CAROL Bike races past competition with social media success
Overview
CAROL Bike is the world’s most efficient exercise bike. Using AI-personalisation and Reduced Exertion HIIT (REHIT), CAROL Bike has 5-minute long workouts that are scientifically proven to deliver superior health and fitness benefits in 90% less time compared to regular cardio.
Sounds too good to be true? That’s what the majority of social media users thought too when CAROL Bike 2.0 first launched. Their comments section was flooded with questions about how anyone could see results thanks to a workout that’s only five minutes long. We knew our social media strategy needed to be community-first; focusing on evidence and social proof, by building an avid community of CAROL Bike lovers.Â
In mid-2022, CAROL Bike partnered with StrategiQ to upgrade their thinking to match and reflect their product innovation, transitioning from CAROL Bike to the upgraded “CAROL Bike 2.0”. The mission was clear: develop an organic social media campaign to galvanise CAROL’s existing community while attracting fresh interest.
Focus area
- Advisory
- Marketing
- Social Media
Industry
- Sports & Leisure
Strategy
Our strategy was community-first. Our tactics were to employ highly-valuable content; best-practice community engagement; and encourage customers to share user-generated content (UGC). We mapped audience psychographics and replied to every comment, tag and mention of CAROL; building audience trust through one-to-one conversations, and creating brand advocates. Once we’d turned comment sentiment to 80% positive, we launched content encouraging riders to tag us in their workout photos and videos. Â
CAROL Bike’s rebranded website had three sections to it: science, community and habit. We mirrored these in our campaign implementation, creating six clear content categories for each channel. We assigned a brand colour for each segment to create associations with certain topics and increase familiarity with, and clarity about, our content.
We introduced a face to the brand: co-founder Ulrich, who we used as on-camera talent to answer FAQs on Instagram Stories and explain the science behind CAROL. CAROL also knew they had customers who’d purchased the original bike just before the release of CAROL Bike 2.0, and we knew those customers would be frustrated at having the ‘old’ version. Working with CAROL’s customer service and product team, we created a list of FAQs and crisis communication responses, anticipating the potential outcry. Since then, we’ve replied to every single comment and concern, receiving hugely positive feedback about the new product as a result.Â
Success
The impact was profound. In just three months, CAROL Bike’s Instagram following surged from 6.5k to 7,440, while monthly organic reach skyrocketed from 2k to an impressive 19k. Beyond mere metrics, the campaign precipitated a seismic shift in brand perception.Â
Dedicated community management and replying to every message and comment that came into the CAROL Bike account led to a huge amount of positivity and enthusiasm from CAROL’s audience. This precipitated hoards of positive testimonials and transformational ‘before and after’ stories inspiring a growing community.
Corrie Jones – StrategiQ’s Head of Social Media says
“We’re thrilled to have won Best Audience Engagement Campaign at the UK Social Media Awards for our work with CAROL Bike. Having worked with CAROL Bike for over three years, it’s a joy to see how the followers and engagement have grown across every channel – but especially exciting to see the loyal community of brand advocates that we’ve built. Every day, people are tagging CAROL in their stories and recommending the bike to other fitness enthusiasts in comments and forums – the dream scenario for any brand on social media, and the result of a carefully curated community management strategy.“
Results
StrategiQ’s ‘limitless approach’ meant that David beat Goliath, trumping the benchmark 0.07% Instagram engagement rate, set by CAROL Bike’s global competitor, with an impressive 0.21%. The full story showcases the power of social media in turning a following into a tribe.
The cherry on top – as testament to our strategic thinking on CAROL Bike’s social media accounts, we won Best Audience Engagement Campaign at the UK Social Media Awards in 2023.Â
100%
Positive sentiment
0.21%
Industry-leading engagement rate
10x
Increase in monthly reach
19K
Monthly reach (4x target)
Quite simply, StrategiQ’s professionalism and creativity have transformed our Social Media presence and the interactions we have with our community. Their knowledge of platforms is impressive.
Next project
DPL Group. New website and video are game-changing
