Council Post: Simple Social Media Visuals: A Motorcycle Case Study

By Brennan White, CEO of Cortex, an intelligent platform for creative decision-making. Also founded Pandemic Labs. @Brenomics. 

It’s late at night, and someone is driving down the highway in their car. Off in the distance, there is a sound of a rumbling engine, and in what seems like seconds, the rumble turns into a roar. The vehicle the sounds belong to then zooms past, and in that brief moment, the driver of the car looks over to see a stylish-looking motorcycle. It may be a cliché, but when a motorcycle is in action, it just looks cool. There’s a reason motorcycles are often used in blockbuster films for action sequences.

That cool factor translates well to social media visual content for the brands producing these machines. If motorcycles look great in action, it makes sense that short videos of motorcycles rolling down the road would be ideal for social media. Yamaha, Honda, Suzuki and other leading brands have tons of visual content along those lines that is ready for engagement, featuring modern and creative-looking motorcycles.

As it turns out, however, if you browse the social media pages of these brands, the most popular images, in terms of engagement, aren’t videos of the bikes in races or even of a brand’s sponsored racer. 

Instead, it’s the simple kinds of visual content that are often receiving 5,000-plus likes. These include photos showcasing a new bike, updates to a current product line or even an aesthetically pleasing image of a bike “overseeing” the sunset. That last one is almost tailor-made for Instagram.

Top motorcycle brands are creating uncomplicated visual content for social media, and the data shows it’s working.

Other companies and brands besides motorcycles can apply these principles and use data analytics in their visual marketing content. Algorithms and software tools can show brands how their content is performing and what is resonating with the audience for any given visual.

Social media observations briefly aside, for motorcycle brands, the popularity of straightforward visual content can be interpreted as users wanting to glance at the motorcycles staying still and not speeding down the street — which makes sense because enthusiasts are going to want to get a look at every aspect of the bike while it’s in place. 

Going along with the simplicity of each photo, another detail to notice in this pattern is the use of color — or rather, the limited use.

The colors red, brown and black appear prominently in many pictures with high engagement. Heck, there’s one Instagram post from Triumph Motorcycles that appears to be entirely black! The result is close to an astonishing 46,000 likes for an image that still manages to show off the bike’s old-school look for those who are fans of it. Another photo that has minimal use of color, or what can be more accurately described as an American palette, is this one from Honda. This post has almost 16,000 likes.

The idea is that simple photos of the bikes are resulting in good engagement numbers. And posts with the simple use of color are part of that trend.

In this way, motorcycle brands are an example of simple visuals and the importance of understanding the data behind your content. They are examples of how we can look at in-depth specifics of a brand and its competitors. For instance, we can know how colors interact with each other and how subject matter and key content in the visuals also matter.

As already mentioned, motorcycles just look cool in action. But, judging by many of these posts found on social media, some folks enjoy seeing them outside or with a white (or black) background. It can make for a more interesting photo, or it can inspire a motorcycle enthusiast to buy their next bike. 

Then, they can show off how cool it looks in action.

No matter the product, once brands know the data behind their social media visuals as well as what works, they can take that information and use it in their marketing content. Brands can implement these strategies for simple visual content.