Dunlop: Strong presence at Harley-Davidson ‘Festival of Freedom’
- Harley-Davidson 115th anniversary celebrated at Prague Festival
- Dunlop display D429 for first time at Harley-Davidson Festival
- Dunlop social campaign reaches over 314,000 during weekend
Dunlop is hailing the official birthday party for Harley-Davidson as a success after over 100,000 visitors reportedly attended the ‘Celebrating 115 years of Freedom’ festival in Prague, Czech Republic.
Dunlop had a strong presence at the event, with their official motorsport tyre fitting service on site. The Dunlop team displayed the brand’s extensive range of exclusive co-branded Harley-Davidson tyres.
It was the first public show appearance of the Dunlop D429 tyre, following Harley-Davidson announcing that their latest Fat Bob and Fat Bob S are now fitted with the distinctive scrambler-like tyre. Like many of the exclusively developed tyres, the D429 features Harley-Davidson/Dunlop branding on the sidewalls.
In addition to the Festival being a significant birthday for Harley-Davidson, Dunlop also had its own birthday to celebrate. 2018 is the 130th anniversary of John Boyd Dunlop inventing the pneumatic tyre to help his son go faster and further to win a tricycle race.
The official OEM supply partnership began 37 years ago when Dunlop was chosen as the approved tyre for the Sportster. Last year, Dunlop celebrated having supplied 10 million original equipment tyres to Harley-Davidson.
More than 60,000 bikers and about 40,000 other visitors from over 70 countries revved into Prague, making it the biggest anniversary festival for the motorcycles outside of Harley-Davidson’s U.S. home of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, where a similar party takes place in August.
Luca Andreoni, Dunlop Motorcycle Marketing Manager, Europe, explained the riders’ brand loyalty: “Dunlop has 130 years of tyre making experience and nearly a third of the brand’s life has been spent working closely with Harley-Davidson. Dunlop engineers have worked with Harley-Davidson to develop tyres that meet the stringent performance standard demanded by such a premium manufacturer. That’s why our tyres are authorised to carry the official Harley-Davidson logo”
Dunlop makes a social impact
During the Festival, Dunlop encouraged fans to participate in their ‘Dunlop Steel’ strength competition. By encouraging posting of pictures of Harley-Davidson fans showing their strength in a range of tests, the campaign reached over 314,000 people on Instagram. Over 750 fans participated in the ‘Dunlop Steel’ tests and shared their photos.
“The Dunlop activities showed that Harley-Davidson fans are a really active community, both at live events on line. It was a pleasure to be part of the joint birthday celebrations” concluded Luca.