Ross Garrett on SIMA's Stokes Me challenge

SIMA’s Stokes Me fundraising campaign starts today and runs through October.

 

New SIMA Humanitarian Fund President Ross Garrett fills us in on the innovative challenge, how it works and the crucial role social media will play.

 

How does Stokes Me work?

Stokes Me is an online fundraising challenge put on by the surf industry from October 1 to 30. It’s a contest to see who can raise the most money for 10 really important surfing-related humanitarian organizations.

 

Anyone in the world with an internet connection can give a one-time donation, join a fundraising team, or become a fundraiser for the competition.

 

If they join a team or become a fundraiser, then they use their networks, primarily social media, to solicit donations from their friends, family and other people in their network.

 

The top individual fundraiser will win a trip for two to the Triple Crown and Surfer Poll Awards. The winning industry brand, retailer or partner team wins ad pages and the notoriety that comes with the new SIMA Humanitarian Award.

 

And everyone can follow along in real time throughout the 30-day period at stokesme.org.

 

Why the change from the Liquid Nation Ball to Stokes Me?

Fernando and Santiago Aguerre and the SIMA team put on an amazing event in Liquid Nation Ball. Fernando stepped down as the Humanitarian Fund President and SIMA asked me to head it up, and I felt like if I was involved, based on the tools available to me, we needed to do something different.

 

Alexis and Ross Garrett at the Waterman’s Ball this year.

The idea behind the campaign and the phrase, Stokes Me, is to focus on the good that we can do for the world as surfers. Stoke is something unique to surfing that we can spread.

 

And with Stokes Me, we took the spirit of what Santiago and Fernando did with the Liquid Nation Ball and extended it to the internet so people all over the world can participate in their own way.

 

Whether they can give $5 or $5,000 people can get involved. And when you do the math on how much we can raise even at small dollar donations it’s pretty compelling.

 

Tell me about enlisting the brands’ marketing power behind the effort.

By appealing to the industry’s natural competitiveness with the Stokes Me Challenge, we’re going to use the surf industry’s influence to broaden the reach of the message and campaign.

 

It’s a challenge of a brand’s social marketing savvy – asking brands to engage their social media fans and followers in the campaign to raise the most funds for their team.

 

Influence is the key word. It’s today’s most important marketing currency. I think most people in the industry believe surfers and surfing are really influential to the broader culture at large. I believe that anyway. And this is a chance to use that currency to do something really good for the world.

 

The brands get asked for cash donations a lot, and they are extremely generous. But our theory is that their influence can be more powerful than direct donations.

 

Based on the conversations we’ve had with brands so far, I think the bragging rights that come with the SIMA Humanitarian Award that will be presented in front of the entire industry at the SIMA Image Awards in February 2013, will be even more motivating than the ad pages and other stuff the winning brand, retailer or partner team gets.

 

 

See Page 2 for details about the fundraising goal, how Stokes Me will evolve

 

 

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What is the fundraising goal?

We’re targeting $220,000 for the first year. As the momentum behind this grows, I think we can raise over a million dollars for these organizations. That seems like something we should be able to do as an industry and collection of surfers. But who knows? This is completely new territory.

 

How have brands responded to the idea so far?

Super good. We had a kickoff surf-contest at the Surf Expo Industry Party and had a full roster of 26 teams participating. People wore weird outfits. Dave Rastovich, Jamie O’Brien and Mark Healey and a bunch of other amazing surfers and industry people showed up. It was awesome.

 

Since then, the SIMA staff has been out getting brands to set goals. Everyone seems to be anchoring their fundraising goals right around the same place.

 

All the brands have been super enthusiastic and I thank them all for that.

 

Why is it important for the industry to be involved in humanitarian causes?

As surfers and people who make our living off surfing, we’re some of the luckiest people on the planet. We travel near and far to indulge in riding waves, which on its face is a completely useless thing to do.

 

But just like a lot of things, in the right hands something seemingly useless can be made into something transformative.

 

Through supporting these beneficiaries, we do three things:

 

First we change paradigms by enabling people to experience the stoke of surfing.

 

Second we enable people in the places where we travel to surf to live better-healthier lives.

 

And third, we show support for the important efforts of surfers who are out doing this type of work.

 

Surfing can change lives. Surfers can change lives. That is a pretty important representation of our industry and our culture and a legacy we can be proud of.

 

How do you see Stokes Me evolving in the future?

My hope is that surfers outside of the surf industry adopt Stokes Me as their own. That they engage with it in their own ways. That they realize the power of this platform we’re building for them.

 

Ultimately though, it’s not about raising any particular sum of money. It’s about making a really big impact on the lives of people who need it.

 

It’s about surfers helping humans.