Falling back to 'racing' as your source of content greatly divides your audience. Most middle age & beyond riders who can afford your excruciatingly high priced bikes or can make the time to participate in the multi stage events, don't race anymore and are looking to return to the "adventure" of cycling that got them interested in the sport to begin with.
I would be more inclined to follow the content of someone rolling out of their van, living the authentic dream of adventure and riding epic locations, than to follow someone's race bible to compete in a 300 mile gravel race... that's not real life or anything obtainable for 99% of consumers.
Give me real life brand ambassadors over curated corporate messaging any day. But if your brand doesn't have a voice, message or soul then you are stuck with NASCAR style marketing as your only option. Expect the big corporations to buy up the smaller brands that have an authentic voice in an attempt to subsidize their marketing content.
I hear ya! Although, I reckon many of the top ambassadors these days are also living lives that aren’t obtainable by 99% of us. Guess it all comes down to what sort of inspiration works for you.
We’ll take as many as we can get our hands on. It’s as much a management issue as it is a financial one. Perhaps even bigger than financial. Without proper management (and few organizations truly understand the work required to manage a program like this to produce expected results) it’s a waste of resources.
Yes, that’s a really good point. If it’s not managed well or executed with a clear purpose, an ambassador program often just makes more work for people in a brand’s marketing department.
Falling back to 'racing' as your source of content greatly divides your audience. Most middle age & beyond riders who can afford your excruciatingly high priced bikes or can make the time to participate in the multi stage events, don't race anymore and are looking to return to the "adventure" of cycling that got them interested in the sport to begin with.
I would be more inclined to follow the content of someone rolling out of their van, living the authentic dream of adventure and riding epic locations, than to follow someone's race bible to compete in a 300 mile gravel race... that's not real life or anything obtainable for 99% of consumers.
Give me real life brand ambassadors over curated corporate messaging any day. But if your brand doesn't have a voice, message or soul then you are stuck with NASCAR style marketing as your only option. Expect the big corporations to buy up the smaller brands that have an authentic voice in an attempt to subsidize their marketing content.
I hear ya! Although, I reckon many of the top ambassadors these days are also living lives that aren’t obtainable by 99% of us. Guess it all comes down to what sort of inspiration works for you.
We’ll take as many as we can get our hands on. It’s as much a management issue as it is a financial one. Perhaps even bigger than financial. Without proper management (and few organizations truly understand the work required to manage a program like this to produce expected results) it’s a waste of resources.
Yes, that’s a really good point. If it’s not managed well or executed with a clear purpose, an ambassador program often just makes more work for people in a brand’s marketing department.