In an effort to distil the dramatic unpredictability of professional surfing, governing body The World Surf League is rolling out its first ever global campaign called ‘You Can’t Script This’ and led by a 90-second TV spot called ‘Chaos Theory’.
The early December creative blends stock, custom and athlete footage and spans surging seas, shifting sands and surfboard shaping.
The hyper prose comes in the form of a narrated voiceover and concludes: ‘Isn’t it something that a single breath has the power to spawn an entire storm a thousand miles away? We cannot predict it. We can only bear witness to the wonder.’
‘Competitive surfing is constantly changing and evolving – from upsets to perfection, a thwarted shark attack to the most hotly contested championship race in years,’ outlines WSL chief marketing officer Scott Hargrove.
‘We believe this unpredictability is what makes the sport so compelling and therefore made it the focus of our creative strategy.’
The campaign, which has been launched to leverage excitement around the closely contested season-ending Billabong Pipe Masters competition in Hawaii, has been developed in partnership with ad agency Mistress.
The 90-second anchor spot iss effectively a metaphor for the sport’s innate unpredictability.
The spot first debuted on www.worldsurfleague.com, before rolling out across WSL’s global broadcast partners in the US (ABC), Brazil (ESPN), France (MCS) and Australia (FOX 5 Sports), as well as on Google’s Display Network, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other news/social media outlets.
The agency team at Mistress included creative director Scott Harris and strategic head Christian Jacobsen, plus art director Megan Nakazawa, copy writer Adam Wagner, brand director Victoria Edwards, brand manager Kylie Wu, agency producer Trevor Paperny and project manager Alex Clewell.
The production was handled by Eskimo, the director was Dan DiFelice, the VFX were by Blacksmith NY and the sound design by Cypher Audio.
Comment
This move towards mainstream media in its activation perhaps suggests that the sport of surfing is moving from the niche to the mainstream.
‘We’re focusing our 2015 media spend where our target audiences consume the sport – digital and social. But as we continue to expand our message and recruit new fans into competitive surfing in 2016, we will rely more heavily on traditional channels,’ explains WSL chief marketing officer Scott Hargrove.
‘The goal is to establish an authentic connection with existing surf fans and then carefully expand our message to new fans beyond surfing’s core.’
While we feel it’s a touch clichéd and predictable and doesn’t quite have the same level of emotional impact as WSL sponsor Samsung’s intense, emotional and almost spiritual recent surf activation from 72andSunny (see case study), it is nevertheless a powerful spot.
Formerly the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP), the World Surg League (WSL) runs the sports premier international competitions – including the Samsung Galaxy men’s and women’s Championship Tours, Big Wave Tour, Qualifying Series, Junior and Longboard Championships, plus the WSL Big Wave Awards.
In addition to its personalised smartphone alerts, free mobile app and live streaming, plus its recent groundbreaking and award winning work with global sponsor Samsung Galaxy, the WSL is one of the few sports that can lay claim to being 360 degree digital – as it provides 100% of its content online and for free.
Features such as personalized smartphone alerts notifying fans when their favorite athletes are about to hit the water, to a free mobile app enabling viewers to watch live WSL events (at some of the most remote and exotic locations on earth), make it simple for surfers and new fans to get in on the action.
Links
WSL Website:
http://www.worldsurfleague.com/
WSL YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/ASPWorldTour
WSL Twitter:
WSL Instagram:
WSL Facebook:
WSL Tumblr:
http://wslofficial.tumblr.com/
Mistress:
