How Mountain Bike Brands Focus on Video Content and Generate a 12% ER on TikTok

Key Takeaways

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In 2021 Mountain Biking brands focused on engaging their social media audience with more video content:

Five brands in the competitive set are actively investing in building TikTok Communities:

• Post frequently: All five branded increased their TikTok  posting cadence on average by +296%.
• Repost best-performing content: Specialized reposted its most-watched TikTok video a year later and it generated 12M views as compared 96M last year.
• Leverage trending sounds: Kona actively leverages the platform’s trending sounds to get in front of the TikTok audience.
• Keep it simple: While all brands post heart-stopping downhill rides, two of the most-watched TikTok videos on Canyon’s channel are of a coach cheering for a rider and an athlete having his morning coffee next to his bike.

Increased posting cadence on video-only platforms:

• YouTube and TikTok: In 2021, Specialized, GT Bicycles, and Cannondale increased their posting cadence on YouTube by an average of +49% and +327% on TikTok, while either decreasing or keeping it the same on Facebook and Instagram.

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Competitive set analyzed:

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Out of twenty brands in the competitive set, only five actively post on their TikTok accounts.

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Specialized built a following of 1.3M on its TikTok channel. As of February 2021, TikTok is the brand’s third-most-followed social media account after Facebook (2.0M) and Instagram (1.4M).

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Canyon and GT Bicycles built an audience of 20K+ TikTok followers, while both Cannondale and Kona have less than a dozen followers. 

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Looking into Specialized’s YoY social following increase, TikTok and YouTube saw the highest follower growths — +8.3% and +4.1% respectively.

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The same two video-only platforms saw the highest increases in the number of posts published. Specialized more than doubled the number of posts on its TikTok account and published +34.6% more videos on YouTube in 2021.

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Looking into engagement, the video content posted both on TikTok and YouTube generates significantly higher engagement rates (ER) compared to all other social media platforms. Throughout 2021, Specialized saw a 9.2% ER on TikTok.

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To engage the TikTok audience, Specialized posts heart-stopping point-of-view (POV) videos of downhill riders. To keep up the engagement, the brand reposts the best-performing videos after one year.

Top 3 TikTok Videos by the Number of Views, all time:

Views: 91M | Likes: 8.2M | Comments: 99K | ER: 9.4%

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Views: 13M | Likes: 1.6M | Comments: 5K | ER: 12.4%

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Views: 12M | Likes: 296K | Comments: 3K | ER: 2.7% *date re-posted: Nov 24, 2021

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In slightly more than a year, Canyon accumulated 29K followers on its TikTok channel. The brand also saw double-digit growth across all other social media channels — +54.7% on YouTube and +36.7% on Instagram.

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Looking into Canyon’s posting schedule, the brand significantly increased posting cadence only on Instagram (+36.1) and TikTok (+400%).

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Canyon generates 15.5% ER on TikTok, while it lingers around ~1% for all other social media platforms. 

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The brand posts a fair share of POV mountain biking videos and tricks. However, two top-performing videos on its channel are snippets of a coach cheering for the rider and a biker sipping coffee near his bike.

Top 3 TikTok Videos by the Number of Views, all times:

Views: 387K | Likes: 27K | Comments: 39 | ER: 6.9%

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Views: 64M | Likes: 11K | Comments: 101 | ER: 16.9%

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Views: 37M | Likes: 4K | Comments: 15 | ER: 10.2% *date re-posted:Nov 24, 2021

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GT Bikes grew its TikTok following to 22K (as of Feb 2022), however, it still remains the brand’s least followed social media channel.

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While Instagram remains the brand's most active social media platform in terms of posting cadence, GT Bicycles posted 14.3% less often compared to the previous year. At the same time, the brand increased posting cadence on both video platforms — YouTube + 22.9% and TikTok +38.1%.

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The brand generates 10% engagement rate on TikTok, and its YouTube videos perform 2X better than the platform’s average.

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Like the rest of the brands in the competitive set, GT Bicycles post videos of athletes riding downhill on mountain bikes. An extreme POV footage and a failed attempt to ride the bridge cross-handed are among the brand’s top most-watched TikTok videos.

Top 3 TikTok Videos by the Number of Views, all times:

Views: 972K | Likes: 29K | Comments: 36 | ER: 3.0%

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Views: 102K | Likes: 21K | Comments: 114 | ER: 20.6%

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Views: 78K | Likes: 12K | Comments: 16 | ER: 15.0%

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TikTok is the least followed social media platform for Cannondale. In two years, the brand accumulated 8K followers.

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Looking into the posting cadence across its social media channels, Cannondale significantly increased posting on the video platforms — in 2021 the brand posted +86.2% more videos on YouTube and +800.0% on TikTok.

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Brand’s videos generate a 13.3% engagement rate on TikTok and perform 1.6X better on YouTube than the platform’s average.

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The brand engages the TikTok audience by posting videos of athletes performing extreme rides and stunts.

Top 2 TikTok Videos by the Number of Views, all times:

Views: 67K | Likes: 5K | Comments: 80 | ER: 7.4%

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Views: 50K | Likes: 8K | Comments: 102 | ER: 17.4%

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In just a year, Kona built a 5K (as of Feb 2022) audience on TikTok. The brand also significantly increased its YouTube following from Feb 2021 to Feb 2022 — +20.2% new channel subscribers. 

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When it comes to the posting cadence, Kona has significantly increased its content output across all of its social media channels. The brand posted almost seven times more often (+662.7%) on Instagram and five times on Facebook (+449.2%). At the same time, Kona is the only brand in the competitive set that posted fewer videos on its YouTube channel in 2021 than the previous year.

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The brand has a 14.4% engagement rate on TikTok, and its YouTube videos perform 1.6X better than the platform’s average.

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Kona creates a lot of content specifically for TikTok to take advantage of trending sounds and challenges.

Top 3 TikTok Videos by the Number of Views, all times:

Views: 40K | Likes: 2K | Comments: 10 | ER: 5.2%

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Views: 31K | Likes: 4K | Comments: 29 | ER: 14.5%

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Views: 20K | Likes: 2K | Comments: 15 | ER: 12.2%‍