automotive

Moto Guzzi Social Site Reaches New Riders

Moto-Guzzi

Piaggio's motorcycle brand Moto Guzzi USA is moving into high gear with marketing designed both to expand awareness to riders outside the brand's fan base, and also entice non-riders to swing a leg over the bikes with the café-racing heritage and unique 90-degree engine angle.

The 90-year old brand, which tends to be known for its heritage motorcycles hearkening back to racing, has launched a “Moto Guzzi Originals” microsite. Rather than being a bikes-and-specs product site, however, the platform is more of a social media engine and digital lifestyle hub.

It makes its point by featuring non-motorcycle "original" brands -- denim, jewelry, apparel, even tumblers -- intended to align with Moto Guzzi's own brand iconography around authenticity. The site, www.motoguzzioriginals.com, is also has a blog for the company's designers and engineers.

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"We are looking to emphasize authenticity in terms of parts and craftsmanship -- the fact that our motorcycles are designed and manufactured in Italy," says Melissa MacCaull, VP marketing, Piaggio Group Americas. 

A consumer content feature invites users to contribute and share their own “originals” content via Twitter @MotoGuzzi, a new Facebook app at www.facebook.com/MotoGuzziUSA or in a www.motoguzzioriginals.com photo gallery.

Contributing to the "Moto Guzzi Originals Dialogue” blog are Enrico Cantoni, one of original engineers of the Moto Guzzi engine of 1955, and V8 engine in the Otto Cilindri; and Miguel Galluzzi, director of Piaggio’s Advanced Design Center. The site is encouraging consumers to participate via a promotion offering a vintage leather Moto Guzzi riding jacket. And of course, there is a product lineup.

"We have been here in the States for many years," MacCaull says. "And since Moto Guzzi is over 90 years old, we have a loyal and strong fan base. But while in the past we have tended to focus on that group, last year we began to talk to new riders. And we have product we can do that with."

MacCaull tells Marketing Daily that the New York-based U.S. sales arm of Piaggio, which also markets Vespa, Aprilia and Piaggio brands in the U.S., is gunning to boost leads and brand awareness among 25- to 45-year-old riders. The company launched the V7 racer last year and a microsite V7Racer.com, to talk about it and she says the company got a much larger response than expected.-

"It told us that we are on to something; now we have adjusted the plan for 2012 to reach new riders," she says.

MacCaull says that the social media aspect of the brand is driven by a core group of very loyal fans.

"We are tapping those folks to reach new people, who have questions for people who have owned Moto Guzzi for years, and can provide historical context, " she says, adding that the new site puts a lot of focus on consumer content elements, where people can upload photos, advice, video, and other content.

The company launched the Facebook page in August, says MacCaull. A big part of that was going out to Moto Guzzi fan Billy Joel's garage in Oyster Bay, Long Island. She says the company is also doing traditional advertising in trade magazines, specific to the V7 line.

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