Cypress-based motorcycle company Yamaha Motor Corp. USA is shifting its marketing spending away from general consumers to focus on enthusiasts most likely to buy a motorcycle.
The U.S. division of Japan’s Yamaha Corp. is upping its advertising spending for publications focused on motorcycles. It’s also doing humorous viral videos promoting its team riders and products.
The Cypress headquarters handles U.S. marketing for Yamaha’s motorcycle, all-terrain vehicles, generators and other products.
The company also has offices in Wisconsin and Georgia handling its snowmobile and watercraft products.
Yamaha advertises with motorcycle magazines, Web sites and on cable TV.
The company has in recent years ratcheted up its Internet marketing.
“I think (our Internet marketing) augments our advertising, allowing for us to undertake some different and unique marketing tactics,” said Bob Starr, general manager of national communications.
Yamaha is doing more on social media sites as part of an integrated branding campaign, according to Starr.
The motorcycle maker launched three YouTube videos in recent weeks featuring Yamaha’s top riders in unique and funny situations.
One features motorcycle grand prix World Champion Valentino Rossi, who raked in $30 million in 2007, according to Forbes, and others working at the Cypress headquarters as receptionists and security guards in between races.
“We have produced these viral videos to remind everybody including our customers and dealers that motorcycles are a fun activity and fun product,” Starr said.
Yamaha opted for a cost-effective way to introduce its 2010 lineup of motorcycles and all-terrain vehicles to its dealers, according to Starr.
In years past, the company hosted its national sales meeting in Las Vegas or Orlando, Fla. This year, it opted for 26 smaller sales meetings slated to start around the same time across the country.
“We’ve got to save a little money and still maintain the one-on-one contact with our dealers,” Starr said.
The economy hasn’t affected the motorcycle maker’s current product lineup, according to Starr.
“It takes a fair amount of time to design and engineer new products, so it’s the same lineup that was planned a few years ago,” he said.
ChopShop
Irvine-based post-production shop ChopShop Entertainment Inc. says it’s seeing more companies interested in tapping into marketing geared to surfers, skateboarders and snowboarders and those inspired by them.
“There is a still a lot of work from companies looking to tap the action sports and youth lifestyle,” said Ken Anderson, president of the shop. “It’s a lot stronger than other companies who specialized in automotive or other industries impacted by the economy.”
The production company has seen work come directly from companies instead of advertising agencies, according to Anderson.
It recently was hired to work on an undisclosed project for Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc.
“Most of the apparel brands do most of their work in-house, and we’ve seen more businesses tapping us for more than they did in the past,” Anderson said.
The company is the largest outside content provider for News Corp.’s Fuel TV.
The shop maintains ties with Newport Beach-based O’Leary and Partners and Blue C Advertising.
“We’re still producing projects for them on a pretty regular schedule,” Anderson said.
The company has seen its revenue remain about even from a year ago, according to Anderson.
“The summer was very strong and we don’t see the fourth quarter dropping off any,” he said.
It’s a Wrap
Santa Ana-based Mindshare Creative sold an auto-wrap campaign to client Costa Mesa-based Final Inches Medical Body Shaping Center, a plastic surgery center that originally put the idea on hold due to the economy. The shop used the car of Nancy Kent, Mindshare’s president, and covered it with messaging and graphics for Final Inches’ laser liposculpture procedure, which sold the company on the idea, according to Mindshare.
Bits and Pieces
Irvine-based Earthbound Media Group started an Internet marketing campaign for Costa Mesa’s First Team Real Estate. The work uses a Web site, foreclosuredestination.com, and e-mail marketing to try to get visitors to the site, designed to offer free searches of more than 20,000 distressed property listings in Southern California. First Team is targeting first-time homebuyers and investors. Earthbound also produced the content and creative direction for First Team’s display advertising and direct response e-mail campaigns … Cypress-based commercial builder Taisei Construction Corp. and Anaheim Hills-based concrete contractor Bomel Construction Co. have hired Pasadena-based Napolitano Communications to handle media relations and advertising … Mission Viejo-based 360 Business Consulting, a marketing and public relations firm, launched a search engine marketing campaign for Orange-based Ceiling Ease Cleaning Inc., a company that provides ceiling cleaning services to restaurants, offices and schools.
