Ypulse Interview: Issa Sawabini, Fuse Marketing
Posted by meredith on 07-08-2010
As readers may have caught in the Ypulse Monthly Events Roundup, coming up next month is the second annual Action Sports Conference in Huntington Beach, California. The event is held by action sports networking and education organization group Y (who collaborated with us on the Action Sports Pre-Conference at the 2010 Ypulse Mashup) and looks to bring together action sports and brand executives to explore different aspects of branding and marketing in the space.
To learn more we reached out to Action Sports Conference speaker Issa Sawabini, a partner at Fuse Marketing and a foremost marketing expert in action sports and related youth culture.
Ypuse: What are some trends in the action sports market that you'll be covering at the conference?
Issa Sawabini: The group that I’m leading is discussing the appeal of action sports and how they compare to other sports. We’re going to be talking about why major corporate sponsors get involved, and why they choose action sports either in addition to other sports, or, potentially in place of other sports.
Our panel will have Kenny Mitchell from Gatorade and Bryan Johnston from UFC. Bryan has a history in the snowboard space so he’ll be able to compare the growth of UFC with the growth of snowboarding and action sports. We’ll also take a look at insights from IMG, Giant sports industry, ESPN and a few others. Really what we’re looking to key in on is how can and why do corporate brands get involved in the space, how do they maintain authenticity and how do they achieve success.
The larger conference is obviously going to include everything from trends and events, new products, athletes and overall marketing in the entire industry. it’s a great opportunity to learn about the action sports world or to engage in some great dialogue with leaders in the action sports marketing space.
YP: Where do you see a lot of excitement happening right now in action sports? Why?
IS: Looking at it from what I’ll call the “corporate sponsorship side of things” there’s still a great deal of excitement around skateboarding and snowboarding– they have the largest participation base and general awareness. We also see a great deal of additional interest in the motocross world and some renewed interest in the wakeboard space. In free skiing there’s a lot of talk right now because halfpipe and slopestyle and snowboard slopestyle are potentially being considered for the Olympics in Russia. There’s also a lot of great news in the skateboard world with the launch of Street League, the new Dew Tour event in Vegas and the X-Games launching internationally. There’s lots of new events. We’re looking at really all the action sports with some great new progression within the sports space, but also from a sports marketing standpoint with lots of expanding opportunities and continued growth.
Beyond the sports side, we see the impact of action sports fashion — specifically with skate style, surf style and motocross style — really trickling down and continuing to drive mainstream fashion trends. The impact of action sports fashion on mainstream fashion retailers helps to further solidify the importance and influence of action sports. As brands look for platforms to be in and see action sports and think of board sports, they see they’re in the right place for influencing mainstream youth culture.
YP: How do you see action sports brands leveraging mobile and online platforms to help create and deliver meaningful experiences to fans?
IS: If you take a big step back and you look at the mobile and online space what creates a meaningful experience is something useful — knowledge — or something entertaining, and action sports from the very beginning have been all about content. There have been skateboard movies, surf movies, snowboard movies for 20-plus years. If you look at other sports — your traditional stick and ball sports — they’re all working very hard to try to find content that they can deliver. Not just highlights of the basketball game, not just replays of the baseball game, but deep, exciting, compelling content. And action sports is all about content: unprecedented access to the athletes and never-ending number of locations. The content production opportunities are so prevalent there’s probably too much content out there vs. mainstream sports where you have all kinds of limits put in place by the structure of the league, the team, the association, or access to the athlete. The access and the ability to create content [in action sports] is phenomenal because there is no schedule or structure or unnecessary speedbumps in the process. Based on that you have brands that can create amazing mobile and online experiences because they’ve got great content.
But you’ve got to be smart. You have to understand how to create the content and where to share it. We’re seeing lots of brands launch entertaining and useful apps. We’re seeing content producers packaging up content and sharing it with their sponsors in new ways.
A great example is Teton Gravity Research. Those guys are a leading filmmaker in the action sports space and have a long history of making snowboard, surf and ski films. Instead of just releasing a new film every year, they are creating a weekly web series to build anticipation and they’re sharing that content out across all the top youth culture sites and their sponsors are building marketing and distribution plans around that content. As a sponsor of the movie they get access to that content that they can deliver out to their consumer base. A smart distribution plan combined with exciting and compelling content can reach so many mobile and online platforms, it’s amazing. I don’t want to say it’s easy because it’s a tremendous amount of work, but the tools are all there to create something special and some great brands are doing it right.
YP: How do you see user-generated content factoring into that?
IS: I think it’s very common for brands to say ‘Oh, everyone who owns a skateboard must also own a video camera so send me your video of you skateboarding' in some promotional form. Oftentimes corporate brands struggle to get any type of volume in terms of participation. They might get 10, 20, maybe 100 submissions, and by scale it’s really pretty small.
What we have found is the best way to develop user-generated programs for corporate brands is to do it in partnership with one of the great action sports media companies or websites and to deliver that message in a place that the audience is already visiting everyday. Instead of asking them to come to your website and submit a video, develop something that can be done with a media partner. The other side is making sure that you’re embracing all the right tools and forums so that user-generated content can have life within your brand and if people want to create something or say something about your brand you’re giving them a platform to do that. The obvious choice is in social media and video sharing, photo sharing. Let the people have their voice and give them an opportunity to say something and build brand zealots by embracing what they’re saying and listening to them.
YP: On that note, what types of other common mistakes do you see with brands trying to connect to this audience?
IS: The common mistakes we see in action sports are in a couple of different areas. Creatively, we see so many different brands that just don’t understand the space. So when they develop an ad, be it a TV ad, a print ad, a pre-roll advertisement or digital advertisement, they just aren’t using the sports in an authentic way. They’re putting a model in instead of a real athlete, they’re using Photoshop to turn an athlete upside-down instead of actually shooting the photo, their photography is wrong, they’re not working with a photographer who understands how to shoot the space. Or, the language is wrong and they’re using stereotypes like the word “extreme.” They’re doing things that would really make an action sports participant or fan consider them an outsider. This off-base creative is actually damaging their brand instead of maximizing the opportunity to connect with this audience in a way that makes sense. You have to understand the action sports space before you do creative in that realm.
We also see brands who just may not understand how their product fits and they try to create a false relevance. Their product category may just not be as cool as a skateboard or a snowboard and that’s okay. Instead of trying to make it as cool as an equipment brand, they need to find their own platform. They may want to consider the lifestyle elements that come with action sports and connect with that audience through art, music, or fashion instead of putting their logo on a snowboard and hoping kids think that’s cool. Skip trying to make your own equipment and do something that might be a little more exciting and compelling.
YP: Are there any recent initiatives from a brand that really gets it right when it comes to reaching teen fans? Can you name one or two and explain why?
IS: There are some great brands in the space and I think the reason they do it right is that they understand the lifestyle, they understand the space, and they really are supporting, not just trying to capitalize on everything that’s happening.
A great example would be Gatorade and if you come to the conference you’ll be able to hear more from Kenny Mitchell. They’ve entered the space in a great way and they’ve had really positive responses to the initiatives they’ve created at a grassroots level.
[One great example] is the Gatorade Freeflow Tour, a national amateur skateboard and BMX series that allows competitors to advance their way through the contest and compete against the pros. It’s a great space for young up-and-coming skateboarders and BMX riders because they’re given a platform to come out and make their dreams come to life. And you can visit the event or see the show on MTV or Fuel TV and it’s all about giving them a chance to succeed.
YP: What do you hope attendees will take away from your presentation at the Action Sports Conference?
IS: We hope you’ll walk away with a better understanding of how a brand can enter the action sports space in an authentic way, maintain a connection with consumers, maintain relevance. It's come in, connect with this audience, don’t get laughed it, build your brand, support the space and build your business and hopefully learn from some people who are doing it very right and help to consider whether you should enter it and how to get it done in the right way.
Categorized under: Lifestyle, Youth Marketing
