On The Pegs June 2020 - Volume 5 - Issue 6 | Page 153

On The Pegs VOL. 4 ISSUE 7 - July 2020 153 Doing the business “I see G2F as a unique full-service agency,” says Jake. “We do PR, design, web and mobile phone apps, rider management and a big thing for us is event management. We can run an event from the ground up or provide services to existing events as we did at Matterley Basin with the early MXGPs – the commercial aspects, selling trade space and programmes – and the Motocross of Nations down there in 2006. “So we have supported other events with services in terms of bringing value and sponsorship in right through to running events of our own starting back in 2002 with the Red Bull Moonwalker Trial in Manchester. We have gone on to do three other Red Bull City Trials, plus Red Bull Breakers in the scrapyard in Rotherham and something as diverse as the wheelie project. Obviously, Dougie held the handlebars and did the hard bit, but every other aspect of that was us. Getting all the permissions, bringing the team together, making the plan – that’s what we do. “My phone is on twenty-four-hours-a-day, seven-days-a-week and those clients we work for – be it the FIM, Dougie or whoever – know that we will always deal with a situation whatever time of day it is, wherever it is in the World. It doesn’t say that in our contract, but because of the relationships we have we will always do that. “Sometimes I have to call upon staff out of hours because something has happened. Everyone has to be part of that team process.” Loyalty One of G2F’s biggest clients is the Federation Internationale de Motocyclisme. Known universally as the FIM, it is the global governing body for motorcycle sport and G2F is involved in many aspects of its operations. “My introduction to the FIM came through Dougie,” says Jake. “We were travelling to the Trial World Championship and I was one of the few people there doing communications and journalism. Ignacio Verneda – who was then the head of the FIM Trials Commission and went on to become the CEO of the FIM – identified that we were there and doing a job. “It was a time when the FIM had a brief to start communicating more and Ignacio approached me back in 2004. Dougie opened the door and then clients like Red Bull and Honda have all come from the relationship with Dougie. “It’s definitely been a mutually beneficial relationship – Dougie invested in his career with us. Here we are in 2020 and it is seventeen years since he last won