A mountain bike component company enlisted my help to launch a new product and gain market share in a crowded category.

Business Situation

Many new competitors had entered the category since their only product had been introduced nearly a decade prior. Market share had slipped to 7th place, and the brand was no longer considered relevant. The brand wanted to launch a new product to compete in the market, but they were struggling for unique positioning, attention, and credibility.

Approach

We began by working directly with the product team on the new product design. Through market research, we determined the qualities and specifications that would bring the product inline with top competitors in the market. We then worked with the product team to come up with an innovative product strategy that would give the product a unique selling proposition.

We knew that the brand lacked credibility as a new entrant to the market, so we partnered with the most influential athlete in the market, and directed a content marketing campaign to drive awareness.

Strategy

Sports Marketing

We partnered with a YouTube sensation to endorse the new product, including special signature pro-models. Though the athlete was outside of the traditional mountain bike disciplines, he had racked up hundreds of millions of views, gained respect and admiration of mountain bikers of all ages and backgrounds, and had even transcended the cycling industry to become something of pop culture icon.

Content Marketing

We enlisted the athlete in creating videos performing his hugely popular stunts to bring attention to the product. For one such video, we came up with the concept of him competing against himself on two different types of bikes, helping to highlight the unique selling proposition of the product. The video was a smash hit, amassing over 1,000,000 organic views. All together the content marketing campaign drove millions of impressions for the new product, while buoying brand awareness and credibility.

Public Relations

We launched a PR campaign highlighting the unique selling proposition and connection with the athlete, driving positive coverage. We developed tight relationships with the most influential editors worldwide and enlisted them to prove the benefits of the design through real world, long term, independent testing.

Crowdsourcing + Social Media

We engaged social media fans in a contest to choose the design of the athlete’s upcoming pro-model. We were able to drive excitement and awareness around the upcoming product, as well as build a substantial email database of tens of thousands of potential consumers that would be interested in the product when it launched.

Results

The unique selling proposition, influencer partnership, and content marketing strategy provided immense attention and credibility to the brand in this new category. In a short time they rocketed from 7th to 2nd place in market share. Today they are considered one of the leading brands the market.