ABOUT

Objective
WDA approached Yamaha in summer 2012 having completed a speculative review of their market and competitor activities. We identified that lots of the manufacturers had fallen into a marketing battle more to do with deposits and APR’s than about their brand or products. We proposed that this was not a guaranteed point of advantage since everyone seemed to be running equally good incentives – often down to 0%. We argued that this meant consumers were effectively being invited to differentiate between bikes on price and affordability alone, almost commoditising the product and creating stronger downward price pressures.

At the same time we acknowledged that price is a very strong driver – especially in today’s economic climate, and that the finance incentive had to remain a key part of communications. However, we proposed that first and foremost we needed to engage the audience by communicating what it feels like to be excited and entertained by Yamaha’s great product. All these positives were hidden in the DNA of the Yamaha brand, our approach involved bringing them back to the fore, so that we could re-connect with the audience in a highly emotive way, and create strong differentiation.

Thankfully, our approach resonated with Yamaha’s Marketing Manager, Simon Belton who was looking for a step change in a very similar direction. In fact, Yamaha’s global marketing strategy had also shifted away from product and towards brand – In Yamaha President Mr H. Yamaji’s own words: ”High quality products and great after sales service are no longer enough; what attracts consumers is a brand they can understand, trust, and become loyal to”.

With this perfect alignment in core strategy, WDA started to collaborate with Simon on a new campaign which would re-engage the audience, and reaffirm Yamaha’s brand values, to create differentiation, a stronger demand for Yamaha motorcycles, and ultimately to drive sales.

Strategise
At the core of Yamaha’s new global brand strategy was a re-positioning which aimed to bring all the thing’s the market loves about Yamaha back into the spotlight, and provide a strong brand foundation to support the company’s future direction. The new internal brand positioning ‘To Better Places’ has been created to inspire riders to go to better places; to get more out of every day; and to get more out of life through powered personal mobility.

WDA set about creating a campaign and brand platform which would communicate this new positioning in a direct, engaging and exciting way whilst giving the flexibility to allow highly targeted drill down messaging for each specific bike within the range. The resultant ‘Nothing moves you like a Yamaha’ campaign captures the emotional brand benefits associated with Yamaha whilst communicating the new positioning message in a succinct, positive and inspiring way.

Create and Engage
Yamaha have fully committed to the new strategy and are now communicating and leveraging it by rolling it out across multiple media both on and offline. To date WDA have supported Yamaha’s internal team in creating online advertising including animated homepage takeovers and banners whilst offline we have taken full pages in all the major specialist motorcycle titles, and outside of the sector within the daily broadsheets. Additionally WDA have produced all the Yamaha dealer collateral so that the campaign flows right through to the point of sale. In all cases we have been able to fit within the framework of Yamaha’s existing incumbent supplier network and internal resources, ensuring we have only added value where needed.

“I personally have always been a big ‘Yam-man’ having ridden Yamaha’s over some 10 years in national level trials and enduro competition; in fact I still have a picture of my first bike – a yellow and white TY80! Two of my all time racing heroes – Stefan Everts and Luca Cadalora (who my son is named after) were also ambassadors for the brand, so the opportunity to work on the account was very exciting for me personally; and I am very pleased with the resultant campaign. It was a pleasure working under Simon’s direction and I think the end product is testament to a great working relationship, and some great teamwork between WDA and Yamaha.”
Lee Waterhouse, Managing Director, WDA

Monitor
The ‘Nothing Moves You Like A Yamaha’ campaign has two objectives – As a brand building exercise, to more clearly differentiate Yamaha in the marketplace and boost desire for its products, thus increasing brand equity; and as a campaign to consequently drive sales. The motorcycle market got off to a bumpy start with the cold snap and snow at the beginning of the year, plus a reluctance for the consumer to commit during January amid the changed driving license regulations. However, as the campaign starts to gain exposure during the season we will be watching the stats carefully. For now, we are more than happy to have created a solution which certainly seems to have ‘moved’ our client:

“I was really nervous about moving the creative account to WDA as our previous agency were really good to work with but Yamaha needed to come to the market from a different direction. I don’t know what I was worried about. Lee and the team have interpreted, executed and delivered a fabulous piece of work that has surpassed our expectation. It’s a good indication of great creative work when staff are using WDA images as screen savers!”
Simon Belton – Yamaha Marketing Manager, Motorcycles and Scooters, Marketing & Communications Division