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Le Col Creative Direction & Brand Strategy

Our work with Le Col covers strategic consulting and creative direction, as well as full delivery of large scale campaigns for digital, eCommerce, paid social, marketing and eCRM. In more recent years we have played a more pro-active role in rooting out key issues within the business and putting systems in place to reduce strain on resource, improve the quality, and reduce spend. Our focus has always been to do more, for less, by using our years of expertise to streamline the areas that are being over-serviced, but not at the expense of the bigger creative and conceptual wins.

We’re not usually ones to boast about what we do, but when we started this journey, Le Col was an unknown entity, from an unknown bike rider. In the past decade we have built a brand that has secured over £15m+ in funding, has worked with the highest calibre of Tour winning riders, Giro winning teams and a host of enviable partnerships. From the logo to the TV commercials, we can proudly say we’ve had our hand in most of it.
We’re always striving to build on the brand – for higher quality assets, more consistently, with a premium brand offering. But, more than that, we want the passion that most of us riders feel to be handled with care, it’s not just a commodity, and those working on it should enjoy the journey. This passion and drive culminates in more functional deliverables like our over-arching concept development for 2024 below.

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Our strategic approach has led to a number of key improvements across the business – an overhaul of email marketing; including new guidelines, a new hierarchy and photography approach, flexible templates, as well as implementing automated batching and scripting processes across the bulk of its products. Having seen first hand the internal issues as the business scaled, we could resolve repetition, as well as specifics like global pricing, gender splits, slow turnaround times and high volumes of assets. Delivering a 60% reduction in design and marketing resource, with more control being put back into the eCRM team to focus on performance.

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We’ve audited and recommended better solutions for photography and videography across the board, looking to elevate the offering at all opportunities from a customer perspective. We’ve introduced some immensely talented creatives from photographers, videographers, 3D/designers, animators, production companies and directors along the way, who continue to deliver the vision. This enthusiasm has most noticeable improved the digital and eCommerce proposition with a much more forward focussed approach to improvements and nimble, data-driven, iterations.

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Le Col x McLaren Project Aero

Le Col is focussed on creating the best performance cycling kit on the market, so to have a collaboration with a brand as iconic as McLaren was an opportunity to really push the limits. Meet Project Aero.

We’ve always looked outside of cycling and beyond what others in the sport are doing, and what this collaboration, and the technology allows us to do is to create an environment that shows the combination of performance and engineering in a unique way. Muybridge meets Tron, from building a bespoke set in the studio for our stills campaign, to using some of the most innovative virtual production technology using Unreal Engine to shoot the commercials, this project has been about pushing the boundaries at every level.

The concept for this shoot was about creating a hyper-real set that that reflects the hours of development, but without the obvious cliche of using a wind tunnel. Instead, we focussed on creating a cinematic experience that brings to life and stylises that process of capturing data. Project Aero – Engineered for Speed.

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Concept & Creative Direction: Limited Edition Design

Client Le Col / McLaren
Production: Squire
Director: Jay Creagh
Dop: James Medcraft
Model: Adam Macrae
Photography: Michael Blann
3d/Animation: Greg Walker

Le Col SS21 – F*ck it, Fake it

Cycling has always put emphasis on place – From the Alpine climbs of Galibier, Croix de Fer and Stelvio, to the steep streets of Siena – where you ride holds weight. In testing times with restrictions on travel and hopes of winter sun abroad, hopes of our Spring Summer photoshoots evaporated with each announcement. Like everyone, dreams of switchbacks and short sleeves were dashed.

Having explored options to shoot in Tenerife, and then Mallorca, and then turning our own frustrations into an opportunity to go back to the drawing board and be more creative. It became clear from the process, that actually, do we want to be seeing images of other people riding those iconic and sunny roads? Social influencers were flouting the rules, and our patience, time for Plan C – F*ck it, Fake it… time to be more playful, embrace our home roads and put a bit of fun back into cycling, like so many have found in lockdown. Own it.

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Concept & Execution: Limited Edition Design
Client: Le Col
Photography: Michael Blann
Retouch: Phil Borg
Production: Squire & Thom Green

Le Col – Spring/Summer Calpe photoshoot

A few weeks back, we soaked up the sun in Spain to shoot a raft of images for Le Col. A shortlist is shown below:

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Le Col HC Jacket

Branding work for the Le Col HC (Hors Catégorie) Jacket. The concept and Photography pulls out details in the jacket that relate to the landscape of Hors Catégorie climbs. The final brochure is stitch bound in gold thread.

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