UCI x Tissot
Mission
For the first time in 2025, the UCI entrusted Samba Digital with activating its partnership with Tissot across its major competitions. The brief was clear: create content that feels innovative and immersive, with strong engagement potential, while giving both brands equal visibility. The challenge was to move beyond standard sponsor integration and turn the partnership into content fans would actually want to watch and share.
Approach
Samba Digital built the campaign around one guiding principle: every piece of content had to reflect the image of both UCI and Tissot, keeping a consistent link between the two brands without one overshadowing the other. Three creative directions were developed and rolled out across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts:
- Interactive filter A branded AR filter designed to turn fans into participants, bringing the partnership directly into their own content and extending reach beyond the UCI’s owned channels.
- Fake out-of-home (FOOH) activation A CGI-driven “fake OOH” execution placing the Tissot partnership in the heart of the cycling world in a way no physical activation could, built to stop the scroll and generate shares.
- Hypnotic loop video A seamless, looping format playing on rhythm and repetition, tailored to short-video algorithms to maximise watch time and replays.
Each format was adapted to the codes of its platform to ensure the content performed natively rather than as adapted brand assets.
Results
These new content formats delivered strong results for a first collaboration:
- 10 posts across 3 platforms: Instagram, TikTok and YouTube Shorts
- 3.4M cumulative video views
- 72K likes
The campaign confirmed that innovative formats can serve a sponsorship story without diluting it, and set the foundation for future partner activations with the UCI.
