USA Cycling
Ride with US
Discover why they ride.
Creative / in-house production / art direction / copywriting
With cycling reeling due to doping scandals and elitist barriers to entry, USA Cycling was in a tough spot. For years, they’d been seen as the big, bad governing body who exists to “take the fun out of the sport.” But that wasn’t reality. We had seen the heart and passion inside the walls of USAC, but it was completely invisible externally. Worse, they weren’t speaking to 10 million potential customers who make up an enthusiast segment. So we suggested using our storytelling abilities to align brand and community values.
Every day, countless tires zoom across America’s roads, gravel, dirt jumps, mud, and most other imaginable terrain as millions of cyclists pursue their passion—every one of them fueled by a unique reason to ride. So when USA Cycling asked us to promote their new Ride Membership, which offers services and perks helpful to anyone on two wheels, we couldn’t just tap into a single motivation to hop onto the bike, we had to tap into all of them.
It’s difficult to form an emotional connection to a ‘product.’ But it’s easy to get swept up in a movement. We pushed USA Cycling to think of Ride as a ‘club’ and mindfully communicated more about the values we share with our members than product attributes. Once we gained awareness, we’d leverage a more rational and benefit driven website to convert. Additionally, the cycling community is diverse, and we wanted to speak to different consumer need states. So we found real cyclists from all walks of life who ride for all different reasons —competition, fitness, fun, sanity, freedom — and had them share why they ride.
After five days, seven locations, 14 weather patterns, an incredible production team, and one drone successfully landed on the edge of a cliff in 20 MPH winds, we cultivated a series of real stories that spoke to all levels of cyclists. And thanks to some very deliberate creative efficiency, we were able to turn that “one” piece of content into six additional vignettes detailing the personal motivations of each rider, not to mention beautiful brand photography. All in-house.
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