"Without a strong ambassador, strategy is just a piece of paper."

Marketing Strategy created as part of the Danube Cycle Plans project defines, what is the key to the success of any strategy. It is the good involvement of key players.

A marketing strategy is part of every strategic plan. Its task is, among other things, to define how to address individual key stakeholders and how to involve them in the whole process.

"We wish all readers and fans of cycling to find inspiration in it in finding a way to their own goals and at the same time in fulfilling the pan-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion. We wish us all more people cycling in the Danube region," says Henriette Spyra from the Environment Agency Austria (Umweltbundesamt).

The conditions for cycling vary a lot between the countries across Europe. While in some countries most people perceive cycling as a tourism or sport, elsewhere in Europe they have settled as a common way of a daily commuting. Using this guide, each country can find its own unique way to reach and engage key players.

"The current pandemic has caused changes not only in our habits, but also in public opinions and attitudes towards the allocation of traffic space. It will not be possible to implement these changes without strategic plans in which key stakeholders will participate,“ says Jitka Vrtalova from Czech Association of Partnership for Urban Mobility, a co-author of the document who provided examples from CityChangers campaign.

Cycling only works as an integral part of an environmentally-friendly transport system which contributes to the EUSDR aim to improve inter-modality and the DTP aim to support environmentally-friendly and safe transport systems.

THE PEP pan-European Master Plan for Cycling Promotion, which was adopted on May 18, 2021, sets a number of objectives. A set of 11 main measures agreed by the representatives of THE PEP program, which was coordinated by WHO/Europe and UNECE (United National Economic Commission for Europe), includes, among other things, funding for the construction of safe infrastructure, fair distribution of space, adjustment of legislation or standards and more to fulfill them, however, key players at all levels - local, regional, national and transnational - are needed.

The Danube Cycle Plans project wants to help fulfill this plan and its strategic goals. The marketing strategy is an important tool which incorporates two major outputs: Stakeholder Inspiration Scheme Deliverable (D.T3.1.1) and the Guideline for the Identification of Danube Cycling Ambassadors (D.T3.2.1). These materials are incorporated into the main marketing strategy, which defines the promotion and capacity building using the ambassadors.

A set of tools such as National Cycling Working Groups, National Cycling Conferences, Stakeholder Inspiration Events and Mentoring System, will help partners set up original process, which always follows the creation and/or updating of the National Cycling Plan, its vision, strategic goals, but also with regard to the status quo in the country.

Danube cycling ambassadors help the project partners to raise awareness among the target groups. For each topic (strategy, hard measures, soft measures) there are Cycling Ambassadors on the local, regional and national level. The strategy will very much capitalize the experiences from existing campaigns addressing stakeholders rationally through education, as well as intuitively (with stories told by the Danube Cycling Ambassadors).