Challenges & Objectives
Wattbike is considered a niche cycling product in a growing market of indoor exercise bikes, at present it is preferred by rugby clubs and serious amateur cyclists. They wish to broaden their appeal with ITV.
An increase in advertising by apps that Wattbike support (e.g Zwift) are helping to grow this category putting Wattbike in a great position. In addition Covid has brought home fitness equipment to the fore, and capitalising on this has driven a significant overall increase in sales across this category.
The goal of the ITV campaign was to increase brand awareness, consideration and ultimately sales as part of a wider media plan, reaching Wattbike’s core customers ‘keen cyclists’. These are cyclists that get up at 5am at weekends to go cycling with mates and are most likely to be in market for a winter indoor training product.
Ideas & Implementation
ITV was the perfect partner for Wattbike due to the sheer volume of content on offer, including the Tour De France, La Vuelta, & highly engaged cyclist audience. This content would be hugely appealing to the target audience and by buying airtime and VOD across ITV’s platforms, Wattbike were able to target a highly motivated, affluent and keen group of cyclists.
Airtime was slotted into the last 50 km of each stage live on ITV4, with a 30” spot in the first centre break of the 7pm nightly highlights show.
ITV Hub delivered impressions when a user requested a piece of cycling content during the Tour De France, La Vuelta or 90 days after these races finished. This was crucial as it took the influence of Wattbike advertising into the winter months when typically the brand sees a spike in sales, as cyclists make the transition to train indoors.
Results
Targeting Strategy
Brand Target
To target ITV cycling viewers who are not currently customers of Wattbike. Influence their decision to consider Wattbike as a winter training bike.
ITV Trading Audience Bought
ITV4 Men 16-34
ITV Hub 22 - 55 year old adults who have previously watched a piece of ITV cycling content. In addition to any user who requested ITV cycling content during August - December 2020.
32% Prompted brand awareness step changed from 24% to 32% during the course of the campaign.
+24% Website traffic spiked +13% August, +22% September, +24% October and +22% November v 2019 traffic.
+11% Sales increased across all months on air, +6% August, +4% September, +11% October +3% November and +6% December v 2019.
When we approached WattBike for an initial meeting, we couldn't think of a better product to fit with ITV’s cycling coverage. The time of year the two Grand tours took place, delayed by COVID were in September & October, was perfect timing for WattBikes Autumn consideration season. The creative was a superb fit for our cycling fans. Thanks to the whole WattBike team for their work and collaboration.Jeremy Long, ITV Commercial Trading Controller
ITV offered WattBike a great opportunity to reach its core target audience through ITV4’s fantastic cycling coverage. Although, due to covid, both the Tour De France & La Vuelta a Espana were not at their usual point in the cycling season, the fact they both still took place provided a welcome outlet for cycling fans. The team at ITV were fantastic in getting us set up, and worked with us along the way to ensure we got the coverage we needed in both prestigious events, despite the schedule having to move from original plan. Thank you ITV.Simon Jarratt, WattBike Global Media Manager
