The Tour De France is the biggest sporting event in the world when it comes to attendance with an estimated 12-16 million fans lining the route over the 21 day event. Some staggering numbers for sure and more importantly it is free for everyone to view.
You would wonder to yourself why as depending on where you are on the route you are waiting hours for a glimpse of the riders as they whizz past you and then it is done for the day. This is not really true as 2 hours before the cyclists come through there is a publicity/advertising caravan that drives past which is an event in it's own right.
The caravan started off in 1930 to help cover the expenses of the race and has now become a big money earner. The caravan is not just a few floats driving past and is a firm favorite with the fans as this is what kind of makes the Tour De France a unique spectacle. When polled a few years ago fans stated they had come to the race to experience the caravan and to pick up what is being thrown off the floats.
Each year 30 companies pay for the privilege of being a sponsor in the caravan representing their brands by offering free gifts to those lining the race route. From key chains, t-shirts, bottles of water, chewing gum, sweets, ice creams, caps and other small edibles totaling roughly 30 million gifts distributed over the 21 day period.
The caravan this year is 180 vehicles long and stretches over 10 kilometers which also has 13 police on motorbikes and 3 medical crews in attendance. The costs depend on how many vehicles you require, staffing and give aways. These promotional vehicles are not cheap and have to stand out representing the brand. The caravan takes a good 45 minutes to drive past and why fans are entertained and hang around for the race that follows this event. This is free entertainment that covers the entire route.
Participation in the caravan varies between $200K and $1 million depending on what the brands end goal is. This is a big money spinner for the race as guesstimates place the value of the caravan north of $15 million each year. Haribo gummies/sweets reported that their sales rise by roughly 25% over this 3 week period and why it is very important to their business. One can imagine if you are launching a new product in France this is an ideal way to get samples into the hands of consumers rather quickly.
The scale of the caravan is what is so impressive and if you consider how many people are involved in the race besides the 20 cycling teams (180 riders) plus back up team which could be another 20 people per team. Not forgetting those officials and media and then the caravan people you are looking at thousands of people all needing a bed to sleep in every night and a place to eat. This is why towns fight for the right to host the start and finish each day as the revenue generated for that area is worth millions.