09/12/09

Some Advertisement Strategies

Wallace, vice-president, is a busy man. Months ago VAS, the company contracted to sell Billabong content around the world, was at a MIPCOM TV sales conference in Cannes marketing a 13-part series to potential buyers. “It’s centred around our athletes. It is less about the sport and more about the lifestyle of the athletes,” says Wallace. The surf label produces up to 35 hours of high-definition video a year, drawing on events around the world and its small army of athletes as the subject. A 25-strong audio visual team went to the Billabong Pro Tahiti in May to film the event, which was sells around the world. During the tournament Billabong streamed live feeds to its website, which attracted 1 million unique visitors during the event. Now it is giving Sony Handycams to its athletes, who include surfers Joel Parkinson, Andy Irons, Taj Burrow and Tiago Pires, to film every aspect of their lives. Apparently there is demand to watch them eating breakfast, or at least the edited highlights, says Wallace. For Sony’s marketing director, Toby Barbour, it is a way of getting his products before a younger audience. “We want to get them early so that we can follow them through the life stages with products such as Sony Ericsson mobile phones, Handycams and Bravia.” But to what end does all of this serve Billabong? Wallace says it is hard to measure the return on investment of producing all this content, the cost of which he will not reveal. “I guess the return on investment is about raising the profile of the sport, our athletes and, yes, ultimately our brand.”