Boost your online sales with tram advertising

Belgian online bike brand Cowboy, which has been selling stylish and trendy electric bikes since 2017, shifted into a higher gear for the launch of its newest model, the Cowboy 4. During the month of June, Cowboy ran a tram advertising campaign in Ghent and Antwerp. The results were impressive. Website visits increased by 6 percent and sales grew by as much as 10 percent.

Cowboy has always been an ambitious brand, not only in its sales and marketing approach. For urban riders, a community of stylish and sustainability minded city cyclists, Cowboy continuously strives to deliver the best possible riding experience. The company develops cutting edge e bikes and keeps innovating by investing in advanced technology and smart features.

Their audience thinks mobile and online and is very comfortable with online purchases. Cowboy therefore sells its bikes online and allows customers to configure their ideal e bike themselves.

Choosing online advertising is therefore an obvious strategy, but this campaign shows once again that offline advertising can also deliver strong results.

Online first, but offline makes the difference

Cowboy’s primary target audience lives and moves mainly in the city, which makes urban environments the perfect place to reach them. But how do you do that as an online brand?

Public transport and cycling, a perfect match

For the launch of the Cowboy 4, the newest generation of urban e bike, the Belgian brand tested tram advertising as a way to generate more online traffic to its website.

Several elements contributed to the success of this campaign.

1. The marketing team at Cowboy delivered an eye catching creative featuring the Cowboy 4 e bike.

2. OOH specialist Outsight selected the most suitable advertising format and placement, choosing the Super Side 10 m² tram advertising format.

Remarkable results

Once the campaign started, the results quickly followed.

During the four week tram campaign, both online traffic and sales increased significantly. In Ghent, website visits even rose by up to 11 percent.

By being visible in the city centres of the two largest cities in Flanders, the campaign sparked curiosity and inspiration among passers by. In the trendy city of Antwerp this resulted in 50 percent more test rides booked during the campaign period.

The campaign climax

Internal analysis showed that the peak of the campaign occurred in week three.

The first two weeks mainly focused on building brand awareness, creating visibility close to the urban rider audience and strengthening the Cowboy brand image. This gradually led to a conversion peak in which more test rides were booked and ultimately more e bikes were purchased.