On March 6th, we pulled back the curtain to reveal a special bike in the Rocky Mountain line-up, the Instinct. If you haven’t met this bike it’s a do everything type of rig. A trail bike with teeth. Lightweight for climbs and wildly capable on the descents. I had some fun rides on the previous generation over the past six months. I’m a fan.

To launch this bike we challenged ourselves to go above and beyond the standard launch protocol. Media outreach, digital buys and content creation were all still very much a part of the plan. But, we sought out some new sand boxes to play in to spread the word too.

First, we connected with the Vancouver Mountain Film Festival to offer a sneak peak of the new bike and debut the edit filmmaker Peter Wojnar created to support the launch, Sardines and Singletrack. It was great to see so many bike fans gather in one place to celebrate our sport and the people in it. All the goosebumps.

Next, we rolled up our sleeves and explored the depths of YouTube for some fresh voices to review the bike. No agencies or aggregated contact lists, involved. Just keyword searching and relationship building.

Here’s an example of a couple of fun folks we connected with:

• Dusty Betty

• AwesomeMTB with Mo + Hannah

What I liked most about working with these new reviewers and partnering with the film festival is that it gives us the chance to get back to our roots. To have conversations with people, to support engaged riders on a more granular level. It can be easy to chase big vanity metrics of exposure, view counts and reach but without a true connection with riders, how much are those numbers really worth?