BikeBiz Bicycle and cycling retail news
Ever wondered about digital advertising to the bike buying customer? If so, it’ll no doubt have baffled you where to begin in a world where the figures banded about are often into the millions and zillions. Seven digit figures are impressive on the face of it, but think about it, that’s surely not one million affluent and ready-to-buy customers each viewing your advert on any given site?
Web savvy marketers from the biggest bike brands out there are seemingly beginning to recognise this fact and have made it clear that massive audience numbers, time-wasting clicks and general ad wastage is of little interest these days – it’s a targeted audience they’re interested in, reaching consumers at scale but in an efficient, simplified and managed way through technology with clear and concise data reporting to back up their ad spend decisions. This is premium advertising according to MediaDrive’s James Hamilton.
“It all started out in the golfing world for MediaDrive, where we represent the likes of the PGA Tour and Top 100 Golf Courses, among others. Cycling has similar demographics and with research suggesting that 20 per cent of golfers have taken to cycling in recent years we set out in late 2011 to help the industry’s brands and distributors simplify their digital advertising needs and make their ad budgets work harder and faster.”
MediaDrive is a specialist digital advertising company with a twist. Working exclusively with a premium publishing portfolio, the firm becomes campaign manager for any brand looking to trace that affluent cyclist. Using niche, but very techy software that’s not cheap to buy, MediaDrive monitors what is and isn’t performing in real time through a dedicated account management team. If something’s not up to scratch on one site, that ad can be swiftly moved onto a better performing media on the agency’s books – and without any changes to the pre-agreed budgets.
Those specialist sites currently on MediaDrive’s portfolio include: Rouleur.cc, Cyclosport, The Bike List, Cycle-Route, Velozone/Training Diaries, Bikmo and Cycling Buddy. There’s also scope to work with external media partners too, giving the brands unprecedented access to many of the mainstream cycling URLs.
“From an independent media owner’s point of view, in a sense our methods can be as effective as hiring another ad sales person. Our job at MediaDrive is to fill their ad inventory with targeted, highly relevant advertising, whilst delivering performance and scale for our brand partners, thus generating revenue for all parties – it’s quite a simple recipe really. The brand, meanwhile, also gains an extension of its own marketing team with a wholly digital focus and, if they need it, a designer too. “We’ve put together some cutting-edge ads, from multiple products in-banner to ads which carry video, social media markers and nearest dealer locaters.”
“We’re becoming increasingly relevant to cycling clubs too,” says Hamilton. “For example, Epsom cycling club display our brand ads and you can be sure that any given visitor to that site is a cyclist and probably a passionate one. We envisage club websites becoming an increasingly large part of our plans and we’d love to hear from many more.”
Though cycling club websites often don’t have much resource in the website management department, with a bit of MediaDrive managed advertising, the next batch of club jerseys could be paid for risk free, says Hamilton. “On the club front, brands are of course hitting far smaller numbers than on some mainstream press sites. The users are, however, guaranteed to be of a higher quality in terms of showing certain product for clients. This will bring the club revenue to be spent however they see fit.”
Interestingly, MediaDrive’s ad tech capabilities extend into geography too, with a recent advert promoting Giant York only appearing for those IP addresses within a 25 mile radius of the store across multiple targeted websites. “Our geo-targeting of consumers is pretty popular these days, and our attention to data and reporting even more so. We tend to schedule weekly reports so that marketing teams can see an overview of what’s happening each week, but these can be delivered as frequently as the client needs them. We’ll give both good and bad feedback so that a brand knows what is and isn’t working.
So, what does it cost? “That depends entirely on the campaign and the client’s marketing goals. But the brand usually sets their spend limit each month – we will make suggestions where needed.” says Hamilton. “But typically, our clients are seeing a cost per user of between £0.3p and £0.5p – which in layman’s terms means it costs 3, 4 or 5p to show a consumer their product or event. If that consumer then goes shopping for a £2k bike or attends a fundraising event, that’s money well spent on advertising.”
MediaDrive’s cycling director, James Hamilton, is contactable on 020 7118 0991.
If it’s trade-facing advertising you’re after, BikeBiz’s own Richard Setters is contactable on (+44) 1992 535647.
