Some people say riding is in their blood. Indian Motorcycle gave them the first-ever opportunity to prove it.

Working with Indian Motorcycle, we created the world’s first tattoo ink composed of carbon from a motorcycle burnout. The carbon was carefully extracted from a sample of a burnout created by freestyle motocross icon Carey Hart on his modified Indian Super Hooligan.

The raw carbon was then purified into safe, sterile ink by a leading ink manufacturer, and released in limited quantities to select tattoo parlors, internationally.

A film documenting the creation of the ink ran, launching the product and offering riders a chance to get tattooed.

Motocross legend Carey Hart was an existing brand ambassador for Indian. He also happened to be an avid tattoo fan. Our insight that both motorcycles and tattoos were interests that ran more than skin deep, and required demonstrations of passion and commitment from their owners, became a creative platform: If riding is in your blood, prove it. We challenged Carey to prove these dual passions—by getting a tattoo of his son’s name made from ink we formulated from the burn-out carbon of his own Indian Motorcycle: a world’s first that lived up to the charge of doing something legendary. We captured the process of making the ink and tattooing Carey in our video. We supported six-page custom print advertorial for Inked, and extended it by actually offering a limited-edition run of Indian Motorcycle Ink? in select biker-focused tattoo parlors nationwide. It sold out in a week.

Our total budget was $75,000, so we required the campaign to generate additional value through earned media. We paid for 6.5MM guaranteed impressions—and generated over 20MM through earned media, an ad value calculated at $1,169,160: 15 times our budget.

Using no paid search, Indian’s lifetime search volume peaked the week of the video’s launch. Despite driving zero paid traffic to Indian’s website, we received 82% new visitors, who spent an average 59% more time and visited 7% more pages than other visitors in the same period—reinforcing success in generating qualified conquest leads. Finally, while not directly attributable, Indian’s share went from 2.6% when we first implemented “Be Legendary” in late 2014 to 10% in September 2016, immediately following this campaign, proving our broader behavioral strategy was working.