We sat down again with James Drew for Part 2 of our conversation series to talk about marketing, sponsorship and social media. James runs Bike The World, a distribution company here in Switzerland that represents mountain bike brands such as Chromag, Industry Nine, and, more recently, Title. He supports a wide array of riders here in Switzerland, ranging from slope style riders that can pull off the craziest tricks, to freeriders and all the way to racer types in a number of disciplines. What his riders have in common, though, is their love and passion for the bike and the ability to inspire others to get out and ride. Clearly, James has his own perspective on marketing, the promises and pitfalls of social media and what he looks for when selecting new riders for his roster.
This is part 2 of our conversation series and there are quite a few references to Episode 1, where we talk about what it means to run a business in the bike industry in 2021. Make sure you have a listen to that, too, so you are not missing out on any of our takes and thought experiments. We close out the conversation with Episode 3.
In part 2 of the conversation with James, we cover:
- What are the current trends in mountain bike marketing and the difference between “image based marketing” and “details based marketing”
- The power of e-commerce solutions in driving business in-store as well as online
- The promises and perils of social media; Should competitive athletes leave social media behind or quit racing and become a social presenter?
- How back flips make money and why you should keep posting cool pictures
- More cowbells! The opportunity for Swiss riders to up their Swiss game and also present the unique riding here in Switzerland
- We’re closing out the conversation with some dos and don’ts for up and coming riders that are looking for sponsorship and getting the support they need
Before we jumped into the main conversation, we picked up on some listener questions following Episode 1. Namely, a question around “green brand credentials” and what we are seeing in the market today (not enough, of course!) and a short exchange around the topic of the biggest developments in the bike industry in the last 5-10 years and what lies ahead.
Music credit: “B-Roll” Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com), Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License