Connect

Guive us a shout

137 1/2 MAIN ST.
OAK HILL, WV 25901
304. 465. 9353

*
*

captcha

OR DROP US A LINE -- INFO@WELDTHEWEB.COM

The Welder

Notes from WELD's Laboratory

How Action Sports Industries Can Surge Through Content Marketing

October 17, 2011 by


The whitewater industry sucks at content marketing.

Most paddlers probably don’t care, though. And I don’t blame them. A big part of paddling is not giving a shit about something “corporate” like content marketing.

But, for those of us who run little companies that are responsible for conveying the emotional and physical benefits of river running, I’d say we do a lousy job.

I almost led last week’s presentation at the 2011 Whitewater Symposium with the above thought, but remembered that my business partner would say that we can save the world through marketing. Plus, I want to do business with a few folks in the room, so I needed to sound positive, organized and thought provoking.

To prepare, I took Garr Reynold’s advice (please take his advice in Presentation Zen) and narrowed my hour-long presentation to 3 acts.

  • Act One introduced and described the Soul Factory.
  • Act Two described a case study on Teva’s Live Better Stories campaign, that’s a great example of what I’m talking about with a Soul Factory.
  • Act Three focused on why the whitewater industry (or any outdoor industry vertical, for that matter) should consider coming together to form an industry-driven content strategy.
Soul Factory | Content Fuels the Whitewater Movement | Whitewater Symposium 2011

The slides don’t tell the full story, of course. I’m taking some time to expand my speaking notes into a series of posts that will continue throughout the week. The posts will include thoughts from some insightful people in the whitewater industry, including Lee Hart of BrandAmp.com, “Jaymo” Kirk Jamieson of GoPro, Clay Wright from Jackson Kayak, as well as Jaime Eschette and Amy BonDurant, marketing and PR leaders over at Teva.

Will it be worth coming back to check out the posts? I can’t thank Lee enough for this recommendation:

“Brandon’s presentation at Whitewater Symposium was the talk of the event. He explained the role and importance of content in ways that were easy to understand and impactful. He left the attendees full of actionable ideas and it sounds like many had every intent of going home and taking a whole new outlook.”

Tune in for Act One, The Soul Factory, tomorrow.

  • http://tommangan.net/ Tom Mangan

    I couldn’t agree more on this point. Whitewater in particular generates so much way-cool video that it seems incredible that companies aren’t taking better advantage of such excellent content. And not just for their bottom line, but because the people who buy their boats would just plain enjoy it.

  • http://twitter.com/brandoNRG Brandon Holmes

    As you said, Tom. Customers and prospects “just plain enjoy it.”  

    We (humans) enjoy telling stories and hearing stories, especially the ones that give us that feeling of motivation to get out and do something (new). sure, motivation often comes from within, but we can all point to examples where we saw, read or heard something that tipped the motivational threshold to take action.