Surfer is extending its branding in a whole new way with a new project to create the “SURFER Bar” at the Turtle Bay Resort on the North Shore of Oahu.
Surfer has agreed to license its name to the resort for a fee and will also share revenue with it on product sold at the bar. In addition, Surfer is providing design input on the project, which is under construction and is expected to be open in the next month or so.
Surfer Publisher Tony Perez also has some other ideas brewing.
We asked him a few questions about the new bar project and other initiatives.
Why open a Surfer Magazine bar?
We wanted to create a place where North Shore surf legends and fans can hang out and enjoy themselves. We found out Turtle Bay was remodeling the Bay Club from our friends at the Triple Crown of Surfing and they suggested I contact them about possibly doing a collaboration with them.
We got to talking and one thing lead to another, and now you have the SURFER Bar. There will also be a SURFER Bar merchandise program, which will be a huge branding opportunity, not only for us, but also for our media partners.
The best example of what you will see and experience is that of an ESPN Sport Zone without the overproduced glitz – a place where friends and family alike cannot only come enjoy drinks and food but live the experience of a waterman day and night through the rich history that Hawaii, and Surfer Magazine bring.
The SURFER Bar will enjoy a variety of mixed media (via SURFER, Grind TV, and the brands) and be content driven by supporting webcasts, sponsored events, photography, film shows and music etc.
The venue is being built with a very high level of audio and visual production capabilities to make it easy to bring content or push content out through the U.S.
How do you hope brands will become involved?
Brands such as Vans, Reef, Billabong, Volcom, Da Hui, HIC, and Quiksilver are already inadvertently involved, because if it was not for them supporting Hawaii, SURFER Magazine, and the Vans Triple Crown, I don’t think we or Turtle Bay would have even considered this partnership. We are definitely going to encourage our media partners to be major players in this venture.
Whether it’s using the venue for events, parties, movie premieres, live webcast viewings, sales meetings, or just having a good time, everyone is going to have the opportunity to enjoy the bar, and North Shore Surfing Heritage.
Is Surfer Poll going to be held in Hawaii again? Why?
Absolutely! Not only did Turtle Bay do a great job last year, but has since become a partner. We also had the support from everyone involved in the Vans Triple Crown, and 100 percent of the athletes and award recipients backing it, as well as all of Oahu.
When we announced we were moving it, people were like, “Good luck dealing with all the politics over there.” But the funny thing is, without the support of the locals, SURFER Poll would not have been the success it was. So yes, as long as the community will have us, then the SURFER team has no plans of taking it anywhere else.
Tell me about the other idea you have to put magazines in hotel rooms.
The slogan goes, “From the Stands to the Sands.” We plan to take excess issues from newsstands every month and put them in rooms at several prominent hotels in beach communities. One of these will be Turtle Bay, which has agreed to put them in all rooms. This system will keep magazines out of landfills and bring that much more value to our media partners.
