marketing Articles
Why did KTM photoshop damage out of the 1190 Adventure photos?
Last week, a couple eagle-eyed readers spotted a big ol' dent in the KTM 1190 Adventure's exhaust. You can see that dent clearly in the image on the right. But the image on the left, downloaded from the company's press site this morning? Nothing of the sort. They're clearly the same shot though, so what gives? Here's another example. Again, the image on the right was downloaded during the bike...
Oct 09, 2012
Mad Men and Motorcycling
Oh how bubbles burst. We North Americans are used to the popping sound that accompanies the sudden destruction of a previously cherished truth. We understand the consequences of calling bullshit when we see it, like Bostonians did in 1776 when some perky English tax collector tried to justify his work; or when Coca-Cola finally admitted that New Coke was not the revolution it promised, despite wha...
Sep 07, 2012
Dailies
What bike ads look like when they have car production budgets
So some car company named Audi bought some bike company named Ducati. One spends $48 million a year in advertising in the US alone. The other has the kind of brand people want to attach themselves to. Oh, and there's some race called Pike's Peak in which hardly any companies take part in even a semi-official capacity. Combine the three and you get something called "production values," something ca...
Aug 10, 2012
Dailies
Hand painting a Royal Enfield fuel tank
Tiny Indian bike maker Royal Enfield continues to prove that it has a better handle on branding and image than virtually any other motorcycle manufacturer. Here, it details the hand pinstripping process applied to every Enfield fuel tank. Authenticity, craftsmen, passion and slick production. Even if the bikes are a bit crap, this, together with Handcrafted in Chennai, still kinda makes us want on...
Jun 16, 2011
Dailies
KTM quietly faces the ugly truth about bikes
KTM is utterly desperate for the youth market. So desperate, in fact, that KTM Nightlight Session is a two minute video that has almost nothing to do with the KTM 125 Duke that the video is supposed to be promoting. If it wasn't for the beginning credits, nobody would guess it's even a KTM project since all of the visible branding in the first half of the video is for pinkpark and Scott. Neither ...
Apr 19, 2011
How riding a scooter can help national security
Scooters are effeminate, a bit silly and just not serious transportation, right? Well, what if riding one could decrease the risk of future wars and save you money? It’s estimated that if just 10 percent of American car drivers shifted just 33 percent of their miles onto scooters by 2020, national gasoline consumption would be reduced by 3.9 billion gallons per year. That’s 198 million fewer b...
Apr 15, 2011
Handcrafted in Chennai will make you crave the hipster Harley
Hands down as emotively powerful as the epic Impossible Dream commercial for Honda by Weiden+Kennedy's London office, Royal Enfield's Indian-produced Handcrafted in Chennai is a visual masterpiece of storytelling in slow motion. Seriously, I got goosebumps watching this thing. Every scene is so perfectly framed that I had to edit down my shots for the gallery. If it sounds like I'm smitten, that's...
Mar 05, 2011
Dailies
The motorcycle market according to Ilya
You’ve never heard of Ilya Khait, but you’ve definitely heard of his products. Despite selling only something in the region of 550 sidecars and motorcycles in the US a year, Ural enjoys a media and cultural presence that’s the envy of companies many times larger. You know what a Ural sidecar is, you’ve read articles about them, you’ve watched YouTube videos of them performing incredible ...
Feb 01, 2011
Who’s buying the Diavel?
The Ducati Diavel is supposed to be something of a segment buster, giving Ducati access to people who can’t or won’t ride a sportsbike and giving cruiser riders a Ducati-badged alternative. Interested to see who, exactly, is placing orders for the 162bhp muscle bike, we asked Ducati North America to share demographic data gleaned from deposits so far. Ducati doesn’t have a formal system for...
Dec 02, 2010
Dailies
Bullshit: Harley’s young-adult market share and other damned lies
Back in July, Harley-Davidson released 2nd Quarter 2010 results that flaunted improved net revenue in an attempt to hide net income figures that were still massively lower year-on-year. In an apparent attempt at misdirection, The Motor Company also dropped a whammy of a claim: “Harley-Davidson is the U.S. market share leader of on-road motorcycles among young adults.” Could that be true? Well,...
Sep 10, 2010
Biker Book Review: Deus- The House of Simple Pleasures
Published in-house and limited to 2000, even the haters will begrudgingly admit that Deus' rather large 300 page coffee table book is beautiful if nothing else, before going on to dis it as an empty self-promotional marketing tool. That's okay because deep down, the haters, all of us, are just really really pissed off at the amount of great work those whacky Aussies, especially Mr. Tuckwell, are p...
Sep 07, 2010
Dailies
How to use 'spy' photos for viral marketing
Need to create buzz around an important new product prior to its release? Why not provide the media with "spy" photos that you've had taken along with carefully scripted information. Do so at regular intervals and you'll have magazines, forums, hell, everyone frothing at the mouth for more, more, more. Everyone's doing it, but here's Triumph's detailed plan. >The email below was sent out by...
Jul 14, 2010
Dailies
Harley Davidson Reactions, FTW
Before you get excited, no. No, you will not see anything near this smart in the United States, land of All three images are taken from the view-point of the rider on a random street, possibly at a stop light in some suburban setting. As you've noticed, there are two glaring omissions these print ads. The product is never shown, nor is there a single line of copy ...
Apr 02, 2010
Dailies
Ducati All Stars: D-list musicians are really desperate for free motorcycles
Scene: a generic cubicle farm in a generic office park in Cupertino. Fluorescent lights hum loudly, but "Hey now, you're a rockstar" can still be heard faintly in the background being piped through the office intercom. Two men in their mid-thirties wearing identical Men's Warehouse suits enter, one is suspiciously tan for the time of year. > Marketing flack #1: Whatsup broseph? Didn't see you lea...
Jan 07, 2010
Dailies
This might be the new Brammo logo
It's looking like this will, more or less, be Brammo's new logo.Frankly, we find the aggression of this steer's head disheartening and confusing. Is Brammo a university from Texas? Is Brammo an investment firm of brute, unthinking, uncompromising strength? Does Brammo sell organic, grass-fed beef?We hope not. We hope a company that designs and manufactures something as innovative as the Enertia ca...
Aug 13, 2009