criterium is a monumental event, 45 years in the making (and counting). What began as the nation’s first nighttime cycling criterium in decades has since evolved into a multifaceted celebration that embodies the inclusive and innovative spirit of Athens, GA. With an event of this magnitude, it’s no wonder festival organizers recognized the benefit of engaging with an agency like Kaptiv8 for their marketing needs.
With our roots here in Athens, we knew a bit about Twilight. But as turns out there was so much to unpack. Discovery helped us to gather deep insight from race organizers around Twilight’s history, mission, events and partnerships, and guided us towards the development of an informed Brand Messaging Foundation and Visual Brand Guidelines to unite their team around a common vision while serving as a foundation for everything to come.
From there, we geared up quickly to develop and implement a comprehensive marketing & communications strategy to promote the many events, highlight community corporate and charitable partnerships, fulfill sponsorship agreements, and – most importantly – attract both participants and spectators.
Leveraging a mix of social media (organic and paid), earned media, radio, and print, we worked to blanket both the broader local community and niche cycling and outdoor fitness communities.
The impact of our efforts was greater than we could have imagined. Impressions were way up over the previous year. The audience grew at an exceptional rate. But the most telling stat was engagement. Led by link and QR code interaction, the rate of engagement was way off the charts.
