Almost 15,000 outdoor enthusiasts descended upon the NEC, Birmingham last weekend (19-20 March) for the first ever National Outdoor Expo.

With famous faces including Ben Fogle, James Cracknell, Sir Ranulph Fiennes, Iwan Thomas, Sabrina Pace-Humphreys, Julia Bradbury, Ed Stafford, Mike Dilger and Dwayne Fields and over 100 brands and interactive features for all abilities, it was the ultimate active family day out and ActivelyOutdoors were there as we sponsored the Wildlife Watching Pavilion, which featured leading brands - SWAROVSKI OPTIK, KOWA, RSPB & VIKING OPTICAL.
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Created for runners, campers, wildlife watchers, climbers, walkers, lovers of outdoor cooking, excursions, open water swimming, kayaking and paddleboarding, the event also provided the perfect opportunity to shop all the latest kit, gear, tech and travel at the beginning of the Outdoor season in the UK.

Before the event, Speaker Ben Fogle commented: “The National Outdoor Expo will provide a great opportunity for outdoor enthusiasts to ignite that outdoor fire in their souls and prepare themselves for their next big adventure. I am looking forward to sharing my journey, hopefully inspiring people to think big and step outside of their comfort zone in 2022 and beyond. It is when we come together as a community that we really see what we are capable of and feel inspired by what others have achieved, I too am looking forward to meeting some incredible adventurers and being inspired by their stories.”

nationaloutdoorexpo.com

Suffolk's Viking Optical have agreed to become an advertiser of ActivelyOutdoors Media and will have their brand and products prominently displayed on AO's digital Wildlife Watching portfolio.

The 12 month agreement will see AO make and supply creative display advertising experiences for the brand with an emphasis on pushing the new Viking Optical website and ED range of products to AO Media's audiences.

To enquire about ActivelyOutdoors Media, please drop us an email anytime. 

Great news from AO towers this week, as we announce we are collaborating with the guys at Raccoon Events to help promote the first 'Wildlife Watching Pavilion' at The National Outdoor Expo.

Taking place at the NEC, Birmingham on the 19th & 20th March 2022, this will be the UK’s only mass outdoor retailing event aimed at general and specialist, affluent outdoor enthusiasts. With over 19,000 outdoors enthusiasts already registered to attend (with six months still to go) the event expects a 10,000+ footfall across the two days.
 
Content will focus on Walking, Climbing, Running, Camping, Travel & Excursions, Eating Outdoors and Water!
 
With an increase in people getting outdoors and active, we are pleased to be partnering with the event to raise the profile of outdoor nature interests, namely wildlife watching and birding. Through an aligned partnership, ActivelyOutdoors will help to generate a targeted consumer audience through its established database and The National Outdoor Expo will promote the ‘ActivelyOutdoors Wildlife Watching Pavilion’ (and the brands therein independently) to its broad, outdoor audience (over 100k reach).  Our partnering exhibitors, will benefit from all routes to market.
 
The event vision is to deliver a premium retailing experience alongside engaging content and will take place at the start of the season when enthusiasts are planning for the spring/summer months ahead. With premium brand exhibitors lined up within the pavilion, we know we will be confidently providing consumers with the best kit and equipment to aid their passion for nature, wildlife and the great outdoors!
 
The show already has a superb line up of speakers, including TV's Ben Fogle and some other great features which we know will be sure to draw the crowds. 

For all enquiries on this partnership or to enquire about exhibiting as part of the pavilion, please email support@activelyoutdoors.co.uk

And now for something shiny on the news front... 🏆

​ActivelyOutdoors picked up its first award win of the year this week at the Prestige Awards - which celebrates small and medium-sized enterprises excelling in their market.

James Hamilton our MD commented: "We are happy to win this award and to be appreciated for doing a grand job in our area of specialist media. As a fast-growing, but relatively young business with many goals yet to achieve - this recognition shows we are heading in the right direction."

(Nice to see James' golfers arm tan covered up aswell.) 😉

More info > prestigeawards.co.uk/

​AO x

New research from Volt Bikes has shed more light on peoples travel modes post-pandemic and clearly there will be a big shift from public to personal use – with commuters suggesting that, on average, they are 39% less likely to use public transport than they were before the pandemic, and 30% more likely to use solo transport over the same period.

The biggest transformation towards e-bikes and sustainable personal transport has happened in London, where 44% of respondents said that they were more likely to buy an e-bike for personal transport than they were pre-pandemic. This change in attitudes was mirrored in Northern Ireland, where 25% said they were more likely to buy an e-bike and in Scotland, where one in five expressed an interest in purchasing one.

Other key findings include:

• 41% of respondents said they are less likely to take the train or underground to work
• Men are more likely than women to buy an e-bike post-pandemic, albeit by a fairly small margin (22% and 14% respectively)
• Nearly half of existing e-bike owners (48%) said that they plan to use their e-bike more often post-pandemic

Read the full article in Micro Mobility Biz here.

Cycling UK has released data revealing a variation in active travel spending by local authorities across England, ranging from £34 a year per head to just 20p in some areas, ahead of 143 councils in England holding elections today (Thurs 6 May 2021).

Not every local authority has responsibility for highways, and with that control of active travel spending, but to
date, 59 of those who do have provided full or partial information.

In 2020-21, the average spend across the councils that responded was £7.65 per head, of which £2.58 was from core funding. However, five local authorities (Kingston upon Thames, Salford, Waltham Forest, Stockport and Leicester City) spent or estimated spending more than £20 per head, while three (Redcar and Cleveland, Telford and Wrekin, and Hillingdon) reported figures of less than £1 per head.

Over the whole four-year period, four local authorities (Bradford, Bromley, Coventry and Hillingdon) reported spending none of their core funding on active travel, while only one (Sutton) said it had not received any grants.

Duncan Dollimore, Cycling UK’s head of campaigns, said: “What these figures show is that while some councils are doing a good job of investing in active travel schemes, both from their own funds and through seeking grants, other parts of the country risk being left behind. We need more equality in active travel, which is why our local election manifesto asks every local authority in England to move up the gears and invest more in cycling and walking.”

Read the full story in BikeBiz here.

The cycling market was valued at £2.31 billion in 2020, an increase of 45% vs 2019, the BA has revealed in a new impact report.

Building On The Boom: The UK Cycling Market in 2020 and Beyond was produced using data from the BA’s Market Data Service (MDS), powered by Sports Marketing Surveys Inc (SMS).
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Other key findings include:

• E-bike sales share to nearly triple by 2023
• Major online shift in cycling sales, from 60:40 to 40:60 (retail:online) over last 12 months
• Double digit growth maintained across all main cycling categories in 2020 and into early 2021
• Rising participation in cycling among adults and children
• A huge increase in indoor cycling, turbo trainers and home exercise bikes

Simon Irons, Bicycle Association MDS director, said: “This report shows in hard data just how far cycling was catapulted to the frontline of the UK’s pandemic response. There was incredible double-digit growth across almost every category."

“But the cycling boom of 2020 is not the story in itself. COVID revealed how essential cycling is in the UK. Our data suggests the UK consumer has rediscovered their love of cycling. The trajectory is set for long-term growth.”

Read the full story in BikeBiz here.

A glimpse into the future or air, land and water travel is here. 

Zero-emissions passenger vehicles that use an engine, motor, process, or other energy source, that emits no waste products that pollute the environment or disrupt the climate will lead the human race into a greener future by 2035.

Our cycle clients have already seen a huge uptick in e-bikes sales in 2021 and this shows no signs of slowing anytime soon. Check out the video from WEF below.

A new study by RunRepeat has revealed the impact of Covid-19 on the fitness industry. The study surveyed 4,538 active adults from 122 countries. The respondents shared how they were staying fit in 2021, compared with the start of 2020, before the pandemic.

The study, which asked active adults their preferred way to stay fit, unsurprisingly, reported a boom in outdoor exercise, with 59.1 per cent of those surveyed saying activities such as running, hiking, walking and cycling are the best way to achieve their fitness goals.
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As repeated restrictions have been in place for a long time, the gym industry has been badly hit by the pandemic, with lockdowns forcing the closure of facilities all over the world. A fifth of active adults said the gym was their primary way of staying fit at the beginning of 2020.

Well... 2021 has started with a bang at AO Towers.

Amongst several new client services coming online in January, we're happy to be recommending and working alongside Sky TV's AdSmart platform as we give our SME clients a big push into a sphere previously unattainable for several reasons, namely - financial and logistical.

For those that do not know, AdSmart is Sky’s internet-style ad product that offers brands the chance to target specific audiences during live TV ad breaks.

The platform has been building up a head of steam recently and is now a tremendous opportunity for brands to reach potential customers during times where TV consumption is at the peak of its powers.

Stay tuned for more news on some of our other service launches later this month.

AO x

Amazing to think that during some of the toughest times we as a human race have experienced since WW2, some industries have been absolutely booming. Cycling continues to grow and grow around the World and that is great news for jobs and the environment heading into 2021.

​Australian bike shops are struggling to keep up with the boom in sales since coronavirus restrictions came into force last month reports the Guardian.

“We’re the new toilet paper and everyone wants a piece,” Grant Kaplan, manager of Giant Sydney, a bike store in Sydney’s CBD, tells Guardian Australia.

“We can’t keep up with sales. Literally the phone is ringing nonstop,” he laughs, as another call came through in the background.

The store has had to stop servicing bikes – typically a major source of revenue – because its mechanics are overrun with putting together customers’ new purchases.

Marshall, who has worked in bike sales for the last four years, told Guardian Australia he would expect to see $10,000 in sales on a Saturday, but for the past two weekends “have done $40,000 each Saturday, with similar sorts of levels during the week as well”.

South Melbourne’s bikeNOW is seeing similar figures. Co-manager Nathan Ziino says they sold between 40 and 45 bikes last weekend, many of which are entry-level models costing $700 to $1,200.
 
Nathan Ziino of bikeNOW typically sells $4,000-$15,000 bikes to high-end clientele. But Ziino says most of the shop’s recent customers have been families wanting to stay active while social distancing.

“Families are sick of walking everywhere as their form of exercise. The kids are home from school or being home-schooled. If you go to a football oval and there are lots of people already there, you can’t go on [due to social distancing measures],” he says.
“But on your bike you are exercising and practicing social distancing.”

For others, coronavirus restrictions have finally given them the time to take up a new hobby.

“They talk as though they have been thinking about it, and now the ideal scenario has come up: they have the time of their hands, gyms are shut, pools are shut, so why not get a bike?”

Ziino predicts they will see a second rush of customers once social distancing measures are eased, consisting of those who have to start commuting to work again but don’t want to risk catching public transport.

AO x

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes as one our our idols David Bowie famously once sang here at ​ActivelyOutdoors as we head out the door of what has been a successful 2019.

As we head and into 2020 with energy and swagger it is nice to be able to release our new logo with iconic mark as we plan some expansion into new areas. Tell us what you think in the comments below...

AO x

ActivelyOutdoors client Bianchi UK has launched a brand new magazine for 2020 - and it's a beauty!

Packed full of interesting cycling stories from around the globe, amazing photographs, detailed overview of the Bianchi bike range and you'll be able to go closer than your riding buddy to a big race win with an exclusive behind-the-scenes look inside the Grand Tour winning Jumbo-Visma team! 

The new coffee-table magazine is available in all official Bianchi UK dealers from October - be sure to head in to your local dealership for a copy.

AO x