Unibet and Tour de Tietema Initiate Heart Health Campaign
Unibet, operating in Belgium and the Netherlands, has partnered with the Dutch cycling team, Tour de Tietema, to launch a heart health awareness campaign titled ‘Follow Your Heart’. This initiative comes as a response to the increasing concerns regarding heart health within the cycling community.
Developed by Kindred Group plc’s flagship brand, Unibet, in collaboration with Tour de Tietema, the campaign introduces an innovative online learning tool designed to educate and raise awareness about heart health issues prevalent among cyclists. To further highlight the significance of heart health, Tour de Tietema cyclists will don a specially designed jersey throughout the campaign period.
A key feature of the ‘Follow Your Heart’ campaign is a complimentary, interactive Augmented Reality (AR) experience. This digital initiative brings to life avatars of team owners Bas Tietema, Devin van der Wiel, and Josse Wester, who lead users through an eight-step tutorial on performing potentially lifesaving resuscitation techniques. The primary goal of this campaign is to enhance survival rates by equipping the team’s fan base and the broader community in the Netherlands and Belgium with essential resuscitation skills.
“As a sports betting provider, sports is in Unibet’s DNA. This awareness campaign fits well with our focus on increasing social engagement, and we hope that, together with Tour de Tietema, we can inspire as many Dutch people as possible to complete the AR experience, says Lennart Kessels, General Manager Netherlands, Kindred Group.
“I try to follow my heart in everything I do, but I have noticed both in cycling and outside the sport that a less well-functioning heart can also make you very insecure. Unfortunately, you hear stories about heart problems more and more often within the cycling world. Yet not everyone knows how to act when something really goes wrong. We, within the team, didn’t know how to perform lifesaving actions. With our cycling team, we reach a lot of people, so we wanted to use that reach to draw attention to this current issue”, says Bas Tietema, one of the owners of Tour de Tietema, as he shares his personal motivation behind the campaign.
” We have previously raised awareness for the eight live-saving skills together with Club Bruges. By tailoring this now to cycling, we hope to educate even more Belgians about the importance of these life-saving techniques. As playing responsibly is one of our key focuses the link to acting responsibly in sports is evident, adds Dennis Marien, General Manager Belgium, Kindred Group.
