Why is Royal Enfield banking on ‘Art of Motorcycling’ to reach out to younger audiences?

Puneet Sood, global head - apparel business, CX and breakthrough projects, Royal Enfield, shares that the brand plans to make this campaign a recurring concept and also expand it globally.

Motorcycle manufacturing company Royal Enfield (RE) has been around in India since 1955. The brand holds around 30% share in the mid-sized motorcycle segment in the country. 

Over 95% of consumers interested in buying a more premium bike, 251-500 cc, chose RE last year. The brand sold over five lakh bikes between April and December 2022. It grew by 50%, when compared to the same time period in 2021. 

To drive sales, the brand has now been focusing on the country’s younger demographic. This focus is reflected in the designs as well as the company's recent marketing initiatives. The brand released memorable TVCs like ‘Ye bullet meri jaan manzilon ka nishaan’, in the past. Its focus now is on the digital medium to reach out to its target group. 

The brand has amassed a decent following on its social media handles. It leverages Instagram to host and promote its recurring marketing initiative, ‘Art of Motorcycling’.

Under this campaign, the brand hosts an art competition for motorcycle enthusiasts. The campaign was initially launched in 2020 and its third season culminated recently. The art generated via the contest, is hosted by RE on its social media handles. 

Puneet Sood, global head - apparel business, CX and breakthrough projects, RE, tells afaqs! that the contest provides a creative platform for the motorcycling community, riding enthusiasts, design students and illustrators to showcase their ideas and experiences, on and off the saddle. 

“With a 3.5x jump in participation from the previous season, we’ve seen phenomenal enthusiasm towards the initiative. The fact that 70% of this season’s participation came from Tier-II/III cities and 90% of the entries were from outside of RE’s riding community, demonstrates the campaign’s success,” he adds.

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RE’s aim, with this campaign, is to further strengthen the brand messaging and allow aspiring riders and existing loyalists to express themselves.

“Our plan is to keep ‘Art of Motorcycling’ as a recurring event. In future, we’ll look at its global expansion, to enable budding talents to showcase their work,” says Sood.

In the third season, brand integrated ‘Art of Motorcycling’ with its ‘Art On Street’ initiative. ‘Art on Street’ saw the brand paint popular art districts of Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai, and even extended it to Tier-II cities. 

“The main highlight of the paintings this year was the augmented reality-powered murals that literally brought the artists' interpretation of the world of motorcycling, from road to life. Aside from engagement with a larger audience and awareness, the partnership also brings authenticity, when the community reflects on what it thinks about the brand and motorcycling,” states Sood.

‘‘Art On Street’’ contest received more than 54,000 entries from all over India, he adds. The brand is also focusing on promoting another initiative, ‘Make it Yours’. With this, consumers can choose to personalise and accessorise their motorcycles, at the time of purchase.

“With this initiative, customers now have a ‘little bit of them’ built into their motorcycling gear and apparel, which reflects their own style, enabling us to garner tenfold interest outside of our riding community,” Sood shares.