Promotion of ethanol to motorcycle lovers was a bigger success this year than last.

This edition of the “Ethanol Report” with Renewable Fuels Association (RFA) Director of Market Development Robert White takes a look at how their sponsorship at the 70th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally went this year.

This is the second year that RFA partnered with the Legendary Buffalo Chip campgrounds which is the main venue for the huge motorcycle rally that draws hundreds of thousands each year, and this year was even bigger than last year. “We had a much larger than anticipated crowd,” Robert says. “Attendance was less than 500,000 last year and while the final numbers aren’t in, most are suggesting it was above 800,000 this year.”

That gave Robert lots of opportunities to talk with motorcycle owners about using ethanol in their engines, which most of them are doing without even knowing it. “There’s 16 states out there that don’t require labeling at the pump for anything 10 percent and below, so a lot of these guys and gals have been using ethanol for some time and just didn’t know it. So, they are their own case study.”

There was lots of ethanol signage and giveaways at the campground and during the concerts at the venue and RFA also utilized social media for promotions at the event. “I was giving away ethanol t-shirts that were Sturgis 2010 specific on Twitter and Facebook and we had a Facebook Fan Appreciation party where over 100 people showed up and the only way they were invited was through Facebook,” Robert says. Pictures of the event can be found here on RFA’s ethanolpics Flickr photo album.

Listen to Robert tell the story of promoting ethanol at Sturgis in this Ethanol Report podcast. Sturgis Recap Report

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