The Response

Despite having name recognition and a compelling new store layout, Performance needed a creative way to capture media attention—especially from bloggers—to make the story more than “just another retail grand opening.”

Traffic PRM worked with the Performance marketing team to develop a creative but cost-effective program to make the media and would-be customers sit up and take notice. Taking note of work by entrepreneurs and small companies to recycle old bike parts, Traffic helped put together “The Bike Tube Blow-Out!”—an event that invited any and all locals to donate their flat or used bicycle inner tubes at the Performance grand opening. The tubes would be used in stylish consumer products made by Seattle’s Alchemy Goods, while donors would receive a discount off of new bike inner tubes.

The program also invited local customers to sign up their employers for the Performance Commuter Rewards program, which offers in-store benefits to those who commute by bike, on foot or via public transit.

The Results

The Bike Tube Blow-Out and the Commuter Rewards program helped drive media coverage in critical cycling markets such as Portland and Seattle. The program also saved several hundred pounds of rubber from local landfills, while several major employers in Denver and the Bay Area are considering joining the Commuter Rewards program. Performance plans to continue and expand the program outside of retail store openings.