Sicily, with its over a thousand kilometers of coastline and its Mediterranean climate, has always been considered the ideal destination for spending your seaside holidays, enjoying the immense cultural heritage and delicious gastronomic specialities. What if, instead, Sicily was also a wonderful place to explore all year round by bike?
This is what we strongly believe and we wanted to share it with our audience, creating a project in collaboration with the Sicilian Region.
Where did we start from?
In the preliminary phase we identified two types of travelers: families and/or those who love a type of slow tourism, in which what matters is the route, the experience of the journey itself and, in this case, the beauties offered by a territory rich in history, culture and traditions. On the other hand, the more adventurous travelers, those who love strong emotions and climbs which, in an 86% hilly and mountainous land, abound among bucolic landscapes and remote villages.
The selection of itineraries to match the two types of cyclists was not at all simple, but after careful scouting we identified 8 itineraries that could embrace from east to west, from north to south, all the extraordinary variety of Sicily.
We set off to the far south together with our video maker and photographer, in a very hot June that reached 40 degrees, we cycled far and wide along the 8 chosen itineraries. Two weeks of emotions, between visits to iconic places and unexpected encounters, Sicilian hospitality (we returned to Milan with several extra kilos) and striped tans (like real cyclists!).
The result was a fascinating textual, photographic and video reportage, which we used for the various outputs of the project:
- the creation of 6 thematic videos (food and wine, culture, gravel, adventure & mtb, nature and racing bikes) to be used both for the promotion of cycle tourism at our Fiera del Cicloturismo and on their own channels.
- the publication on Bikeitalia of two e-books: “Sicily by bike, art and culture” and “Sicily by bike: sport and adventure”. A great success that saw 3,000 downloads in just over a few weeks. We have also translated the two guides into 4 languages, so as to allow the Sicilian region to be promoted even when participating in foreign fairs.
- the creation of a photographic portfolio to be delivered to our client for use on the visitsicily.info portal, as well as for cycling tourism promotion campaigns
The project had not only an advertising campaign on Bikeitalia.it to support the launch of the two guides, but a true 360-degree multi-channel strategy through the activation of communities on social media.
How?
We have identified five influencers from the world of cycling, who conducted 5 exploration tours in Sicily at different times and places. An exciting and passionate storytelling for the followers with whom they shared sensations, anecdotes and details of the various daily stages. A series of posts on social channels, from Facebook to Instagram, and the creation of videos on YouTube, which have thus created strong engagement with the public.