FCB London builds bespoke motorbike for National Highways

The partnership promotes road safety with a custom bike showcasing medical-grade titanium parts, sparking vital conversations among bikers

By Creative Salon

05 April 2024

Experienced bikers often feel they’ve seen it all and know the risks of motorcycling, so to reduce the number of fatalities and serious injuries on England’s roads, National Highways had to become a part of their world. Making them care about safety is a challenge, especially coming from a government organisation. But with collisions involving motorcycles averaging one per day in 2022, it was an issue that needed to be addressed.

To capture the imagination of bikers, and side-step riders’ cynicism, FCB London developed the idea of a bespoke and fully functional motorcycle, incorporating medical grade titanium body parts that are normally used to piece together riders after an accident. Manufactured by Old Empire, the bike appeals to bikers’ love of beautiful, unique motorbike design and triggers a live conversation about the chromium-plated parts that headline the bike.

This bespoke bike will tour multiple large-scale events such as the London Motorcycle Show and Bristol Classic Motorcycle Show, where more than 100,000 people gather to share their love of bikes. It will be accompanied by a team of experienced and respected bikers who all have the very same components in their own bodies, after dangerous collisions.

Alongside the unique bike, the bikers manning the display stand will give the audience the opportunity to hear their stories, allowing National Highways to open important conversations about road safety with a niche audience group within their own cultural behaviour. FCB London has also made a compelling film that highlights the beauty as well as the unsettling underlying truth of the bike and its components. It will feature on National Highways’ own channels as well as being shown on the websites and at event spaces.

Alison Holliday, Head of Marketing and Events at National Highways, said: “Safety is at the heart of everything we do and this truly unique piece of equipment helps us to engage in dialogue around biker safety.

“Using creativity and engineering to raise awareness of road safety, this project is a brilliant example of how different people with different skills can come together under a common purpose.

“We are very excited to tour the country with this bike and look forward to the conversations we believe will help to inspire around improving safety for everyone using the roads.”

Mike Mackenzie and Greg Harvey, Senior Creative Team at FCB London said: “It's not every day you get an opportunity to create a custom motorbike for a government client, or for any brand really. We knew from the word go that we needed to entice riders to come to us rather than shouting another safety message at them.

This is the next chapter in the BikerTek brand campaign originally created by Adam and Eve.