At first I thought this has got to be a bit naff. The RZA remixing the Nike6.0 Team. Really?
Not another damn remix!
Boy, was I wrong. This is cool as f**k.
Nike have really started to drop the hammer in the surf market with these productions.
The RZA vs. Kolohe Andino from Nike 6.0 on Vimeo.
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So the ASP have announced fairly radical changes to the structure of the ‘Dream Tour’, a single tier ranking system, and atlast, a few extra bucks for the boys. Great news! But for the 95% of us who watch contests on the net, I’m a little disappointed that there was no official announcement with regards to the next step of the webcast. But I’m not surprised.
Mick Fanning gave us a sniff of what’s on the horizon with a little slip of the tongue during his interview on insurfnews.com stating that “there will be one website for the 2010 tour”. Great news! Or is it?
ASP 2.0 Breakdown With Mick Fanning and Kieren Perrow from Andrew Oliver on Vimeo.
Stop Thinking Website, Starting Thinking Online Community.
It’s not that hard to create a website; and it’s even harder to make any money out of one. But an active online community where registered users actively engage with content, generate their own, share content, debate / bitch / complain in forums and create their online persona is addictive. And addiction = money. And we know if we want better broadcast options, stronger commentary teams, and professional surfers outside the top 10 actually making a decent living, there needs to be a wider revenue stream. This community starts with these top surfers, and works its way across to you and me. It doesn’t need to be complicated, but it does need to be interactive and engaging.
Communities Exist Outside Facebook
Did you notice a few months ago the ASP pretty much converted half their website to a massive big Facebook widget? WTF? Don’t get me wrong, Facebook is in this day and age an essential tool in the communication process, but putting all your eggs in someone else’s basket? #fail. And look how big Hurley’s is compared to the ASP.
Does Size Matter?
Ofcourse it does. But let’s face it, surfing doesn’t attract the number of viewers that’s going to set any records. But its strength is an extremely strong global community. We know it’s there, we know they’re online, but it’s yet to be brought inhouse. If there was a central online community platform where we could interact, communicate and share, then that core community could fuel the fire to create something much stronger than the current system. Size does matter, but the motion of the ocean can be something much more powerful.
Bring In The Nerds
When I was a teenager, I was either at school, or surfing. Generally the later. Nothing else mattered. My younger brother sat in a dark room at home rebuilding his computer, hanging out in online forums, sharing tips, tricks and geeky content. He called himself ‘ViRaL’, 10 years before every brand who enters the digital space wanted to create one. I laughed at his name. Now he earns 4 times more than me, owns property, drives flash cars, and yeah, is pretty well known in his online communities.
I could go on, but to cut to the point, bring in the nerds. Proper ones. They could build this online community better, faster, stronger and smarter. And that’s not a dis to the current sponsors who have done a great job with the current system, but it’s time to take it to the next level.
Though the big question is, who’s going to pay for it?
…to be continued…
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Results from alexa.com show the spike in traffic to billabongpro.com, plus aspworldtour.com
Online traffic to the Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay, South Africa looks to have set a whole new level of viewers, higher then that of any other ASP Event in 2009, according to analysis of online reach using Alexa. Using the online traffic monitoring tool, the graph above shows the worldwide users peaking over the final 2 days of competition at a new level not seen all year.
Indepth statistics from official sources for all contests are not widely available, but a search using the Alexa tool, cross-referencing the ASP, Billabong, Rip Curl, Quiksilver and Boost Mobile Pro events would suggest that the amount of traffic to billabongpro.com could be an all time high for the webcast productions of professional surfing.
Alexa analysis of the major webcast platforms over past 2 years. The red line against the right hand side of the graph represents the Billabong Pro J-Bay. The Boost Mobile Pro and Rip Curl Search are right up there too.
The large spike in traffic is an extremely positive result for Billabong and all the sponsors, the ASP, the surfers and the wider surfing community; a well earnt justification that the time, money and effort invested into the webcasts continue to reach new levels and set new benchmarks in online sports broadcasting.
The J-Bay Cocktail
The combination of the Clash Of The Icons social experiementation, the best swell we’ve seen on tour all year, a giant slaying local hero, a resurgent world champion and a new king in the making, gelled together by Billabong’s interactive media prowess, were all the ingredients required in setting a new benchmark for the webcasts. As I mentioned in a previous post, it’s no longer just a webcast, it’s an interactive experience. And it continues to get better each contest.
South African’s Come Out To Play
In the biggest result of the contest, more surprising than the early eliminations of Kelly, Mick, Adriano and Taj, is that online traffic from South Africa was greater than any other country, making up 29% off all traffic, 6% more than the might of the USA, and more than 3 times that of Australian traffic. The results below show a healthy mix of the top surfing nations logging in to watch the action take place.
Demographic Analysis of Worldwide Users
I can’t wait for Trestles…
Explosive, yet maybe not that unsurprising news hit this week that a renegade-super-fantasy-surfing-tour was being formed between a loose consortium including Kelly Slater and his management, private equity firms and the media powerhouse, ESPN. Whilst the surfing media have all been treading carefully with how they report the matter, mostly because details are still unclear, comments circulating online by various unidentified characters within the darker pockets of the industry have been scathing, to say the least.
The most constructive piece I’ve read on the matter, and one of the few to go beyond just copying what they read from the Noosa Journal whom broke the story, is by long time surf journo Point Grinder aka Chris Mauro at Grind.tv. Read it here. Addressing the heart of the problem, the fact that the ASP doesn’t own their greatest asset, ownership of the media rights, and the need for a unified common platform in which we watch surfing. Most of the comments I’ve seen on various websites have all made reference to the potential internal implosion of the ASP and core surfing, the online assassination of Kelly Slater and every piece of mud slinging possible inbetween. Call me naive, uninformed, or maybe I’m on to something here, but I for one, think the 2 tours can live side by side, as long as they have their unique differences. Here’s my 5 cents:
Rumble In the Jungle Exhbition, Surfing Style
The ‘New Tour’ Absolutely Cannot Be A New Tour, It Has To Be An Exhibition Series
We don’t need anther world tour, we already have one; but if the Occy V Curren match up was anything to go by, then the thought of more of these match ups are very tasty indeed. And that’s what the masses want, entertainment. If the new tour proposal was to go ahead, a series of must see, one-offs, would be in my opinion the most dramatic, entertaining and constructive integration with the current system.
It also raises the question, if Surfing is finally coming to prime time TV via ESPN, how will they produce the content for a whole contest, live, on TV?
We’ve seen a sniff of this via Billabong with Island Time in Tahiti, and Lakka Fire Cracka in South Africa, with the hour long live show. Next step in my book, turn that 1 hour live show into a 24/7 broadcast, which will require a depth of content, but that’s something surfing is rich in, content, one of the strongest assets in online trading right now. Add panel of surf experts, promote the broadcast as happening 24/7 around the clock for the entire waiting period and I’d like to see what that does for audience viewing figures.
What would an ESPN broadcast be like? They better use real ex-pro surfers!
Is It Time The ASP & The Event Sponsors Form A Broadcast Alliance?
The root of both the problem and the solution is that there are 10 events, and 10 very different webcasts. If they worked as one, with less competition, then would have this situation arisen?
A recent interview with Kelly Slater on ESPN, the writing was on the wall: “The new governing body should own and run the events, own the media, do the marketing, bring in sponsors. Right now, the ASP doesn’t own any of those things, because it didn’t do the groundwork in the beginning. Sponsors own, run and market the events. That needs to change.” Read this interview with Kelly on ESPN here.
Bring In The Peacekeepers To Unite As One
Bringing Together The Best Features For A Common Ground
If you combined all the best aspects from the current platforms, brought them under one umbrella to form one large consistant platform, as apposed to many platforms with inconsistant features and erratic traffic levels; would that not form a stronger communication model to grow as one?
Billabong have set the benchmark that it’s no longer just a webcast, it’s an interactive experience. They’re making watching 6 – 8 hours of a contest pleasurable. And it’s all down to the depth of their content. This is something ESPN doesn’t have.
Rip Curl set new ground last year partnering with HD streaming outfit Vivadas, and it’s a damn shame Vivadas went under, as watching in full screen was great.
Quiksilver also dabbled in HD in France last year, have been on top of their game with backstage content and commentary teams.
And then there was the Hang Loose Pro in Brazil. The Brazilian leg should not be penalised and ridiculed because their country has a poorer economy and the sponsor cannot afford to spend as much as everyone else. This is a big reason why there should be one platform, to ensure all webcasts are consistant, not a competition. Online traffic from Brazil ranks as the 3rd highest traffic source to ASP events (According to my analysis via Alexa), and they should be assisted with their broadcast. Not demoralised because they don’t have as much money as the rest of the sponsors.
If these big brands worked together to have a common online platform in which we viewed events, then they can collectivally grow the sport for the good of all involved. What we need is one portal, one URL, one channel. dreamtour.tv? The sponsors can have everything you’ve already got; a branded / skinned wire frame, sponsorship opportunities, banner ads for product, commercials, video on demand, database collection, etc. But as one the communication methods can be strengthened and grown to further increase the online traffic to events, and surfing as a full time spectators sport.
I believe they should form a media company which they can all have shares in, collect further revenue from banner advertising, work together as one to have a common way in which we watch the contents. They haven’t done this, so it looks like ESPN will.
Coke & Pepsi became friends just the other week, so anything is possible.
mmmm, statistics!
Who’s Counting?
Most sporting codes have a whole range of metrics in which they monitor their reach, primarily through TV ratings and live attendance, add media coverage & PR, and you can start putting a dollar value on your key sponsorship packages.
Doing a little research through the right channels, it’s not hard to find out how many people follow sporting leagues and races via TV, radio & online. I know how many people watched the NRL, AFL, Basket Ball, Cricket, and frankly, anything on TV over the weekend because of the TV ratings made available. OK, surfing isn’t quite at that level, but does anyone outside the major sponsors know how many people are logging into the webcast? It’s a question I often ask industry types if I happen to meet them, but it’s usually met with a furrowed brow. It doesn’t seem like many people know, nor do they want us know.
With the birth of the webcast, and the sport of surfing officially going digital, the available metrics of audience reach and engagement have never been better. No longer is surfing judged by how many people are on the beach watching; there is a digitally savvy, global audience logged in, clicked on and more than happy to engage and communicate the surfing gospel. There are a highly accurate range of analysis tools are available to measure this, and it’s about time we see some stats. Oh what I would do with a few hours in Google Analytics crunching stats from each contest.
It Takes 2 To Tango
Slater has been the prime target of forum critics with regards to ‘the new tour’. Never have we had a better ambassador for the sport, and nor will we in the near future. A surfer who can get through a whole interview without saying “awww, it was sic mate, I’m just stoked”. Dane, Jordy, Julian and co., these guys are all setting new boundaries, but will they compete for 15 – 20 years or do a few, then spend the rest doing boat trips? Without Kelly Slater, surfing will never make it on TV, and that would be an opportunity lost if not taken now.
I highly doubt for a second that Kelly’s intensions, or that of ESPN, are to kill the ASP, and the foundations they have set. Everyone out there has their own opinion, and Kelly definitely has his, it’s just that he’s in a better position than most to actually do something about it. Even his major sponsor Quiksilver are struggling at the moment, many brands are, and if this new competition was to happen, it will help inject more money into the industry, and that can only be a good thing. More people will buy product, buy magazines, log into your website, jobs will be created, etc. The whole food chain will be fed.
Sure, that may mean more surfers in the water, but do you think a person from ‘whoop whoop or where ever’ whose taken a newly found interest in surfing is likely to out the back and snaking you on the next 6 foot day down the beach? Well, I can’t see that happening. They’ll be enrolling in the local surf school, buying a new wetsuit, some boardies, a t-shirt, etc… which will hopefully keep both you and me in a job (well, if I had one).
I personally want Kelly to win that 10th World Title so we can claim that we have the most successful athlete ever. Just do it next year, because I’m already working on the best marketing campaign ever. Kelly Slater : 10 World Titles in 2010. I’m already drowning in a pool of puns. Surfing and it’s sponsors have worked long and hard at loosing the image of bong smoking, beer swilling hippies, and Kelly Slater is a major part of that.
Apparently Bede had to mortgage his house the other year just to cover travel expenses. These guys deserve a proper pay day
We The Spectators And The Surfers Have The Most To Gain
Let’s face it, pro surfers get paid peanuts. OK, Kelly, Andy, Parko, Mick, Taj, Jordy, Dane and a few others do well, but for the most of them, they’ve got next to nothing. And what will they have to show for it when then come off tour? Probably not much. If they’ve got a good sponsor, hopefully they’ll give them a job as Team Manager, or something like that. Kelly’s been doing the tour for almost 20 years, and he’s made a grand total prize money of $1.9million dollars. That’s under a hundred grand a year. If this is to be a professional sport, let them get paid like professionals.
The ‘new tour’ will mean more surfing contests with some of the best surfers in the world, both old and new, at some of the best locations. I can handle that. And I’m sure the surfers can do with the extra coin. But please, work with the ASP on the schedule, don’t turn this into a competition of who has the most cash. Position this ‘tour’ as a series of fully glorified exhibition matches, entertainment, the ultimate clash of 16 icons. We don’t need another tour, it doesn’t need to be do or die, with some good open communication, two tours need not collide.
ASP & ESPN Unite To Televise Both Tours?
Alot of the discussion has been either one way or the other. What if the ASP and ESPN were to unite, making all ASP events available on ESPN? It comes back to my point above, how would ESPN go about broadcasting a surfing contest? And with this new tour being a limited amount of contests over a 6 month period, it doesn’t quite warrant it’s own Surfing Channel on ESPN. But what if ALL ASP events were televised? WCT, WQS, Pro Juniors, plus the new super tour, all stitched together by re-runs of older content and a healthy dash of branded content from the major event sponsors. It could almost work. It’ll all come down to how all the major parties involved play their cards.
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Results from web metrics company Alexa.com
International online traffic surrounding the ASP Word Tour event #4, the Hang Loose Pro, Santa Catarina, Brazil, has peaked at levels above the first 3 events on the 2009 schedule. Results published by web metrics site Alexa ranking traffic over a 6 month period from January to July 2009 to the aspworldtour.com website, clearly show the spikes in traffic levels surrounding each of the 4 ASP World Tour Events this year, with the final day of competition pushing traffic levels to the ASP website to a new high for the 2009 year.
New Contest Schedule = Winner
The move by the ASP to bring the event to the opposite end of the competition schedule has proved to be a winner, with Kelly Slater’s fight back to the winner podium from an uncharacteristically bad start to the year, no doubt driving renewed interest to the contest that has in past years, drifted off the priority scale.
Slater back in the eye of the spotlight, though he never actually left
What’s In A URL?
Whilst traffic to the ASP during the Brazil contest has peaked above the more digitally savy contest sponsors such Quiksilver, Rip Curl & Billabong, it is not a conclusive result as the more memorable URL’s used by those sponsors make it easy for the to receive traffic direct. This does raise questions about the URL in which we view the broadcasts. The unmemorable, long and unattractive URL http://www.clicrbs.com.br/especial/wct/html/painel2.html doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue, which in turn, dictated that users go via the ASP website for the link. Couldn’t they have just registered http://www.hangloosepro.com/ ? No one else has.
Does Size Really Matter?
Whilst reach was high, engagement is questionable. Criticism over the quality of the webcast made viewing for the hard core only. Heat after heat of unplanned and ‘whoever just happened to be standing around’ commentary, cameramen more concerned with filming girls on the beach than a surfer paddling, lack of instant wave replays, and generally below par interactive heat by heat stimulus we’ve come to expect from the webcasts. Could you last 6 hours of that? Some did, some just couldn’t, given some of the comments being posted to Twitter.
Oh, and don’t even get me started about the 3 ‘Pro Ho’s’ doing the back stage content. Thrusting a mic and big boobs into the faces of well known (married) surfers live on air, come on, haven’t we moved passed that? Even ladies man TB looked uncomfortable.
This to me further highlighted the need for a unified webcast platform, a common URL, surfings’ own online TV channel.
Don't Throw Your TV Out Yet
Don’t Be Bagging Out Brazil.
It would be easy to make the contest organisers in Brazil the scapegoat of the poor standards of the broadcast, but given that each sponsor controls the broadcast quality and direction, it’s time for the ASP to step in and take back the media ownership of professional surfing. The ASP, and sponsors need to come together on a common platform in which we watch surfing for the good of the sport, and not just to provide a better webcast then the competitor.
Kelly Slater in a recent interview with ESPN
SLATER SAYS: “START FROM SCRATCH”
“The new governing body should own and run the events, own the media, do the marketing, bring in sponsors. Right now, the ASP doesn’t own any of those things, because it didn’t do the groundwork in the beginning. Sponsors own, run and market the events. That needs to change.”
But until (if) that happens, it’s interactive game on! Bring J-Bay.
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But whist there are mountains of content, it is a little sparse with how regular it’s updated, so it will be interesting to see how Nike progress further into the surfing industry over the next few years. They obviously have the technical know how.
| Add Nike 6.0 Illvill to your page |
This story is taken straight from The Sydney Morning Herald. By Julian Lee.
FOR an ad agency or a television network, Billabong is the ultimate nightmare as a brand.
It does not make TV commercials, it does not book space on television. And its magazine ads are produced by its own team. Billabong is not just a surf brand, it is a media company, says the person in charge of producing the hours of surf-related content.
“This just ups the ante,” says Scott Wallace of the deal announced last week with Sony. “We are turning into a media company as well as a clothing company.”
The strategic partnership between the companies marries Sony’s expertise in video technology with Billabong’s street cred cool. Sony gets access to Billabong’s audience of tech-savvy surfies and followers while Billabong gets help in creating the content and getting it to as many people as possible.
Wallace, a former executive with the sports marketing company IMG, now vice-president, new media and strategic partnerships, is a busy man. Two weeks ago VAS, the company contracted to sell Billabong content around the world, was at a MIPCOM TV sales conference in Cannes marketing a 13-part series to potential buyers. “It’s centred around our athletes. It is less about the sport and more about the lifestyle of the athletes,” says Wallace.
The surf label produces up to 35 hours of high-definition video a year, drawing on events around the world – there’s almost one every week – and its small army of athletes as the subject.
“We use everything. We cut it up and use it for the web and then we use it for phone content.”
Each week Billabong produces 40 minutes of material to be used on mobile phone networks. When asked if it was working, Wallace is unable to share any figures but says: “It must be okay as they keep asking for more.”
A 25-strong audio visual team will be at the Billabong Pro Tahiti – one of four events in the world series the brand sponsors – in May to film the event, which will be made into a one-hour film that IMG sells around the world. During the tournament Billabong streams live feeds to its website, which attracts 1 million unique visitors during the event. Since last year the average visit has increased from 18 to 27 minutes, according to Billabong’s figures.
Now it is giving Sony Handycams to its athletes, who include surfers Joel Parkinson, Andy Irons, Taj Burrow and Tiago Pires, to film every aspect of their lives. Apparently there is demand to watch them eating breakfast, or at least the edited highlights, says Wallace.
For Sony’s marketing director, Toby Barbour, it is a way of getting his products before a younger audience. “We want to get them early so that we can follow [them] through the life stages with products such as Sony Ericsson mobile phones, Handycams and Bravia [TVs].”
But to what end does all of this serve Billabong? Wallace says it is hard to measure the return on investment of producing all this content, the cost of which he will not reveal. “I guess the ROI [return on investment] is about raising the profile of the sport, our athletes and, yes, ultimately our brand.”
He admits the proliferation of such content will help all surf brands but it is down to Billabong to bring that to life in its stores. As part of the Sony deal, the videos will be shown on Sony screens in 300 stores it owns around the world.
But it is clear that traditional communications such as TV ads do not work for the surf brand. “Our market is very tech-savvy … they all have a good still camera or a Handycam. [TV ads] are just not something they accept. ”
Tim Flattery, a director of Carat Engage, a branded content agency, says the announcement of a new broadband network has galvanised the industry. He predicts more companies will view the high-speed network’s ability to allow video content on demand as the turning point and move into areas such as that pioneered by Billabong.
“I think that will put to the sword the interruptive model. What we will see more of in the future is a sponsorship model for television.”
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