As a mature brand, Harley has been on a mission to build up its rider base and ensure a strong business pipeline for growth. The Canadian motorcycle community admired Harley’s iconic history, but they weren’t riding its bikes. Harley was seen as bikes for white men over 50. Agency Zulu Alpha Kilo needed to address this misperception to build brand consideration.

In 2016, the brand brought in younger riders with the launch of 1903, a Harley-Davidson Café. In 2017, Harley-Davidson sought to tackle the diversity issue. Diversity is a cornerstone for Canada, with the highest foreign-born population among the G8 countries and Canadians reporting 200+ ethnic origins. Harley’s 100th year in Canada presented a celebratory milestone that could showcase a brand and rider base as varied as our country.

Zulu alpha Kilo needed to create a carefully targeted and breakthrough program to drive exposure and provoke a more diverse rider mix to consider Harley-Davidson. Diversity highlights differences – in opinions, interests, values – and Harley-Davidson needed to unify its audience to succeed. The diversity of people and landscape in one of the world’s most multicultural nations made Canada an ideal platform. So, the agency sought to create the world’s first “foreign exchange for bikers.” The campaign could bring the world to Canada – and with a Harley and an open road, it could open minds.

The agency created a socially promoted 12-part documentary series, “Common Ground,” that was literally a foreign exchange of bikers. Harley riders were invited from New Zealand, Mexico and India to Canada, then they were paired with riders from Nova Scotia, Quebec and Alberta. A documentary crew followed them on a six-day journey across Canada, visiting communities, meeting people and taming diverse landscapes. Starting as strangers, they forged bonds through the common ground that connects them: riding. Every ride was promoted through short and long-form multi-format content, shared by the riders, Harley and even Harley’s vast dealer network, on their social platforms. Instream social videos along with canvasing, Instagram Story promotions and Wild Postings drove the social campaign’s awareness and conversational currency. Common Ground and its supporting content were housed on HDCommonGround.com, while CRM initiatives nurtured leads to retarget engaged audiences. Finally, dealers hosted viewing parties and shared pamphlets and other collateral, while spreading the word at a grassroots level to shoppers in-store and online.

Running from May to September, the campaign achieved more than 47MM total impressions, surpassing goals by 235%. “Common Ground” had more than 8.7MM views, surpassing goals by 218%, with over 415,000 engagements. The average watch time increased on YouTube from 53% to 63%. There was an increase in market share by 1.9% against Harley’s nearest competitor, despite an industry decline of 3.8%. The social campaign quickly gathered mainstream media interest, culminating in Discovery Canada showcasing “Common Ground” in a one-hour primetime TV special. Over 475,000 Canadians tuned into the weekend airing, exceeding live sports programming viewership like Toronto FC at 93,000 views on similar networks in 2017. Further to that, a live-synced Instagram Story of behind-the-scenes content had over 757,000 impressions, with a unique reach of over 576,000 viewers.