Harley turns to Facebook for marketing campaign

Harley-Davidson has shifted its commitment to crowdsourcing into a higher gear by launching a new Facebook application that sources advertising ideas directly from Harley-Davidson’s millions of Facebook fans.

Fan Machine allows Harley-Davidson’s Facebook community to review an advertising brief, submit ideas and vote on ideas from other community members. After selecting and rewarding the winners, Harley-Davidson will work with existing marketing partners to bring the best creative ideas to life. Harley-Davidson has crowdsourced ideas like this for a year, but not with the massive scale of Facebook.

Harley-Davidson is in the midst of transforming its business to be customer-led throughout the company, which includes marketing approaches such as the pioneering use of crowdsourcing.

“This is not a publicity stunt, or a limited time engagement. We’re committed to crowdsourcing, because these ideas naturally flow from our passionate fans,” said Mark-Hans Richer, Harley-Davidson’s chief marketing officer. “As the true stewards of our brand, our fans now have a huge new platform to share their ideas.

“It works for us because their passion for our brand is second-to-none. They’re going to light this thing up, and it will be fun to watch….”