Pulling ahead with our marketing support - a look at WinTech Racing wins over the past 3 years

A lot has happened since we flew out to China in 2019 to present WinTech Racing’s new brand identity to their CEO and their Global Marketing Manager. Who knew back then that COVID-19 was about to change the world and the way we work.

The main driver for the rebrand was to make sure WinTech Racing became the go-to brand for both novice and elite rowers around the world. We gave WinTech Racing a much needed face-lift both on and off the water. To give WinTech Racing the edge over their competitors it was important that their brand reflected the quality of their products, so to achieve this, we needed to elevate how WinTech Racing presented themselves online and at regattas. To begin with, we re-designed their entire boat livery/product range which then carried over onto their regatta stands, race clothing, van livery and regatta marketing collateral. This was all backed up with a blazingly fast new React based PWA (Progressive Web App) to help enhance WinTech Racing’s online presence.

Then what happened?… LOCK-DOWN, all regattas and the Tokyo 2020 Olympics were cancelled for the foreseeable, rowing clubs were closed, rowers were no longer allowed to get out on the water to train. So how do you get a new brand out there when everyone is locked up?

Like most people, everyone all of a sudden found that they had more time on their hands which meant this was actually the perfect time to start promoting WinTech Racing’s new brand and to ramp up their social media activity. We worked hard with WinTech Racing’s marketing teams, both in the UK and in North America to create over 80 social media videos/blog posts which were made available to all the global distributors so they could utilise the assets and help to begin promoting WinTech Racing in their country. So when things did begin to open up, WinTech Racing were at the forefront of every rowers mind.

As well as social media activity, we also worked on a number of marketing campaigns and support collateral. The first campaign to be rolled out was called Row Solo, so to support the creative, we developed an interactive training programme to help rowers train at home which was supported by downloadable PDFs written by one of the UK’s leading rowing coaches, Terry O’Neill.

Some of the support collateral we worked on included a comprehensive 44 page brochure that the Chinese marketing team asked us to put together. As WinTech Racing boats are manufactured in China, they needed something to showcase their latest products and green credentials to give to prospective clients. This was then translated into four different languages for various distributors around the world. The brochure itself took advantage of a bespoke front cover throwout and several mini ‘info’ pages were inserted throughout the brochure which were printed onto transparent red paper, a spot UV was applied to the cover and a matt lamination was applied throughout to give the final brochure that high end look.

North America was one of the first countries to see an ease in lockdowns, so one of the first initiatives for WinTech Racing was to collaborate with the iconic clothing brand Rowing Blazers, WinTech Racing asked us to design a limited edition boat which would be hand painted in the Rowing Blazers signature stripe. On top of this, we have designed an additional 11 personalised boats for rowing clubs all around the world.

Finally, it was Europe's time to see an ease in lockdowns and regattas were finally up and away and it was great to see the brand come into full fruition with everything from newly designed boats, all the way to branded flags and pop up tents. This also meant we were allowed to leave the studio and become more hands on with our approach. Since the initial brand launch, we’ve overseen 3 photoshoots, one of which was the King 8+, which is an 18 metre long racing boat. As you can imagine, the challenge here was to find a unit big enough to accommodate such a large boat, but we did it!

It’s important that nothing stands still, so since the initial launch of the site back in 2019, we have rolled out multiple updates and additions to the site. The most notable one is the addition of international language translations for China, Germany, Italy, Spain and Czech. This means that all the distributors, no matter where they are around the world, can take advantage of the full functionality of the WinTech Racing website. As well as the translations, we have kept the site looking fresh by updating the homepage design, creating new header videos and publishing regular blog posts on behalf of Wintech Racing.

So the last two years have been somewhat challenging with the pandemic, but with the investment WinTech Racing have made and the work we’ve done for them over the last few years, WinTech Racing are truly ahead on and off the water.