Harley Davidson’s balancing act of Millennials and Loyalists

The legendary brand seeks out digital and mobile to attract new riders.

The 114-year-old brand has succumbed to the charms of digital in a big way. In what is unconventional for it, the iconic motorcycle brand has just announced a video game set to release in March 2018.

The Crew 2, as the Ubisoft video game is named, is an open-road racing adventure. Scenarios include hopping on a Harley-Davidson Iron 883 motorcycle and weave through gridlocked Manhattan streets.

The Crew 2 follows The Crew, which became a hit, amassing 12 million players. Like its predecessor, Crew 2 is gender agnostic. According to the company, many children, by the time they’re 8 or 9 years old, have had “a motorcycle moment,” - they’ve been exposed to riding through someone they know or via a piece of pop culture and want to experience it for themselves. And The Crew is a no-risk environment to try that out.

This isn’t Harley’s first link to video games. It has embedded its motorcycles in Atari’s Test Drive Unlimited 2 and Sega’s King of the Road in the past. A new TV ad campaign with the tagline “All for freedom, freedom for all” aims to cultivate new audiences while still catering to the loyalists. The spots come from Team Ignite, a new IPG division.

Source : http://www.adweek.com/brand-marketing/harley-davidson-seeks-new-generation-of-riders-via-gaming/