Brands and sponsors
If you rent a challenge, you also rent the relationship with your audience.
On third-party platforms your activation looks like everyone else’s, and the contacts stay there. With LaceUp the same mechanics run entirely in your branding. You are the sender, not the ad slot.
Starting point
Why sponsored challenges disappoint
Not because the idea is wrong. Because you’re building on someone else’s land.
You rent attention, you don’t own it
A sponsored challenge on a big sports platform brings visibility for its duration. Then it’s gone, and the next provider stands in the same spot. None of it accrues to you.
Prescribed layout, interchangeable experience
The same tile, the same progress bar, the same badge as three other brands. For brand managers that is exactly the problem: the activation says nothing about you.
The most valuable part stays with the platform
Who took part, how often, where and how engaged: that is the real currency. On a third-party platform you get a report of it — but no relationship.
The stage belongs to your brand. LaceUp stays in the background and delivers GPS, fairness and automation.
Formats
Activations we build for brands
The mechanics are always the same. What counts is where you place the checkpoints.
Dealers as checkpoints
Points of sale, test centres or service partners become part of the route. Whoever drops by collects a point and, at best, a conversation. Combinable with scenic targets like lookout towers or passes.
Product launch as a challenge
A new model, a new category, a new season. The challenge gives the launch a duration instead of a day and produces images, data and test rides along the way.
Team and club rankings
Your community competes in teams. That creates self-promotion, because participants bring in their own people. Leaderboards and badges run in your design.
Entry via a destination or series
If a region or an organiser carries the format, you can join as a partner and co-finance the automation. Affordable entry, clearly measurable effect.
Benefits
What you get out of it
First-party data instead of platform statistics
Registrations, consents and progress run through your presence. You build a list that still belongs to you after the campaign.
An activation that looks like you
No third-party branding, no prescribed layout. Website, emails, leaderboards and badges in your brand’s design, from sign-up to award.
Touchpoints with a real occasion
Pass conquered, best time set, level reached: emotional moments automatically trigger personalised messages. That’s the difference between a newsletter and a moment.
Closeness instead of impressions
Participants experience the brand at a real place, through their own effort. That yields high-quality contacts instead of eyeballs.
Reference
References
Tour
Les Cols de Zurich
Three roadbike stages on epic climbs around Zurich. You can discover a new stage every week and ride it as often as you like for two weeks. Your fastest time …
Learn more →
Race
Red Bull Downtime
The best riders chase their fastest time on selected singletrails in Swiss bike parks – pure adrenaline! View project Red Bull Downtime is a mountainbike …
Learn more →
Trophy
Züri Velo Cup – Winter Quest
From 21 December to 21 March, the mission is to collect 9 municipalities around Zurich. Three new ones unlock every month – visit them, collect points and stay …
Learn more →
Process
From first conversation to launch
Four steps. Most of the work sits with us.
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1
A short briefing
You send us what there is: sites, routes, target group, time frame. Twenty minutes are enough to start.
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2
Concept and quote
We propose format, checkpoints, levels and communication, with a quote that lists every position separately.
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3
Setup
Set the zones, apply your design, configure sign-up and the email journey, test. The work sits with us.
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4
Season and evaluation
You communicate, we operate and support. At the end of the season comes the evaluation the next edition is built on.
Questions
What we get asked most often
We already have an agency. Does that fit?
Yes. We deliver the platform and the mechanics, your agency the campaign. If you want, we still take on concept, copy and graphics — that’s a separate module.
How many people do we reach?
As many as you can seed. LaceUp brings no platform reach of its own — deliberately. The channel is you: newsletter, social, retail, community. In return, the result belongs to you.
What about the participants’ data?
The activity data fundamentally belongs to the athletes. As the organiser, you receive the usage rights to leaderboards, section times, checkpoints and contact data within your challenge.
Do participants need Strava or Garmin?
Not necessarily. Anyone with an account connects it once. Everyone else uses the app-free check-in. That clearly lowers the entry barrier for audiences outside the sports bubble.
Investment
What it costs
For comparison: that’s in the range of a mid-sized campaign budget — except that at the end there’s a contact list and a format you can use again next year.
- PilotCHF 5'000 per season
- SaisonCHF 9'200 per season
- Programmfrom CHF 13'500 per season
- Three-year agreementprices 20 percent lower
Next step
We’ll send you the documents
Two or three activation ideas for your brand, references and a transparent price overview. No meeting, no obligation.
LaceUp AG
go@laceup.ch
Other areas
Who else we work for
Destinations and mountain railways
Guests come back several times a season instead of once a year.
Organisers and series
Race day becomes a relationship that lasts months.
Companies
Activity programmes with real routes instead of generic step counters.
Charity and fundraising
Charity runs with your story and your contacts.
Cities, regions, public sector
Trails, towers, museums or huts as collectible points.