The Facebook Marketing strategy devised by IAKI for Harley Davidson Italy adds a piece to the social media marketing project. After the official page of the Italian brand and two Facebook advertising flights, an application dedicated to the line “Dark Custom” is going online these days.
We have gone deeper into the design elements achieved so far with Nicoletta Caluzzi, IAKI President.
What’re Harley-Davidson Italy’s objectives for entering Facebook Marketing arena?
First, the creation of an Italian official space, a Facebook landmark for the thousands of fans, Harley-Davidson owners and not yet owners. And second, the ability to activate on that platform, from time to time, spaces and tactical operations dedicated to product lines, events, etc..
What’re the implementation you devised to meet those Facebook Marketing needs?
We have designed a customer engagement container, creating the official brand page four months ago, supported by a social advertising campaign, in CPC, which immediately met a positive response from the public. Since the beginning, we have also included a section on Dark Custom, the new Harley-Davidson range, designed to young target potentially attracted to competitors’ naked models: a showcase of great impact to know the range and share the content . Finally we have created an Events space for the brand’s territorial activities, focusing on product experience.
What events have you promoted?
The first initiative was in Spring Break 2011, a ten-day event dedicated to the dealers to give free access and test the Harley-Davidson models. In these ten days of opening, including Sundays, every dealer has organized various events that have been collected in a single calendar on the Harley-Davidson website, also accessible from the official Facebook page. A sort of “open dealers”, which involved all retailers in the country for 10 days. In addition to a dedicated section, we have created also a Facebook advertising campaign geo-demographiccally enhanced, which in addition to increasing the fan base, proved to be an excellent example of integration between local events and social media marketing.
You are going online with a new Facebook app, can you describe it?
The app is called “Dark Custom Miles” and aims to create awareness and customer engagement on the new Harley-Davidson Dark Custom model. The game mechanism is simple: you choose a Dark Custom model and create a team inviting friends to share the journey. The more friends accept, the more miles your bike rides, the more you move up in the overall ranking. It is thus a Facebook app that leverages social experience in motorcycles group driving.
How did you get to this concept?
We tried to build a brand experience that was on the one hand in the heart of the positioning of Harley (the journey, the road, the adventure) and the other perfectly within the Facebook social mechanisms (sharing the experience with friends) As always, we try to ensure the operations of both viral and social media marketing effectiveness that a maximum level of brand identity. What we managed to get through the strategies of Facebook marketing and Twitter marketing, was the creation of a brand community that revolved around the shared passion for Harley-Davidson. What we have created is storytelling, we did talk about the brand, his soul, his DNA, his heart, and in this way we generated noise spontaneously.