Outside's Flash Mob Motivated Cyclists and Runners, Tour de France Style

Way to ride that bike to work! Woo Woo! Look at you, walking your dog in the park—Yay!

Active lifestyle platform Outside Interactive recently turned back the clock to 2005, dispatching an old-school flash mob to a popular bike path near downtown Boulder, Colorado, to cheer on cyclists and runners, Tour de France style.

Dubbed “Flash Finish,” the July 21 stunt backed Outside’s ongoing efforts to lure folks from their screens for healthy doses of fresh air and sunshine. The goal was to show genuine interaction trumping the spurious human connections and reward tactics of social media, gaming and the metaverse, the brand says.

“If this was every morning, I would ride every day,” enthuses one happy biker in the video below, expressing exactly what Outside had in mind:

“The idea came from the astonishing stat around how people only spend six minutes a day outside,” says Andrew Lincoln, vice president of creative at Outside, whose team devised the initiative. “When we dug in more, we found that the average American is glued to their screens for seven hours a day. And as a building full of passionate outdoorsy people, we all felt like training and sweating outside was typically a celebration-less moment, unless you’re an actual professional athlete.”

The activation hyped “Biking for All,” a broader campaign leveraging Outside content and expertise that launched last month and timed to the Tour de France kick-off.

“Most every day and fair-weather cyclists tend to get on bikes during this ‘Cycling Super Bowl,'” Lincoln says. “Our mission for this integrated campaign was to celebrate the diversity of cycling across the globe.”

What’s more, 10,000 themed NFTs from artist James Arnold, priced at $210.95 each, will drop in mid-August on Outside.io.

“He’s known in the community for his portraits and depictions of professional cyclists,” Lincoln says. “We shared the same values and passions of wanting to inspire more people, not just professionals, to get outside on bikes. We wanted to celebrate and show the inclusivity of the cycling world.”

Outside has also issued an inspirational cycling challenge on the Trailforks app, plus a sweepstakes with prizes totaling $5,000 that include—what else?—a new bike.

CREDITS

FOR THE FLASH MOB:
CMO, Dmitri Siegel
VP of Creative (ECD), Andrew Lincoln
Group Creative Director, Christina Erb
Copywriter, Meredith Powlison
Production: Shine and Polish
Post Production: 11 Dollar Bill

BIKING FOR ALL NFT COLLECTION:
CMO, Dmitri Siegel
VP of Creative (ECD), Andrew Lincoln
Group Creative Director, Christina Erb
Copywriter, Meredith Powlison
Art Director/Design, Bryan Nanista
Designer, Ross Garwin
Illustrator, James Arnold
Motion Designer, Andrew Perry
Motion Designer, Davis Burch
Motion Designer, Victor Brown