As the fastest production motorcycle in the world, the Suzuki Hayabusa has been a longtime favorite with performance motorcycle enthusiasts. Among its many fans is a large base of young urban enthusiasts who value the Hayabusa’s iconic style as much as its horsepower. Suzuki has capitalized on this motorcycle’s popularity and credibility among these consumers with a worldwide marketing campaign unlike anything our industry has seen before. BusaBeats was launched in 2008 and stylishly integrated music, art, video and a variety of digital media with a soft-sell, street-level approach that put entertainment above a typical corporate advertising agenda. This highly successful grassroots promotion smoothly tapped into the lifestyle and culture spawned as a result of the Hayabusa, and took full advantage of the rapidly growing social media phenomenon. The BusaBeats website, at www.BusaBeats.com, was a key component of this global urban marketing promotion, and last year the potential to win a new custom Suzuki Hayabusa motorcycle attracted even more musical talent by way of a contest called the Busa Beats MC Battle.
Suzuki recently launched the 2010 BusaBeats campaign at the Cycle World International Motorcycle Show in New York. Suzuki partnered with Nick Anglada Originals to unveil this year’s customized Grand Prize Hayabusa to a large audience during media day. Later that evening, Complex Magazine threw a launch party to kick off the campaign in style. The winner of the 2009 MC Battle was also on hand.
In 2009, the BusaBeats online community of thousands gave Northern California’s own JPIGG the grand prize for the winning track. His song has been shared with over 14,000. JPIGG is currently on tour with the International Motorcycle Shows and is featured at the TapouT Bikes and Beats stage at each IMS event.
The MC Battle is a contest for hip-hop artists and rappers to write songs about the Hayabusa and compete online. It unites celebrity producers with MCs from around the world to create custom BusaBeats tracks. Users record their rhymes in real time right on the website, upload their tracks to the site for community review, and compete for a chance to win a customized BusaBeats Hayabusa. In 2009, thousands of original tracks were recorded online through an interactive recorder interface. Tracks were posted via a BusaBeats branded player on MySpace and other social networks. The top five tracks tabulated more than 67,000 plays and received more than 37,000 votes. Total plays for all the tracks submitted topped nearly 179,000 and scored more than 97,000 votes. Average visitor time on the site during the contest was an impressive 21.4 minutes. Users were also able to forward their tracks and challenge friends to battle.
No other motorcycle enjoys as much street cred as the Suzuki Hayabusa, a phenomenon that will only grow as more and more consumers tap into the BusaBeats campaign.
