Harley‑Davidson Street Launch
- Product Launch
- New Model Reveal
- Award-Winning Design
For the launch of Harley-Davidson's Street™ 500 and Street™ 750 motorcycles, designed to appeal to a new generation of urban riders, Proscenium brought together 1,200 U.S. dealership employees at the Kansas City Convention Center for a "non-meeting meeting". Proscenium served as end-to-end production partner across strategy, creative, content, and live show execution.
- Audience
- B2B
- Attendance
- 1,200
- Location
- Kansas City
- Format
- Live
Services
- Strategy
- Creative
- Production
- Content
- Experiential
A Non-Meeting Meeting
Harley-Davidson riders are so loyal they will literally tattoo the company's logo on their flesh. To grow in new markets, Harley-Davidson launched two new smaller-displacement motorcycles, the Street™ 500 and Street™ 750, designed to appeal to a new generation of urban riders. To prepare 1,200 U.S. dealership employees to sell these bikes to a buyer who may have never visited a Harley-Davidson dealership, we set out to throw a non-meeting meeting: an experience that would reinforce why a new approach was necessary, simply by showing them one.
Out of the darkness came the roar of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, its headlamp rising as it rolled onto the stage, where the rider hit the throttle and smoked the back tire in a burnout on a steel plate embedded in the deck.
A Convention Center, Reimagined
We staged the event at the Kansas City Convention Center, where the motorcycles are built, but completely transformed the venue into an urban street scene torn straight from any city corner between New York and San Francisco. Authenticity was the name of the game, from the rust on the fence to the fallen leaves scattered around the stage. Seating was intimate and immersive with no traditional drapes, only painted theatrical flats and wire-mesh street-corner trash cans, while a DJ mixed a playlist that felt straight from the headphones of a young urban rider, adding sampled car horns and barking dogs at just the right moments.
A Blackout, A Burnout, A Reveal
Thirty minutes before showtime, the lights began dimming subtly until it felt like true sunset. Urban sounds filled the air, the music built, and a tearing sound rang out as the "Welcome" billboard was ripped away. The room went completely dark: a city blackout. Out of the darkness came the roar of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle, its headlamp rising as it rolled onto the stage, where the rider hit the throttle and smoked the back tire in a burnout on a steel plate embedded in the deck. As the bike glided forward and the cityscape came back to life, a second motorcycle emerged from beneath the billboard for a dueling burnout.
Riders, Not Executives
The two riders dismounted to reveal they weren't hired stunt performers, they were Harley-Davidson employees, both directly involved in developing Street™. It was the first of many authentic moments reinforcing that the motorcycle was developed by riders for riders. Throughout the meeting, executives came out, sat on the motorcycles, and spoke about the urban future of the brand, and two Kansas City factory line workers joined Executives onstage to introduce an emotional video about the pride their colleagues felt in building the new bikes.
An Evening That Kept Going
After the presentation, dealers were invited onstage to sit on the bikes, meet the executives and factory workers, and take photos. A DJ cranked the music, bars opened, and the audience was treated to authentic Kansas City barbecue. Every attendee left with a skull-themed Street™ poster hand-signed in the moment by the artist himself. Post-event surveys confirmed the impact: 90% of respondents found the event "valuable or extremely valuable," and 95% reported being "satisfied or extremely satisfied" with the target customer information.
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