Livestrong Tour de France messages courtesy of Nike ChalkBot

Regular Tour de France viewers will be well accustomed to seeing messages of support painted onto the roads of France every July. Fans apparently get up at 3 and 4 in the morning to get their message to their guy on the key climbs - which this year will be the likes of Col du Tourmolet and Mont Ventoux. Its as much a part of the race as the yellow jersey, shaved legs and the inevitable drug related subterfuge


So what Nike have done as part of their support for Lance Armstrongs LIVESTRONG Foundations looks like a really clever piece of comms.


Via the Nike supported LIVESTRONG site you can leave a message of support for your loved one who has fought or is fighting cancer. I just discovered leaving a message for my cousin Rob, you get 30 characters - you can send via the site or SMS (in US only it seems) and then the real magic happens.



Somewhere in France is the ChalkBot - a machine designed by boffins at a place called DeepLocal. ChalkBot receives your message and then paints it large and real in yellow paint on the route of the tour. It also promises to let you know when its been done. Getting to see it I imagine will be a big ask, but the idea is beautiful.







And here's the link to the video of how it all works on You Tube
http://video.google.pl/videosearch?sourceid=navclient&rlz=1T4RNWN_enPL330PL330&q=chalkbot&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&hl=pl&tab=wv#

Appears to be a real good example of a brand, celebrity, not for profit organisation and the world of sport working very well together to raise awareness and cash.