Brad E. Bailey
A sponsorship is only worth what it sells.
The bottom line up front: Continental was the official tire of the Sturgis Buffalo Chip, at the biggest rally in motorcycling, with a new Harley-fit tire to sell and no big advertising budget. So the campaign was built with the Chip, a garage on site and a line of influencers, all of it online, all of it aimed at one job: moving tires.
The question: how do you sell tires to riders who do not think of you first?
01What we saw: a big rally, a new tire, a hard year
Continental was the official tire of the Sturgis Buffalo Chip, the campground that Rod "Woody" Woodruff founded and that sits at the center of the rally. Continental was not a big name in Harley-style motorcycle tires, though, and it had a new tire to change that: the ContiTour, built for Harleys, with a warranty and roadside assistance behind it.
The goal was plain. Offload tires. Ship trucks of them to the Chip, clear inventory, and get riders onto ContiTours.
Then came COVID. The 2020 rally still ran. But nobody knew that in advance. People were not sure they were allowed to come, so the first year meant explaining what the event even was, and doing much of the work remotely, without dealing with people in person.
02How we aligned: find the way with the Chip, then bring everyone else in
There was no budget for a big advertising campaign. The plan was to work with the Chip to find the way, and to use the people who already had riders' attention.
The Chip's own team was a partner from the start. Kris Sammons, on the Chip's side, supported the sponsorship. Cross-posting with the Buffalo Chip was a big part of the plan, so the campaign ran on the Chip's channels as well as Continental's.
Fozzy's Garage handled on-site tire changes, which put the tire in riders' hands at the rally.
Influencers ran across the whole line. Kelly Yazdi, who founded The Wild Gypsy Tour, the women's festival at the Chip, was a paid influencer for the campaign and did extra work on top of it, helping shape it. The Wild Gypsy Tour was one of the alliances behind the campaign. Robert Pandya was well known in the motorcycle market and later went to work for the Buffalo Chip. He worked on video support, shoots and the influencers. Continental could give product but could not buy ad support, so tire certificates did the work: social media giveaways where people took part, did a couple of tasks, reposted, and could redeem a certificate for free tires. The same certificates helped get influencers onto ContiTours in the first place.
03What we built: tires to the shop, customers to the shop
Everything ran online: online ads with geofencing around the rally area to reach riders, online video, live video, Instagram, Facebook and other social with influencers, and cross-posting with the Chip. The pieces had one job each. Get tires to the shop. Get customers to the shop. Sell tires.
The offer was simple: buy a ContiTour rear tire, the more valuable of the pair, and get the front one free. Tires shipped to the Chip, and supply went into stores in the market for the same deal. Photoshoots with Kelly Yazdi and others fed the campaign, and Kelly took over Continental's Instagram page live. Because of COVID the presence on the ground stayed very light, and the work was edited and cut together remotely, with the advertising merged into the video.
Three of the online ads:
04Watch
05Who made it possible
Daniel Solorzano, Continental The Americas, Sales and Marketing.
Madonna Conroy, Continental The Americas, Bicycle Tire Marketing.
Jeff Reid, Continental The Americas, Sales.
Lewis Hill, Continental The Americas, Sales.
Rod "Woody" Woodruff, founder and CEO of the Sturgis Buffalo Chip, and the Chip team.
Kris Sammons, of the Buffalo Chip, who supported the sponsorship.
Fozzy and Fozzy's Garage, who changed the tires on site.
Robert Pandya, who worked on video support, shoots and the influencers.
Sara Liberte, photographer.
Kelly Yazdi, influencer and founder of The Wild Gypsy Tour, who did photoshoots, took over Continental's Instagram live, and helped on the campaign beyond her influencer work.
