Goals: Clearly state your marketing goals. What did you strive to achieve using this piece or program?
Sturgis is the world’s largest motorcycle rally and an iconic part of motorcycle culture. It’s what Harley-Davidson calls, “a biker’s equivalent to the Grand Canyon.” Every August the ten-day festival brings stunt shows, charity rides, concerts, competitions, exhibits, and more to the Black Hills of South Dakota, known for its natural beauty, national and state parks, and historical landmarks such as Mount Rushmore.
If you ask the rally’s host, Sturgis Buffalo Chip, it’s “The Best Party Anywhere.” South Dakota’s oldest resident at 108, Hazel Baumberger, said the Rally is a place where people “can’t help but be happy,” with staying power to reach its 100th anniversary. To organizers, the Sturgis is an experience open to all. Others hear “Sturgis” and conjure up a stereotypical vision of older, rougher, tougher men clad in leather, and think: not for me.
Today’s Sturgis Rally is dynamic, diverse, and a catalyst for positive impact with charity and economic benefits and transformative travel experiences rooted in nature, community, tradition and celebration. Travel South Dakota sought to educate consumers about Sturgis culture, building upon its legacy while appealing to new visitors as Sturgis enters its next era and 85th anniversary in 2025. Goals included:
Partner with diverse voices indigital, social, print and broadcast to invite new audiences in, specifically women and Gen Y/Z visitors, and shift misperceptions of who “can” and “can’t” attend.
Broaden appeal amongst priority regional and national audiences, illustrating the many experiences to be had: owning a motorcycle isn’t a prerequisite.
Make Sturgis come alive in fresh ways and give spokespersons a platform to share their passion and perspective.
Another challenge: Harley-Davidson launched an inaugural ride in Wisconsin days before the Sturgis kicked off, propelling South Dakota to engage the market with complimentary messaging seeking conversion, not competition.
Results: Which of your original goals did you achieve and how? How did you measure the effectiveness of the piece or campaign? Entrants should provide quantifiable results of their tactics or campaigns. (for example, click through rates or ad equivalency)
We hit goals through hosted influencer and media FAMs, broadcast tours, an experiential media mission, and proactive pitching.
We hosted influencers to plant seeds of possibility amongst newcomers to consider Sturgis. Celebrity Zac Efron isn’t the first person you’d expect at a rally, but his brother Dylan Efron, with more than 1M Gen Z and Millennial followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube, could introduce the rally to its next generation of visitors. His buddy Danny McGee brought another 368k followers to experience Sturgis, and together they generated 15+ minutes of YouTube content and 2.5M impressions across social. Food Network host and former ESPN anchor, Jaymee Sire, pursued getting a motorcycle license without ever riding before after she heard about Sturgis’ female-friendly culture at a media event. Within three months she shared Sturgis with 50k followers and has a podcast with AFAR’s Traveler’s Tales in development. Forbes and Maxim sent writers for feature stories as well.
To inspire media from The Today Show to Conde Nast Traveler, we brought state partners to NYC to create “SoDak House,” transforming a SoHo loft to look, feel, smell, taste and sound like South Dakota. Sturgis Buffalo Chip took over the roof and engaged 70 media; the event generated 151.4M press and social impressions.
Travel South Dakota and Sturgis engaged regional broadcasts through an SMT and in-studio tour, resulting in segments across 34 TV/Radio stations and 920 TV/Radio/Web placements, reaching1 8.4M. We secured 4.6M impressions in Milwaukee specifically for Harley-Davidson participants to “continue the ride” in Sturgis. On-air talent was outfitted in gear like aviators and tattoo sleeves.
Pitch efforts landed Sturgis in Forbes, FOX, and a cover story in The Wall Street Journal which drove a 22.3% increase in users to TravelSouthDakota.com and a 20.7% increase in new users.
Total press + social impressions garnered 285.8M. Ad value totaled $513,937.
Return on Investment: How much revenue has the piece or campaign generated and how does this compare to your goal? What was the return on investment?
Based on the funds spent on efforts surrounding this campaign, the PR value is equivalent to an ROI of 25:1.
Successful PR supported a rise in Sturgis Rally visitors. Attendance at the 2024 rally was up by 3 percent compared to last year, and most notably attendance was up on the first Saturday of this year’s rally by 44%. The DOT reported that the total number of vehicles entering Sturgis from Friday, Aug. 2, to Sunday, Aug. 11, was 470,987 in 2024 as compared to 458,161 for 2023.
To get more granular, the rally saw an increase of 20% engagement from new audiences, particularly strong in Gen Z participation. And women’s Sturgis charity groups, such as the Biker Belles, also saw an increase of 25% engagement. For the first time, women dominated searches on TravelSouthDakota.com versus their male counterparts on both Sturgis web pages as well as the TravelSouthDakota.com site overall during the rally. Sturgis City Officials say this year’s rally went smoothly and there was an increase in a younger crowd turnout, according to local reports.
Press and PR efforts were the highest reaching results for more than a decade, reaching new demographics through multiple channels to educate and convert audiences to experience Sturgis for the first time and return for years to come.
Assets gained through social and broadcast initiatives were valued at 1M.
Entry Title
The Sturgis Rally Rides into its Next Era
Division
Public Relations/Communications - PR Campaign Consumer
Category
Public Relations/Communications