Bike Athens Case Study Talking Dog
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Meet The Riders The Team - 4
Behind the Handlebars Background - 6
Learning to Ride
Executive Summary - 8
Road Conditions
Situation Analysis - 10
New Gears Strategy - 16
Fresh Coat of Paint
Creative Execution - 22
Miles Markers Results - 52
Crossing the Finish Line Recommendations - 54
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Meet the Riders
Rachel Sevick
Account Executive
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Macy Sullivan Project Manager
Brittany Bruck Art Director
Hannah Grider Copywriter
Audrey Traynor Digital Specialist
Riley Campbell Photographer
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Behind the Handlebars Background 6
Bike Athens is an inspiring nonprofit dedicated to providing accessible transportation to the residents of Athens, Georgia. In addition to donating upcycled bikes to those in need, the organization advocates for better public transportation options and educates the community through their bike and safety classes. Above all, Bike Athens strives to build a community of joy, love, and support through service and shared knowledge. Bike Athens is all about being human powered and creating human empowerment. 7
Learning to Ride Executive Summary 8
The Challenge Bike Athens is making an incredible impact on the Athens community through service, advocacy and education. We make roads safer, improve the community’s transit system, and continue to repair and provide quality bikes to those in need. Our challenge is spreading awareness of Bike Athens and the postive effects our organization has on the community to our target audiences and the Athens community as a whole.
The Strategy In order to raise brand awareness, our strategy focuses on increasing Bike Athens’s media presence across all platforms. We want to not only increase our presence on social media but also in our local newspapers, magazines, and radio stations. For all of this to work, we have to create a cohesive brand with a strong tone and purpose. Once we have everyone’s attention, we want to create promotional products, hold fundraising events, form strategic partnerships, and come up with some great guerilla marketing ideas that will engage our audience and encourage them to help Bike Athens through donations and volunteer work.
The Results Not only were we able to increase brand awareness, but our engagement with consumers in the Athens community skyrocketed! We reached both of our target markets and created a brand that was noticeable, impactful, and strong. Engagement on Instagram rose by 213%, while we saw an even larger increase on Facebook by 633%. We believe that its only uphill from here! As Bike Athens continues to create long lasting relationships and build strategic partnerships, the brand will remain relevant and engagement will remain strong.
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Road Conditions Situation Analysis 10
S.W.O.T. Analysis Strengths Defined mission Good location in the downtown Athens area Strong core values Distinctive tone Established business structure: classes, donations, repair events
Weaknesses Small presence across social media platforms Website is confusing and hard to navigate Tone and branding are inconsistent Lack of brand awareness in the Athens community
Opportunities Fundraising events Creating a cohesive brand Partnerships with local Athens-area businesses to reach more clients and volunteers Strengthen social media presence
Threats Competition for limited amount of funds and volunteers Multitude of nonprofits with higher brand awareness and community engagement Disdain toward bikers
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Our Competitors Our competitors include nonprofit organizations specific to the Athens area, as well as nonprofits that are working on a national and even global level. While we would like people to be involved with as many of these organizations as possible, we want Bike Athens to be top of mind when consumers are deciding where to donate their time and resources.
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The Challenge Our main challenge is increasing awareness for the Bike Athens brand and the services the organization provides. Bike Athens does a lot to create a lasting impact on the Athens community, but the majority of Athens’ residents are unaware this amazing nonprofit exists! Both of our target audiences, the riders and providers, need to be reached. Finding media outlets and messages that resonate with both can be difficult, but we are up for the challenge. Presence in both traditional and nontraditional media are lacking, and consumer engagement is low. This is largely due to the organization’s lack of strong consistent branding. Bike Athens’s doesn’t have an established tone, and therefore doesn’t effectively communicate with either of the target audiences. We must take advantage of both social media and local media channels to effectively, consistently, and immediately reach Athenians with our message. 13
Insights
Why do people ride bikes rather that using another form of transportation?
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Are you aware some Athens’ citizens do not have transportation to get to work?
How do you feel when you see bikers riding on the road?
Are you aware of Bike Athens?
We gained insights on the public’s perception of bike-riders, their knowledge of transit issues, and their level of awareness of Bike Athens. Through our survey, we made some surprising discoveries. We found that 21% of respondents were aware that biking was the only means of transportation for many Athens’ residents. Nearly a third of all respondents were unaware that some citizens in Athens had zero means of transportation to and from work. Additionally we uncovered that 88% of the community was completely unaware of Bike Athens. We learned a lot about our target audiences too! Our riders, those who need a bike, have no other mode of transportation. Most of those who receive bikes from Bike Athens are referred to our organization by other
nonprofits. These riders usually ride early in the morning or late at night. Our providers, those who donate their time and money, are typically older white males whose donations are sporadic and hard to predict. They tend to hear about Bike Athens through their churches. All in all, we discovered Bike Athens is a vital part of the Athens community, giving people transportation when they have no other way to commute. However, not enough people are aware of Bike Athens. Our insights give us a better understanding of how to effectively increase brand awareness, raise monetary donations, assist in addressing transit issues in the Athens area, and ultimately create a positive attitude towards riders. 15
New Gears Strategy 16
The Strategy To get the word out about Bike Athens, our strategy focuses on increasing Bike Athens’s media presence on social media platforms as well as in local media outlets. We wanted to take advantage of the multitude of local newspapers, magazines, and radio stations. To do this, we had to create a cohesive brand with a strong tone and purpose. Our scrappy, humble, and resourceful feel made its way into our press releases, radio spots, and ultimately tied together our Instagram and Facebook accounts. We then created content, took new photos, and created new merchandise to continue the rebrand. Once Athens was paying attention, we wanted to hold fundraising events, form strategic partnerships, and create great guerilla marketing ideas. A holiday campaign, Ben & Jerry’s percentage night, and a “Bikes for Beer” fundraising event, are just a few of the ideas we cultivated and executed. These will engage our audience and encourage them to help Bike Athens through donations and volunteer work. 17
Creative Brief Key Fact
Bike Athens is a nonprofit organization located in Athens, Georgia and dedicated to supplying and repairing bikes for those in need.
Problem
The people in need of accessible transportation, riders, and those who have the ability to donate, providers, do not know about the many services Bike Athens offers.
Objective
Spread awareness of Bike Athens by increasing social media presence to increase community awareness by 20%. Raise awareness of transportation issues in the city of Athens by 25%. Increase positive attitudes toward riders.
Creative Brief Target
Promise
Insight
Support
Riders: People in need of accessible transportation. Mostly men between the ages of 30-45. Providers: People who have the ability to volunteer their time and give monetary donations or used bikes to Bike Athens. Men and Women between the ages of 18-55.
Riders get referred to Bike Athens by other nonprofits located in and around the Athens area. They typically bike late at night and/or early in the morning. They have no other forms of transportation. Providers: They often come from churches and are typically older white men. Their donations are very sporadic and hard to predict.
Riders: Receiving a bike from Bike Athens will solve your transportation problems by providing you with a way to get to and from work and complete other daily tasks. Providers: Donating to Bike Athens allows you to make a positive impact on the life of each rider and on the community as a whole.
Riders: People come in daily to either receive a new bike or get their bikes repaired, both of which enables them to get to and from work. Providers: Last year, over 70 bikes were donated allowing more than 70 people to receive a safe and accessible form of transportation.
Mandatories
Keeping Bike Athens’ logo due to trademark. The identity of many of the riders must be kept confidential. 18
“It helps me a lot man. A real, real lot.” Jacob BRP bike donation client
“I don’t know how much more I can thank you, you’ve done so much for me, God bless.” Robbie Walk-in repair client
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Target Riders “Y’all have been fantastic. You gave me a bike four years ago and replaced it when I needed a new one. I need my knees replaced, so every step I don’t have to walk is less pain for me. Bobby Military Veteran, BRP Bike Donation Client
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Steven is age 38 and is working and living in Athens, Georgia. Steven typically takes the bus to and from the plant at which he works. The bus, however, is not convenient for Steven as the nearest stop is not close to his house. When Steven isn’t working, he loves spending time with his wife and 2 girls. He also likes watching and playing sports. Steven often visits the local recreation center to play in a basketball league with his friends and keeps connected with everyone on social media sites like Facebook.
Audiences
Providers Tom is a 30 year old man living in Watkinsville, Georgia. Tom drives a short commute to Athens, Georgia where he works as a Biology professor at the UGA. Tom loves exploring the city in his spare time and often dines at the restaurants in the downtown Athens area. Tom wants to stay active, so he spends a lot of time outdoors either swimming, hiking, or adventuring with his wife and 14 year old son. On Sundays, the three attend the morning service at a local Baptist church. Tom is very active on Instagram and Facebook and looks to these platforms when making decisions on where to eat, shop, and visit. 21
Fresh Coat of Paint Creative Executions
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Phase 1: BYOB Build Your Own Bike
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Bike Athens
Brand Basics
Human Powered. Human Empowerment.
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Tire Tread #1B1B1B
Sky #007BB7
Headline Magra Bold Body Magra Regular
Accent Motor-Stencil
Rust #910815
Brand Voice
SCRAPPY + Positivity
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Merchandise
gear/shirts
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For the rebrand of Bike Athens, we wanted to create a coherent tone across all media. The Bike Athens vibe is scrappy, resourceful, and genuine. We wanted the tone of the photos to correlate with our overarching direction of the rebrand. We chose more neutral, earth-tone color palettes to create a raw but approachable space. We chose close ups that got to the heart of the shop and the physical work that the volunteers put into fixing up the bikes for clients. 28
Photography
We made an effort to capture the relaxed, meaningful space that is FYOB - Fix Your Own Bike - Night. We primarily stuck to warm-tone photos and a few contrasted black and whites for social media purposes.
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Website Redesign Bike Athens’ previous website was overwhelming, disorganized, and outdated. This redesign creates a website with a more simple feel that is easier to navigate. It is consistent with Bike Athens’ new tone and cohesive with our rebranding. Website users will immediately understand Bike Athens’ values, and they will have a great experience learning about the nonprofit and how to get involved.
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Store Makeover We painted a new sign for the Bike Athens shop that is fun and exciting. It shows the people at Bike Athens have a big heart, their own sense of style, and humor. We hope this sign will catch people’s attention as they pass the shop on W. Broad Street, so more people will become aware of Bike Athens.
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phase 2 getting on the road
Phase 2: Getting On The Road
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pic
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Campaign Our campaign is centered around the idea of giving back to your community. The goal of it is to show the providers in Athens what Bike Athens is all about, to let them explore the services we offer, and ultimately to inspire the providers to donate.
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Social Media Before Before Talking Dog and Bike Athens paired up to create a dream team, the organization was doing a great job showing their resourcefulness and sense of humor online. However, the tonality and visual elements were inconsistent and confusing. Bike Athens’s wasn’t using all of the tools at their disposal, and their presences on social media was lacking. This gave us a lot of room to get creative and make content that would have a lasting impact on our target audience. 38
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New Social Media Vibes Our desire for Bike Athens was to create innovative content that effectively communicated the organization’s mission. We want to keep followers updated with news and events, while encouraging them to engage with the brand. Our presence had to be stronger and our tone more cohesive. We noticed that posts that told compelling stories were the ones with the most
consumer interactions, so we encouraged Bike Athens to allow us to do more of these types of posts. We used eye catching graphics and photography to create content for weekly events and promotions. By utilizing features like Instagram stories and Facebook event posts, we were able to generate awareness and increase attendance to longstanding events like “Fix Your Own Bike Night.�
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Social Media Graphics 40
FYOB Night
Joy Ride
Two long standing events that got some much needed attention were “Fix your own Bike Night” and “Joy Rides”. Every Thursday night Bike Athens hosts FYOB, where clients and new customers learn how to fix their own bikes. Pretty cool, right?! We created many FYOB social posts, including videos and GIFs, which helped raise awareness and engage our audience.
The second big event is “Joy Rides”. To engage with more riders in the community, Bike Athens hosts joy rides, where people come together for a ride and a good time with friends. We wanted to raise awareness for this event, so we created this banner to use as a template for any future joy ride posts. The bold colors and large font catch attention and make a strong visual impact.
Press Release FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE NOVEMBER 1, 2017
Published in Flagpole
Grant Awarded to Local Nonprofit (Athens) The BikeAthens Board of Directors announced that they have received a grant from the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety in the amount of $45,811.
“We are very thankful to receive this grant from GOHS to better serve the Athens Community,” Tyler Dewey, Executive Director of BikeAthens says. “BikeAthens has a lot in store for the new year.” In the new year, BikeAthens hopes to provide proper helmet use education to over 100 low-income children and adults. Local families are identified with the help of social service agencies. Because BikeAthens wants to help the community as much as possible, they will be offering ten adult bike education classes and eight classes for children. All classes will be open to the public. “A saying we like at BikeAthens is ‘Human Powered, Human Empowerment,” Dewey says. “We are an organization almost completely run by volunteers who want to help the less fortunate in our community, and that speaks to the people that volunteer and donate to Bike Athens; they give what they can to help others.” For more information on the grant program, contact 404-656-6996. For more information on GOHS and highway safety procedures, visit gahighwaysafety.org.
Public Relations
BikeAthens is a local nonprofit organization that promotes walking, biking and public transit to solve transportation needs.
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geurilla bike path sponsored
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Guerilla Marketing:
Sponsor Rides on Bike Path Bike Athens is taking over the new bike & walking path that was just built in Athens off the Oconee exit. This will help increase brand awareness, inform people about the services we provide, and push the need for monetary donations and volunteers.
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Guerilla Marketing: Stationary Bikes
To spread awareness and make a lasting impact on our audience, we have placed bikes around the Athens area with the Bike Athens logo. Some can be found in parks, highly trafficked greenery areas, or in the downtown district. Stationary bikes at local gyms will also have the Bike Athens logo, along with a description of the daily trip our riders must take to and from work. Gym goers will then get to experience first-hand the distance our riders must travel, by going for a ride on the stationary bikes themselves. These marketing techniques will be memorable, spark interest, and ultimately lead people to learn more about Bike Athens.
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Fundraising Events
Percentage Night with Ben & Jerry’s
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Bike Athens partnered with the Ben & Jerry’s in downtown Athens for a percentage night. We created these social graphics in order to promote the event ahead of time and increase turnout. We had a lot of fun, spread the word about Bike Athens, and raised money!
Bikes for Beer Joy Ride to Southern Brewing Bike Athens is partnering with Southern Brewing on April 14th. At 2:30 PM, we will all go for a joy ride from Bike Athens to the brewery where everyone will gather as a community. There will be games, contests, and raffle prizes. This event will serve as a fundraiser and is great for increasing awareness for Bike Athens. To promote the event, we created a couple of GIFs and graphics to post on social media. The Bike Athens koozie and shirt will also be for sale at the event.
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native
Native Ad As a native advertisement, we created a Buzzfeed personality quiz titled “What Kind of Rider Are You?” This will spark our viewers curiosity about Bike Athens as well as help our audience realize how they fit into the bike community. As Athenians take the quiz, they will learn about Bike Athens and be encouraged to get involved.
What Kind of Rider Are You?
You got: The Speedster
You are a thrill seeking adventurist. You hit the road and leave your friends in the dust. You may want to take a break from your fast paced lifestyle and join Bike Athens for a joy ride. And in case your bike can’t keep up with you, you can stop by Fix your own Bike Night for some help!
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Social User Experience To create a unique social experience, we decided to utilize Snapchat geotags in designated locations in Athens. These geotags will be placed in locations that create a path that many “riders” would normally take in their day-to-day rides. Users that bike along the path and post pictures at every location will receive a free T-shirt from Bike Athens. However, the ultimate goal is for participants to realize what “riders” face daily and, as a result, become supporters of bike lanes and bike donations.
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promotional- what why how using
native
Promotional Video This video is meant to spread brand awareness for Bike Athens and also the feeling of community throughout Athens. It is all about how Bike Athens is making a difference and shows anyone can havea positive impact on the community by doing a good deed a day and helping someone who needs it.
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Strategic Partnerships
Breweries
Plants
Joy Rides + Fundraisers
Caterpillar + Chicken
For Events
For Bike Donation Clients
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Mile Markers Results
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Followers: 34% increase from 850- 1,135 people Average Likes: 213% increase from 32- 90 likes
Page Likes: 5% increase from 1,745- 1,835 likes Post Likes: 633% increase from 3-22
Followers: 1.7% increase from 2,145- 2,183 Likes: 18.6% increase from 1,219-1,446 likes
Website
Users: 20% increase from 315- 377 people Sessions: 47% increase from 397-583 Bounce rate: 11% decrease from 60.2-49.06 Duration: 1.5 min to 5.5 min 53
Crossing the Finish Line Conclusions & Future Recommendations
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Bike Athens can create and edit graphics for social media.
Content
We are drafting content for posts, so Bike Athens has fresh ideas they can go to whenever they need.
Photo Direction
We are strategizing images for Bike Athens to use that will consistently portray our rebranded tone: scrappy and genuine. These photos can be planned for social media and the website.
Plant Pact Coordination
We are setting up strategic partnerships with the Caterpillar and Chicken Plants. Bike Athens can work with these plants to reach out to more clients in need of bike donations as well as reach out to the plants for donations.
Analytics Tools
We will provide tools for Bike Athens to track their social media and wesbite metrics: Hotsuite.
Web Redesign
We have recommendations to make the Bike Athens website simpler, easier to navigate, and aesthetically pleasing.
Partnerships
We recommend creating partnerships with local businesses, city government for fundraising, awareness and political influence.
Fundraising Calendar
We have created a fundraising calendar to help keep a constant flow of money for Bike Athens. It is full of ideas for fundraisers and locations that will positively influence Bike Athens.
Future Recommendations
Canva
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Conclusion
Bike Athens is now helping more people through donations, advocacy, and education.
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e v o L e s W n e h t A e k i B 57
back logo
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