CAROL Bike
Racing past the competition with social media success
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.
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.
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.
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. 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.
It was really validating to win Best Use of Instagram and Best Audience Engagement Campaign at the 2023 Social Media Awards. 2024 saw us hit 10k followers on Instagram, but the work doesn’t stop there! With the increasing volume of UGC and influencer involvement, we’re seeing a really positive uplift in the interactions that we manage. Their community continues to grow across social media as does their ability to showcase that aspect of being a CAROL Bike user. We’re loving the customer stories that come through which make the job of managing their community really interesting as we set about tagging and responding to each comment across their social media portfolio in real-time.
Fractional CMO
CAROL Bike launched in 2018 after 40 different prototypes had been built and tested.
The company was co-founded by Ulrich Dempfle, who was inspired to start CAROL Bike after watching a BBC documentary about REHIT (Reduced Exertion HIIT) exercise, which is designed to provide the shortest, most effective exercise workout. At the time REHIT was only available to do in lab conditions. CAROL Bike is the world’s first home REHIT exercise bike. The company’s name stands for Cardiovascular Optimization Logic (CAR.O.L), which is the method used to personalise and optimise the cardio workouts.
- Even though life expectancy is increasing, 87% of Americans have “FOGO” – fear of growing old – and the top fear is a decline in physical ability (Pfizer, 2014)
- Consumers are taking proactive measures to improve their longevity, through a combination of fitness, nutrition, sleep and managing chronic conditions
- In a survey about inside-out beauty (focused on supplements), 32% of people said their barrier to taking certain types of beauty supplements was “I don’t trust they work” (Mintel, 2024).
- 29% of consumers say they would pay a premium for prevention-focused products that promote health and wellness (EY’s US Future Consumer Index)
Exercise is not a priority for many people. In fact, the European Commission and Kantar found that 46% of people never exercise or play sport. Just 13% of people in the UK say they exercise regularly.
Engagement in sport and physical activity is less prevalent among people with lower levels of education and among those with financial difficulties (Kantar).
For people who do exercise, the main motivation is to improve health (54%), to improve fitness (47%), to relax (38%), to have fun (30%) and to improve physical performance (28%) (Kantar). People also care about exercising to boost their overall confidence and appearance (UK Active & Savanta).
CAROL Bike operates within the colossal fitness industry, which is growing at a rate of approx. 8.7% each year, giving it a projected market value of $96.6 billion in 2024 (Wexer). The APAC region is expected to see the highest growth rate in the fitness equipment market by 2030 (DataBridge).
Driving exponential growth using the 70.20.10 principle