The ASP recently took some of its surfers on a media and sponsorship tour in New York.
The surfers landed interviews and spots with key outlets like the Today Show and The New York Times, and mingled with celebrities at a party hosted by Dirk Ziff, part of the ASP ownership group, and film magnate Harvey Weinstein.
ASP VP of Communications Dave Prodan answered some questions about the tour.
Why do a media tour? Why now?
Dave Prodan: Well, the distilled goal for the ASP’s New York Media Tour was to raise the profile of the athletes and raise the profile of the sport. The timing of last week’s tour was a combination of athlete availability and the confluence of significant events for the organization:
- In terms of a timeliness angle for major media, such as NBC’s Today Show, the athletes were in New York to usher in the North American leg of the 2014 Samsung ASP World Tour.
- Last Monday, we announced the opening of the ASP Commercial Offices in New York, with Mark Noonan leading the team there as Chief Commercial Officer. The New York offices will complement the headquarters in Santa Monica as well as regional offices in Hawaii, Brazil, France, Australia, South Africa, Japan and Southern California. Their primary focus is sales and sponsorship and their proximity to major industry centers will greatly aid the organization as we continue to build relationships with partners in surfing.
- As the NY Tour began to take shape, our partners at Samsung decided this was a good opportunity to launch the world premiere of their film,”‘Every Day is Day One.” The film showcases all levels of surfers from around the world sharing the message that every day, every wave is an opportunity for greatness. The film reached a million views in 72 hours.
Did you specifically select certain athletes or was it more about who was available? What executives took part?
Dave: It comes down to a little bit of both. We wanted to have solid representation of athletes across the men’s, women’s and big wave disciplines, but within those divisions, we wanted stories that were unique and transcendent.
For this trip we had Kelly Slater, Gabriel Medina, Julian Wilson and C.J. Hobgood representing the men, Coco Ho, Courtney Conlogue and Stephanie Gilmore representing the women and Greg Long representing the big wave community.
It was a pretty large group to tour with, but the response and traction were very positive.
Representing the management component of the sport were ASP CEO Paul Speaker and Chief Commercial Officer Mark Noonan.
What kind of news outlets did you target?
Dave: We focused on two communications initiatives during the NY Trip: Corporate communications and profile building of the athletes and, by extension, the organization itself.
The corporate communications initiative was communicating the story of professional surfing, sharing audience figures from this year and discussing the future of the sport and opportunities for partnership. These messages were shared through engagements with CNBC at the New York Stock Exchange, Forbes, Sport Business Journal, The New York Times, Cynopsis Sport, and MediaPost, amongst others.
The profile-building component for the athletes was really just sharing their stories and passion for surfing and their engagements included NBC’s Today Show, The New York Times, Vogue, Lucky, GQ, Sport’s Illustrated, Men’s Journal, Gear Patrol, Muscle and Fitness, VICE and others.
Did the athletes also meet with potential tour sponsors?
Dave: While this wasn’t an initial goal of the press tour, as soon as word got out that the world’s best surfers were going to be in New York, we were inundated by potential partner requests for introductions. A lot of these meetings involved an education component about the ASP – those we met with knew a little bit about surfing, knew a few names of surfers, but had never comprehensively been introduced to the sport before.
The sport, as a vehicle for story-telling and building excitement in a fan base across the entirety of the year, is an incredibly powerful platform.
Did you do media training with the athletes, and if so what was that training like?
Dave: There are a few schools of thought on this. Consistent messaging across multiple channels is useful in terms of getting traction and getting your point across. That said, I’m really averse to training anyone to the point where they sound inauthentic. The information age killed the era of spin doctoring and if you’re marketing or fronting yourself as someone you’re not, you’ll be found out in short order.
Outside of a general orientation to go over the week’s schedule and a few sample questions and answers, we largely trusted in our athletes and executives to share their stories and passion for surfing.
Why has something like this not been done before now?
Dave: In a lot of ways, this is really “Year Zero” for the new ASP. We’ve never had the resources, or the mandate, to accomplish something like this under the ASP banner.
Previous media tours from the surfing world in New York would have been one-offs or driven by commercial brand agendas, but with the convergence of the sport under the ASP roof, we’re now in a position to say, “let’s grab representatives of the sport, regardless of sponsor, and introduce them to the general public.”
We’ll certainly be employing similar strategies for future engagements.
