As Product Marketing Manager, my role focused on collecting performance data, technical insights, and design intentions, then translating them into visuals and messaging that retailers, media, and riders could easily understand and connect with.
Like many performance-driven projects, the cockpit evolved through multiple inputs coming from engineering priorities, rider feedback, testing, and design iterations. Transforming all these elements into a coherent and engaging product story became one of the most interesting parts of the process.
A special thanks goes to Etienne Goy for the quality of his work and support throughout the project. His technical input and collaboration helped elevate the final result and bring clarity to many aspects of the development.
At the end of the day, product storytelling always requires finding the right balance between technical reality and emotional appeal. The objective is not to exaggerate performance claims, but to present the product in a way that highlights its strengths and helps riders understand where its value truly sits.
Building the Product Story and DNA Document.
Once the story structure and positioning were defined, the copywriting phase started with a first draft built around the available data, technical facts, and product intentions.
The text was then refined and polished together with Jonathan Camp whose work helped bring more rhythm, clarity, and consistency to the final messaging.
The document layout was created in Adobe InDesign before being handed over to Fritjog Hilgenfeldt. for final visual execution. Through strong photography, refined product imagery, and consistent BMC branding, the project evolved into a polished and visually compelling presentation.
Speed changes the game. Your equipment needs to evolve.
The storytelling for this project had to be built once the product definition was already largely established. While not always ideal from a marketing perspective, it also represents where product marketing can bring the most value: identifying the product strengths, structuring the narrative, and connecting technical development with rider expectations.
The resulting story was built around the areas riders are most likely to value when evaluating a high-performance cockpit: stiffness, integration, aerodynamics, ergonomics, and overall riding feel.
Rather than focusing purely on aerodynamic claims — already heavily used throughout the industry — the communication strategy aimed to create a broader and more differentiated product narrative.
To organize the presentation of the cockpit’s features and development priorities, the story was segmented into three main themes: Ergonomics, Yin & Yang (weight-to-stiffness), AeroSynthesis.
These sections helped structure both the technical explanations and the visual storytelling throughout the Product DNA document.
Ergonomics.
Ergonomics quickly became one of the strongest and most tangible elements of the project.
To explain the cockpit’s shaping, rider positioning, and transition surfaces, I created a series of 3D renderings and technical illustrations highlighting each section of the design. Animated 3D sequences also became essential tools for live product presentations to retailers, media, and riders.
Still frames extracted from these animations were later integrated into the static “Product DNA” PDF document to support the storytelling with clear visual references.
Yin & Yang.
The Yin & Yang section originally started almost humorously as a way to present the product’s performance trade-offs in a more engaging format.
The new cockpit prioritizes front-end stiffness and steering precision, resulting in a significantly stiffer structure compared to the previous generation. Rather than focusing purely on weight figures, the communication centered on explaining the engineering decisions and structural changes that enabled these performance gains.
To support this section, dedicated 3D animations and renderings were created to visualize updated clamping solutions and structural design evolutions that contributed to the increased stiffness.
AeroSynthesis.
Aerodynamics naturally remained an important part of the project.
Interestingly, positioning the aerodynamic story slightly later in the presentation was a deliberate choice. In a market where nearly every one-piece cockpit communicates “aero-first,” shifting the focus toward rider experience and control helped create a more differentiated narrative.
For this section, simplified CFD screenshots and airflow illustrations from the R&D process were integrated into the storytelling. Even relatively simple aerodynamic visuals proved highly effective in communicating the product’s intent and reinforcing its visual identity.
Final documents
The complete project documentation is available below:
Product DNA
Owner’s manual
The development of the BMC ICS Carbon Aero Gen 2 Marketingf Campaign assets was ultimately much more than the creation of a new cockpit. It became an exercise in transforming engineering decisions, rider feedback, industrial design, and performance targets into a coherent product experience and story.
From technical visualization and copywriting to product positioning and final presentation assets, the project highlighted the importance of connecting complex development work with clear and engaging communication. Bringing structure, clarity, and value to technically driven projects remains one of the aspects of product marketing I enjoy most.
