It began with a $100,000 donation, ended with $11 million raised for charity, and someplace alongside the way in which, an electrical bike model earned 235M+ impressions and $7M price of name consciousness.
Ahrefs’ Neighborhood Supervisor, Michelle Lindner, shared Ryan Trahan’s “50 States Problem” in our #Advertising and marketing Slack channel after watching it along with her youngsters. She thought it confirmed some superior examples of unconventional advertising and marketing—and we agreed. 
One model stood out so strongly that it impressed us to make our personal donation… 
…and prompted Ahrefs’ VP of Advertising and marketing, Sam Oh, to create a YouTube teardown of their technique.
Right here’s what occurred, how the marketing campaign labored, and why it issues.
In 50 days, YouTube star Ryan Trahan visited all 50 U.S. states to boost cash for St. Jude Youngsters’s Analysis Hospital. He began with a $1M objective and ended up elevating over $11M.
The sequence grew to become a viral sensation, pulling in hundreds of thousands of views each day. Alongside the way in which, manufacturers grew to become a part of the story—and one specifically.
Enter Lectric e-bikes.
Lectric’s involvement seemed nothing like conventional sponsorship, felt nothing like an advert, but generated outcomes that almost all CMOs may solely dream of.
By naturally integrating their model into the problem, they pulled off one of the crucial quietly sensible model strikes of the yr.
Listed below are 4 classes discovered from their unconventional marketing campaign…
On Day 2 of Ryan’s problem Lectric donated $100K, and on the finish of the video, Ryan learn their title aloud alongside different large donors.
This transfer, alone, obtained their model in entrance of 6 million viewers.
Within the phrases of Sam Oh:
Some would name {that a} good value for an advert learn from a creator at Ryan’s scale.
However the true genius got here the following day.
Lectric confirmed up in individual and gifted Ryan a model new Lectric e-bike.
Then they sweetened the deal, pledging one other $10K for day-after-day he rode.
In contrast to a paid advert, it was a product placement that felt private, beneficiant, and well timed—and Ryan’s real response made it stick.
Now, Lectric had one of the crucial likable YouTubers using their bike in each video, naturally, with out having to power a product plug.
Lectric grew to become an integral a part of the remaining 47 episodes, and so they spent a fraction of face-value charges for a similar protection.
Right here’s the maths to show it:
- Complete attain: 47 episodes × 5M common views = 235M impressions.
- Market worth: At Ryan’s scale, YouTube integrations sometimes value $30–$50 CPM. Even conservatively, that’s $7M+ in equal media worth.
- Precise spend: $100K upfront donation + $470K in each day using donations (47 × $10K) = $570K whole.
Lectric primarily secured prime, high-frequency placement for below 10% of what a conventional sponsorship would value—and since their product was baked into the narrative, the model integration felt genuine moderately than advertorial.
Unsurprisingly, this sort of airtime led to an explosion in searches for Lectric.
As soon as the bike appeared, so did the web discussions.
Followers on Reddit and X posted about Lectric with out being prompted, as a result of the combination felt like a part of the journey.
They praised the model for his or her donation, their dedication to good causes, and the standard of their merchandise.
The conversations created extra consciousness but additionally one thing completely new: extra coaching knowledge.
AI instruments like ChatGPT and Google’s AI Overviews depend on publicly accessible content material—together with Reddit threads and social posts—to grasp what issues.
Reddit has signed offers with Google and OpenAI, permitting them to coach on its hundreds of thousands of person conversations.
As Sam Oh says:
The craziest half imo is that, as a result of Reddit signed licensing offers with Google and OpenAI, all these posts and mentions are coaching knowledge for AI which implies the extra folks speak about Lectric, the extra instruments like ChatGPT and Google will advocate it. Mainly, that one donation + natural integration triggered a full on advertising and marketing flywheel and I don’t even suppose Lectric absolutely realized what they had been setting in movement.
Our personal AI area visibility analysis exhibits that Reddit is routinely cited in Google’s AI search responses.
When followers celebrated Lectric in boards and threads, it didn’t simply affect folks—it influenced AI.
Now, when somebody goes to AI assistants to analysis Lectric merchandise, they’re going to come back throughout specs, official critiques, and optimistic digital phrase of mouth.
With every person publish, dialogue, and response, AI programs higher perceive that Lectric is a model folks genuinely belief.
Lectric’s charitable gesture set off a sequence response. Their title started to indicate up in every single place on the internet and in AI instruments.
Site visitors metrics in Ahrefs’ Web site Explorer confirmed that what began as modest publicity, grew into lots of of hundreds of natural visits.
At first, Lectric was barely talked about in AI assistants like ChatGPT, and impressions had been modest: hitting simply 4,000 throughout Could.
However by July, Ahrefs’ Model Radar confirmed that determine had shot as much as 700,000.
This occurred not as a result of they focused choose key phrases or optimized a touchdown web page, however as a result of the story caught hearth and the web ran with it.
Model mentions are one factor. Model adoption is one other.
By using the Lectric bike each day, Ryan made the product acquainted. It grew to become part of the present and one thing he relied on.
Repeat model appearances throughout entertaining, emotionally resonant content material like this may shift viewers from “that’s a pleasant bike” to “possibly I would like one.”
As extra folks watch, extra folks search. As extra folks purchase, extra folks publish. And so the loop begins—till Lectric turns into larger than the donation.
As soon as early adopters share their experiences, every new buyer fuels extra content material and dialogue. This compounds into:
- Elevated visibility in search, social, and even AI outcomes.
- Constructive sentiment development, when the product delivers.
- Decreased reliance on borrowed audiences, because the model’s personal neighborhood varieties.
Extra prospects → extra content material → extra prospects.
This loop is the flywheel in movement. It retains momentum going with out the necessity for fixed advert spend.
Closing ideas
By unconventional advertising and marketing, Lectric formulated a triple-win technique:
- Promote the model
- Do one thing good for the world
- Get monetary savings over conventional promoting
However this sort of marketing campaign solely labored as a result of it was completely true to Lectric’s values.
Philanthropy was baked into the model from the outset—not simply bolted on for optics.
In reality, they’ve a full web page devoted to philanthropy on their web site.
In the event you’re spitballing unconventional advertising and marketing concepts, keep in mind that true model match is what unlocks all three of these advantages.
Lectric’s conviction counts for much more immediately when AI makes up a lot of what we see.
Actual experiences, tales, and real human connection are a number of the few issues left that AI can’t replicate.
And when AI begins weighing sentiment and emotional impression as extremely as components like mentions, then unconventional campaigns like this may transfer from inventive to business-critical.
