Super Hero Customs
Harley-Davidson Australia and New Zealand
Issue 41 | December 2016
Agency
303 MullenLowe
Creative Team
Executive Creative Director Richard Morgan Art Director Nick Plomp Jeena Van Der Heul Senior Copywriter Joe Van Trump Digital Design Director Alex Beech
Production Team
Digital Producer Jacob Anderson Tech Lead Rob Shearing Front End Development Max Norton
Other Credits
Managing Partner, Business Lead Matt Clarke Managing Partner, Digital & Innovation Brad Morris Manager, Franchise Marketing, Marvel and Lucasfilm Ed Wright PR Director Melissa Grove Senior Business Manager Raoul Gundelach Business Manager Charmaine Katz Social Strategy Manager Chelsie Paulson
Date
August 2016
Background
For over 110 years, Harley-Davidson had championed freedom and individuality through the customisation of its motorcycles. Teaming up with Marvel was the perfect way of demonstrating how people could design bikes to suit their personality traits using Harley- Davidson customs. The collection brought Marvel characters to life in a way that fans hadn't seen before, and for Harley it connected the brand with Marvel's vast audience of super hero fans.
Idea
Dealerships around Australia and New Zealand were challenged to build and customise an H-D motorcycle, each to be uniquely designed to reflect the personality traits of their assigned Marvel Super Hero. There was a Captain America inspired Street Glide Special from the Touring range; a Thor inspired Breakout from the Softail family; and a Black Widow inspired Iron 883 from the Sportster family, to highlight just a few. This epic bike build-off between Australia's Harley-Davidson dealers was a world first for Harley and Marvel, and a celebration of both brands' individuality. Just like characters in the Marvel universe, no two customised Harley- Davidson motorcycles were the same – they had different powers, agilities and looks.
The competition was hosted at h-dmarvelcustoms.com
Harley-Davidson customised one of their bikes to celebrate the 75th anniversary of Captain America.
It was so cool, they decided they had to customise a few more – each celebrating a different Marvel hero or villain. Like the Black Widow here.
Results
This campaign was led by PR, digital and social channels, and received a phenomenal response with widespread coverage on Sunrise television, Gizmodo, Buzzfeed, GQ, Maxim, Washington Times, Yahoo, New Zealand Herald, to name just a few.
Our Thoughts
Sometimes we forget that the most effective brand communication is the product itself. Iconic is an overused word but in this case it fits the Harley brand. If you were to listen to the beating heart of America, it would have the thud of V-twin hog. Freedom, the never-ending ribbon of highway ahead of you, the romance of the west.
It's all there in the name. But I suspect the brand was ageing and that it still needs to connect with younger riders. This is a way of connecting them to Harley through the comic book heroes of their youth as well as letting them know they can make their own bike as individual as they are themselves.