In the last ten days CAKE, the Swedish electric motorbike startup, announced two huge deals. The first was a partnership to produce 50,000 bikes in Mexico, and the second was for a 150,000-bike partnership in China. I don’t pretend to know CAKE’s business, but this feels game-changing for the brand and the growing electric bike landscape.
So, how did CAKE here? How did a startup from Sweden become so dominant? Let’s take a moment to take a closer look at the brand and its hugely successful marketing tactics.
CAKE launched in 2016 and since then it has become something of the media darling of the e-bike space. In a sea of fairly homogeneous e-bikes, CAKE stands apart and the massive amount of press coverage they receive is just one proof point of this.
As I see it, CAKE has three major objectives as a brand that it addresses through its marketing. They are:
Build awareness for the brand. There are a lot of startups in the mobility space, so how does a brand from Sweden differentiate itself and make sure everyone who is thinking about buying an e-bike, and even those who aren’t, know the brand?
Convince new and existing riders that CAKE is worth considering. This is twofold. The brand has to convince bicyclists, commuters, and those who don’t own e-bikes that it’s worth entertaining a new form of transportation. Similarly, it also needs to convince existing motorcycle riders that an e-bike is a viable alternative that’s as fun and effective as a gas bike. This is essentially the work of building an entirely new category, which is hugely challenging but also hugely rewarding if done right.
Show its worth. Every brand has to convince consumers their product is worth the price tag and CAKE is obviously no different. The challenge for CAKE is that there are numerous other more inexpensive options, so it also has to convince prospective buyers it’s worth dropping $6-12k on their (first?) e-bike.
Here are three ways CAKE is crushing its marketing. This isn’t CAKE’s entire marketing plan at all, and obviously, I don’t know their business, but I have been watching the brand closely for the better part of the last 18 months, and these are the areas it’s absolutely killing it marketing-wise. If you run marketing for a brand or startup, take note.
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Products that Photograph Well.
CAKE has a consistent design language across their bikes that clearly states: These bikes were thoughtfully designed. The color palettes and use of white and grey (brushed aluminum?) metal that makes a comparison to Apple product design easy (even if subconsciously), also make photographing the bikes easy. These days, when images are so critical thanks to platforms like Instagram, creating a product that photographs well is essential. It’s possible to dress up a mediocre-looking product with some robust creative direction and a capable photographer, but this will fall flat as soon as a user shares a photo or a media outlet wants to take photos themselves. CAKE makes handsome bikes and they photograph well, and those images want to be liked by social followers and shared by hungry media outlets who are always looking to fill their sites with strong product photography. Also, CAKE is constantly posting new photos. The brand has obviously decided to invest in consistently publishing quality photography.
Videos that make you want to do WHEEEEELIES!
CAKE is doing a better job than anyone making the case for getting on (two) electric wheels. Wheelie after wheelie after wheelie video shows how fun and capable these bikes are. If you’ve ridden and owned motorcycles before like me, you can’t help but want to try one out. These videos are made for social and are obviously designed to resonate with certain communities of riders and would-be commuters. It’s also worth noting that it seems the majority of CAKE’s videos show off their show horse, the Kalk, a $14k non-street legal dirtbike, even though they have a full fleet of other bikes (workhorses). This seems like a deliberate and effective strategy to me. Why not pull people in with videos and pics of the really really cool bike? Sure they might end up buying something a bit more practical or suited to their needs, but they’ll always associate it with the freewheeling bike of their Instagram dreams.
A Unique Mission Driven Narrative.
CAKE is an e-bike company on a quest to make fossil-free bikes (the cleanest dirt bike ever). This is obviously a brand that’s on an environmental mission. But instead of leaning into the big electric vs gas /carbon narrative, they’ve found more unique stories to tell that have won them huge amounts of earned media. I’m of course talking about CAKE’s initiative to outfit anti-poaching officers in Africa with rechargeable and QUIET, CAKE dirtbikes. This is a unique application of a product that is not only incredibly admirable, but it’s also catnip for journalists covering products. It instantly sets CAKE apart from other e-bike companies and invites journalists to cover the brand in an entirely different way.
CAKE has other marketing efforts as well, like this e-bike race thing it does and I think there’s an influencer marketing play too maybe. Neither of these seems nearly as important as the three I mentioned above, which are really just the fundamentals of great product marketing: Design a great product, create high-quality content that shares its capabilities (in an emotional way), and come up with a great narrative to win earned media as well (bonus if this threaded around making a positive impact). CAKE has masterfully grown organic channels with really good content while also giving media outlets what they want and need as well to write about the brand.
Bravo to CAKE on the big wins the last few weeks, I can’t wait to see what they do next…and ride one as well.
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