At Simplon, everything revolves around bicycles: mountain bikes, road bikes, e-bikes, e-mountain bikes and trekking bikes. When you buy a Simplon bike, you don't get a bike off the peg. What the artist's studio is to the artist, the factory in Hard at Lake Constance is to Simplon. At their workshop, high-end bikes are manufactured, and innovations, visions and compositions come to life every day. The end product is hard to beat in terms of love for detail and craftsmanship. It is exactly this passion that makes Simplon what it is.
The challenge
The idea of a Facebook group was born out of the challenge that community management is very complex in the case of Simplon. In addition to enquiries about sponsoring and sales, users ask many technical questions via Facebook and Instagram. Questions that an agency or a marketing employee often cannot answer directly. So the strategy for a Facebook group arose out of the necessity to provide concrete solutions and answers for the community.
Things that are too technical or personal to be discussed on the public fan page find room in the Facebook group. And in the best-case scenario, members of the group answer each other. Even the tiniest details of a bike and, above all, the experiences of the customers were intended to be discussed in the group. The goal was clear: to create an active and lively space for exchanging thoughts and ideas about high-end bikes.
The special nature of the project
The Facebook group "Simplon Bike Insights: Alles rund ums Fahrrad" was founded in November 2019 as a private group. On the first day, almost 300 Simplon fans applied for membership. Two months later, in December 2019, the group had almost 600 members. The special feature of the group is the community. The majority of the members actively participate in the group through contributions, comments and other interactions. The fans ask relevant questions, share their experiences and help each other out. Whether it's choosing the right model, finding suitable equipment or discussing technical details: There is no topic that doesn't arouse interest within the group. The group is a textbook example of how a community should work: Problems are taken up and solutions are found together. In addition, many users share their favourite moments with their bikes, which in turn creates plenty of user-generated content.
Ten months after the group opened, the 1,000-member mark was cracked. Even though growth slowed down slightly, the focus is on the quality of the group. Let's hear it for the community – goal achieved!
Project services in the field of social media:
social media strategy for Facebook and Instagram
development of a visual language for social media
ongoing social media support for Facebook, the Facebook group, Instagram and Instagram Stories
photography for social media, the blog and the catalogue
videography for social media and the blog (explanatory content)
Photography for social media, the blog and the catalogue
What our client says
„For Simplon, the Facebook group was an important step in establishing an even closer relationship with our community. The group has become a central element for product feedback and user-generated content. The idea of the punkt & komma team came at exactly the right time!“
Emanuel Kurzemann, Head of Digital Innovation & IT
