British Cycling and Shell: A rescue plan
Sports Gazette journalist James Davis looks to resolve a tumultuous week at British Cycling, with some handy tips for their new partnership with Shell.
So, you’re an executive at British Cycling – it’s been a rough few days, hasn’t it?
The eight year, presumably multimillion-pound sponsorship deal you just signed with Shell seems not to have gone down too well – and who knows why? Everyone is a fan of “sharing of world-class innovation and expertise” with such titans of industry, right?
Not to worry, there’s still a way out. Maybe the baying masses just haven’t appreciated all the potential of your “long-term partnership”, as you accelerate together along the “path to net zero.”
Press releases touting the benefits of your newly-formed coalition are one thing, but it could be the public is just seeking something tangible – something that they can connect with and sink their teeth into.
You’ve come to the right place – here are three of the best suggestions, provided free of charge, for truly showing the best that Shell plc has to offer the members of British Cycling.
Perhaps you might come up with a perk even more attractive than 10% off at Halfords.
British Headwind Cycling Championships
The Dutch achieve great fanfare each year for their Headwind Cycling Championships. Why not do the same in the UK? While we lack the blustery coastal defences to produce a natural tournament, something man-made can’t be out of the question.
As the seventh-largest polluter in the world, surely Shell could focus a stream of those greenhouse gases along a set course, rather than up into the atmosphere, and give us a championships for the ages?
Cyclocross Customisations
Cyclocross in the UK remains a fairly niche pastime and is ripe for revolution. Who wants to spend a day out getting covered head to toe in treacly British mud that you’ll still find behind your ear a month on?
No doubt, your “fresh commercial approach” can provide the answer. Not averse to splashing about a bit of oil, maybe our newest petrochemical pals can provide some of their finest Brent Crude to slicken up cyclocross courses everywhere, making the discipline much more attractive in the process?
Communications Confidence
Worried that corporate communication and brand identity is not always your forte?
As an organisation that gets the messaging and the decisions right every single time, with a high degree of clarity, Shell is uniquely placed to help you avoid any further messaging mishaps like the unfortunate Queen’s funeral episode.
If you’ve made it this far, you might be contemplating the fact your new alliance isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.
There’s a reason a Greenpeace UK spokesperson told CNN that looking for Shell’s help with your net zero goals “is as absurd as beef farmers advising lettuce farmers on how to go vegan.”
Hopefully, you don’t need to be told that the backlash you’ve experienced is part of a widely-held frustration among British cyclists that the body responsible for cycle sport does not represent the views and priorities of the majority of those on two wheels; it is a rare cyclist who uses their bike only for sport.
Leisure cycling, which includes sport, accounted for just a third of all cycle trips from 2015-19, and the bicycle’s value as a climate change-fighting tool was highlighted at COP26; cycling produces 150 fewer grams of CO2 per kilometre than driving.
All this considered, you might now be thinking that pairing up with the third-largest UK petrol station proprietor and prominent member of the oil lobby is a misstep.
Granted, given we’ve come this far, you might not. Just something to think about.
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