MotoGoLoco

Case Study

Summary

MotoGoLoco was a brand new start up in 2013. The vision for MotoGoLoco was and remains to become the recognised and leading resource for the touring motorcyclist.

They realised that there was a huge community of motorcyclists and giving them the ability to find biker friendly points of interest, hotels, other types of accommodation and the facility to map their routes on a website then share them and save them could lead to a great website for the biker community.

Initially launching in the UK with the determination to franchise/licence into Europe. The franchise element was crucial to consider from conception so that all areas of the website and business were designed in such a way that the website can be packaged, exported and delivered as a turnkey operation with ease.

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Our Roles

Web & Mobile Development

Creation of Mapping Software

The Challenge

There are a couple of other decent mapping websites out there, one of them being Google, so we knew we were up against something big. The other factor was this was a brand new venture so it had to be so simple to use for bikers and many non tech savvy users so that this would gain momentum and be recommended throughout the community; anything less than brilliant would be a failure for us.

Insights

Part of the difficulty of this brief was the understanding of the client that they were in a fast evolving and maturing market with an extensive roll out plan, therefore the website needed to have a “completed” feel at every stage of the roll out.

A number of the ideas, plans and strategies of MotoGoLoco are extremely innovative thus they particularly wanted an innovative element in the website design and functionality to demonstrate this.

A key challenge here was to identify with the bikers; who were they, what ages were they, gender, what did they like to do outside of biking and so on.

Understanding the varied range of the community gave us some great direction on where we went with the design. Identifying the problems before they were a problem and visually stimulating them with a solution that ticked all the boxes.

Our Solution

As we mentioned before, we were up against some other major mapping software ie Google Maps, so using something that was familiar already to the end users we used the Google Mapping technology as a base and custom built a mapping software to add layer, plan routes, add way points, save, share and upload to your navigation device. It has created a real community for Bikers across the UK.

By design MotoGoLoco chose not to make any marketing or tactical partnerships with brands or household names within the industry for at least a year so they could develop their own brand and increase it’s perceived value. They have informed us they have had numerous offers and have struggled to keep to their business plan, especially in todays current climate but have managed to do so and are now secure enough to enter into negotiations.

Results

The website was launched before the first of June and thus the website has started from a zero base. It now enjoys over 40,000 unique monthly views (remembering that this is a niche market group) with the average user spending at least 3 minutes on the site. Google analytics inform us that 95% of users landing on the site reflect in the goals set for the site to achieve such as newsletter signups or accommodation searches.

On the strength of the website the Directors of MotoGoLoco have assured us that they have secured the level of partnership standings that they desired from the outset. Over the year they have established relationships with:

The Institute of Advanced Motorists – A membership of over 10 000 active users in the UK

Ride Magazine – One of UK’s leading Motorcycle Magazines with a print run of over 33 000

BMW Owners Motorcycle Club – Active Membership of over 4000

A significant number of others currently under negotiation.

Stats

40,000 +

unique page views

Minimum 3 minutes

engagment time on site

1 Million +

routes shared

What Our Client Says

We believe MotoGoLoco to be a very unique and innovative concept. We needed therefore to find and identify a web design company who was prepared to be equally as innovative and unique. We spent over 5 months seeking such a design company throughout the UK. We identified Adeo by their willingness to listen and try to fully understand our requirements. What we actually saw at interview stage was a strong passion and willingness to take on a serious challenge. We made it known from scratch that this was a start-up company and that finances would be stretched and we required a huge return for every pound invested. This did not faze them and indeed appeared to relish in the challenge. We spent a good period of time scoping out the entire project and Adeo were not merely listeners in this process but very active participants.

Mapping was always going to be a huge challenge as everything is based upon Google API but we wanted more. We wanted to be cutting edge. We wanted to be hi-tec. We wanted it to be intuitive and usable. We wanted a lot of clever features that would appeal to tec savvy motorcyclists and anyone else who wanted to build a route. From this we created a mapping system that we put out in beta testing. Although workable the beta failed to deliver the fantastic features possible with the system and feedback was varying between and ok and good. This was not good enough and Adeo took it on the chin, brainstormed and released an updated version which has received numerous accolades from very knowledgeable users.

In all other areas such as their own Redback CMS platform to their design and graphic skills they exceeded our expectations and went further than we imagined. They managed to turn our concepts and ideas into tangible, workable and in some cases very attractive assets.

At no time did Adeo ever indicate that something could not be done. They would express views and reservations and even showed faces of horror on some occasions but they always looked to see how they could achieve our objectives. There was never a case of it can’t be done, the end. Adeo always came up with alternatives or presented us with opportunities on how things could be done better.

The whole team at Adeo have been an absolute pleasure to work with. This is a heartfelt truism and not just words. They have been professional in their attitude, timely in their delivery and passionate in their desire to achieve results for both themselves and MotoGoLoco. Our journey with Adeo has not ended, indeed there is no finish in sight. We have developed a strong working relationship that we believe will continue to grow with the changing times and our business needs.