X. Harley-Davidson - Common Ground



What did we create?

How do you celebrate Harley-Davidson’s 100’th anniversary in Canada and Canada’s 150’th birthday? With an entire campaign centred around real Canadian riders from across the country, and guests from across the globe. 

1 x full-length Discovery Channel documentary 
3 x 15m content episodes 
9 x :60s online teasers 
Out-of-home campaign
Print partnerships 
CRM campaign 
Website content 

Have some time to kill, want to learn about Harley-Davidson rider culture, Canada and three international countries, all at once? Watch the full-length Common Ground doc below, or split up the doc by part 1, 2 and 3 if you’re short on time.  



Why is this project one of my faves?

This is it, this is the project that I’m most fond of. The team, what we were able to accomplish, it was pure magic, stressful AF, but magic nonetheless. 

The project evolved so many times as we continued building on the insightful strategy. Common Ground was a celebration of riding culture, intertwined with Canada’s 150’th birthday and Harley-Davidson’s 100’th Canadian anniversary, ultimately bringing to life real Canadian stories from across the nation. 

The way in which the team worked as a tightly knit unit made me so proud to be a Canadian, and to have such a wonderful country to celebrate. I think that’s probably why I’ll always hold this project so close to my heart. It wasn’t just a project to me, it was a celebration of the country I’m proud to call mine, working side by side with Canadians I still call friends to this day (insert sappy gif here).

What role did I play? 

Account Supervisor - Zulu Alpha Kilo

Building off of the success of the Audi Q7 Projection of Greatness project, I was placed on the Harley-Davidson account. Using the communication planning skills I developed on the Audi account, I was able to work with our Strategy team to craft a communication plan for Common Ground that was heavily rooted in data and consumer insights.

In addition to developing the communication plan, I was the lead project manager for this campaign. I relied heavily on my strengths at managing stakeholders to create an integrated agency team process, managing the agency partners to fuse together media, creative and PR seamlessly. 

Production was heavy on shooting the docu-series, as such, I kept all shoots running smoothly. How you ask? Relentless schedule revisions, and impeccable budget management (including lots of tricky finance related conversations). 

How did I add value to the project?

I got my hands dirty. I wore every single hat required of me, I believe that’s the magic of being an Account Planner. I was the information gatekeeper for all aspects of the project, touching every single contributing team, as such, I made sure nothing ever slipped through the cracks. 


Who did I learn from? 

Marketing: Jay Owen, Vesa Mikkola, Marco DiGiantomasso
Chief Creative Office: Zak Mroueh
Executive Creative Director: Allen Oke
Art Director: Brendan McMullen
Copywriter: Jacob Pacey
Strategy: Jamie Cuthbertson
Account Planning: David Tremblay, Kerri McKibbin, Maya Adler

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