Return to Gold Hill is all about Evans Cycles deserving to rank higher to Electric bikes. Moving to #1 position for key terms and gaining 47 pieces of coverage, with an online readership of 1.6 bn, we also made the overall Evans brand more famous and found.

A simple idea. Evans cycles wanted to create greater visibility for their brand in the emerging and potentially lucrative electric bike market. As well as being little known or understood, electric bikes are incredibly polarising – with cycling purists declaring them nigh on blasphemy, believing no ride should be without at least a pinch of suffering and masochism. But for some of us mere mortals a hill is something we want to get up without risking a double hernia. So we decided to be on the side of those that maybe can’t defeat hills in the way they used to. 

And as a hero for this idea we went right back to 1973 to enlist a character that has passed into advertising folklore – the bakery delivery boy from Sir Ridley Scott’s famous 1973 Hovis ad. We tracked down the original actor, Karl Barlow, now a 57 year old retired London fireman. And he was up for it. 

Gold Hill, Shaftesbury in Dorset – picture the scene: A group of tourists and cycling enthusiasts going about their business and being challenged to use pedal power to get to the top of the hill, when who should turn up and put on his cycling clips – the Hovis boy. Will he or won't he finally conquer one of the toughest commutes in the UK? 

The film and supporting content had a phenomenal effect, with 47 pieces of on and offline coverage, with 4 national daily papers giving the story full page features. Online we reached a readership of 1.6bn and estimate coverage views at 1.3m views. Coming in at 795%ROI the campaign generated at least £327k. 

Thank you Karl, Hovis, Sir RIdley and Evans Cycles for an idea “that’s as good today as it’s ever been!” 

Here's the case study, if you want to share how grown up and measurably more effective creative can make the difference: