INTERVIEW
several years working both in and with cycling teams at the highest level and seeing the pitfalls in how things were done. Over time, we’ve refined our approach and are bringing new concepts and ideas to life, and I feel that we, as well as others, have contributed to driving the quality of brand partnerships in the cycling and broader outdoor space. Naturally, as we grew and explored our own capabilities, we found ourselves working across a much wider range of missions and remits with a diverse base of client partners. The consequence of this was what you see in front of you now: a full-suite communications agency using sport as inspiration for action by elevating the way that brands, teams, events and athletes communicate. That growth has presented the biggest single learning: finding a balance between letting the agency grow organically to meet the needs of clients, whilst remaining true to the core founding principles that underpinned PaceUp’s formation. Another learning has been how to traverse across new sporting communities, taking the right amount of understanding in cycling, and leaving the right amount of space to learn best how to work with leaders across running, triathlon, multisports and even disciplines like hiking too. All with the same goal of elevating communication and inspiring communities. There’s been learnings from influences out of our control too, including the pandemic and reacting to the fast moving situation, one with no precedent but a period of time that helped reinforce trust from our client partners. Lastly, I’d add that we’ve learned the importance in presenting ourselves how we see ourselves and want to be seen by others. We’ve wanted to refresh things for some time, but client partner activity has always taken priority. Now we’ve started the process, it’s been insightful, inspiring and even cathartic to dive back into the roots of why we exist as an agency and the pathway that we’re on.
How have client expectations changed in that time? Expectations have developed rather than changed. For example, we’ve invested a lot of time and effort into growing our international network of partners, collaborators, press and wider industry contacts to be able to provide more for our client partners. From international perspectives and insights, to reach through the press and content creators, creativity and more. With this growth, our partners have naturally understood the wider value we offer and we’ve adapted our focus in line with that growth.
www.bikebiz.com
A great example of this is with one of our long- standing partners, MAAP. We started working with the brand three years ago on European PR activity with a focus on the UK in particular, aiming to grow their share of voice in cycling. Fast-forward to today and we’ve taken on the brand’s activity in North America and other international markets, with a much broader focus than just within cycling media. As MAAP has grown, so too has PaceUp alongside them. Over the past six years, our client partners have also grown to understand the value that we can add beyond just the services we’re enlisted to provide. As both experts in our space and avid athletes across multiple sports (both taking part in and consuming media from multiple activities) we can share this insight and benefit other departments at our partners. This is especially true with our international client partners - over 60% of our client partners are based outside of the UK now.
February 2025 | 47
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