MediaPost Publications Schwinn Pops Kickstand On $5 Million Campaign 04/16/2010

• MediaPost Publications Schwinn Pops Kickstand On $5 Million Campaign 04/16/2010

  My first bike was a Schwinn. So were my second and third bikes. I still have the third one - my first real adult bike. It's forest green with a white basket and a sumo wrestler bell. I grew up on Schwinn and remember spending hours riding through my neighborhood with a group of kids. My Schwinn went with me to college, and has stayed through all the transitions of my life. With this new campaign, Schwinn has recaptured its inherent drama  and an opportunity to reconnect with those who still love the brand. 

  tags: advertising, campaign, media, creative, example, case, Schwinn, MediaPost

  • Once upon a time, Schwinn pretty much owned the American bicycle market and, with models like Varsity, Continental, and of course, the Paramount, defined American-made bicycling dominance. But that was back when a carbon frame was something you made with a pencil, and brands like Trek, Specialized, Cannondale and Giant had not climbed onto retail bike racks.
  • Schwinn is hoping to get its brand mojo in high gear with a new campaign aimed squarely at a vast consumer base of recreational riders:
  • The $5 million-plus marketing push -- Schwinn's largest in at least a decade -- includes TV, print, Internet banners, a new Web site (RideSchwinn.com), social media, and a major retail rethink for Schwinn's big-box and independent bike shop retailers, based on the idea that a forest of bicycles on store racks does not a brand make.
  • Creative, via Cossette New York, carries a whimsical, nostalgic message about how Schwinn bikes are a way to step out of the rat race, slow down and smell the bitumen.
  • The print and TV ads hearken back to Schwinn's heyday, when kids played in the real -- instead of virtual -- world, and bikes could double as Abrams tanks, except for the little handlebar bell, which, in fact, is the central image in the campaign.
  • Andy Coccari, CMO of Dorel's Cycling Sports Group division, tells Marketing Daily that the ad push is focused on women 25 to 54 because, "while purchase decision and ability to really connect with family aren't feelings exclusive to women, women are the chief purchasing officer of the family."
  • Ads will appear in pubs like Family Fun, Parenting, Shape and Working Mother. The TV spot, starting this week, runs for the rest of the year on national cable TV. Digital strategies include display, search and social media.
  • In the TV spot a young woman rides her Schwinn down a street. When she passes a young boy in his yard, glued to his DS game, she rings her bell. Magically, the video game is gone and he's playing on a tire swing. Then, on a city street, she passes a man yelling into his cell phone.
  • He says dealers will get point-of-sale materials and local market support, and subsidized co-op advertising.
  • Schwinn competes most directly with brands like Electra, Jamis, and Globe, per Coccari. "It's a saturated segment of the bicycle market, but Schwinn is number one, with 85% awareness in the U.S.," he says.

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