Industry insider: action sports execs.

McKelvey, Steve

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Interviews conducted by Steve McKelvey, an associate professor and graduate program director in the Mark H. McCormack Department of Sport Management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and vice president for industry relations for the Sport Marketing Association.

Over the past decade, few individuals have had a greater impact and influence on the action sports industry than Wade Martin and Bill Carter.

Martin is the President and CEO of Alli Sports, a global entertainment business that encompasses national and international action sports tours and events, multimedia production and distribution, and a consumer facing lifestyle brand. In 2011, Alli was acquired by NBC and Comcast as a subsidiary of the NBC Sports Group. Martin was named to SportsBusiness Journals Forty Under 40 list in 2005 and Brandweek's 2006 Marketers of the Next Generation.

Martin joined NBC Sports in the fall of 2003 as general manager of Action Sports. He spearheaded the creation and development of the Dew Tour, which launched in 2005 as the first season-long professional tour for actions sports. By 2007, Martin had been promoted to President and the Dew Tour was recognized as the most successful series in action sports, boasting the largest media commitment, largest total viewership and on-site attendance, and a blue-chip roster of partners including Mountain Dew, Toyota, Sony PlayStation, and Nike. That same year, the company announced its first major expansion initiative with the creation of the Winter Dew Tour. In 2008, that expansion continued with Martin leading the formation of Alli, the Alliance of Actions Sports, as the new umbrella brand and company. Under Alli, Martin developed and negotiated partnerships with leading properties in new sport verticals, created a media arm (Alli TV and www.Allisports.com), and opened the Carlsbad, California, office to oversee the creative, editorial, and consumer products group and e-commerce business, the Alli Shop. In total, Alli manages four properties and more than 61 events. Martin earned his MS in sport management from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 1996.

Since 1995, Bill Carter has developed Fuse into the country's leading action sports and youth culture marketing firm. Over the past two years, the Vermont-based Fuse agency has been recognized with numerous awards, including Event Marketing magazine's Grand Ex Award for the year's top campaign; Promo magazine's Top 100 promotional agencies; the Bulldog Award recognizing outstanding Public Relations; a Sports Emmy nomination for Outstanding Broadband; and Outside Magazine's 50 Best Places to Work. In 2001, Bill became the first action sports marketer to be honored as a recipient of SportsBusiness Journal's Forty Under 40 Award. For more than a decade, he has counseled many of the most important corporate sponsors, media, athletes, and properties in action sports including strategy for Mountain Dew's action sports marketing platform since 1996; on-site activation for more than 30 Summer and Winter X Games sponsors; Public Relations for the Association of Surfing Professionals; program development and implementation for Skateboarder magazine, FOX, Quiksilver, Burton, and Orag; and product launch strategies for Gatorade and Converse as they entered action sports for the first time in their storied histories. Carter is a graduate of Gettysburg College (creative writing) and Michigan State University (sports management).

SMQ: A recent SportsBusiness Journal article analyzing the state of the action sports industry reported that, over the past few years, TV ratings have slightly decreased and attendance is leveling off. Assuming this is the case, what do you view as the biggest challenges facing the action sports industry?

Martin: We are not concerned with the leveling off in viewership or attendance as so many aspects of the sports and market continue to grow. The core fan and participant base in action sports is strong and growing. If anything, in the last five years we've lost some of the "curious fans" that were tuning into action sports for the spectacle or novelty factor. As action sports become more established, there will be less of these "curious fans" tuning in or coming to events, but that's acceptable to us as long as the core base continues to grow.

One of the challenges, however, is that there are no real barriers to entry in the action sports world, in terms of there being no leagues or governing bodies. There is so much content out there and so many ways to consume it that it has become increasingly hard to monetize the fan base because it's so splintered and fragmented.

Carter: While it's certainly true that TV ratings and live event attendance are important barometers of interest that fans have in any sport, including action sports, I don't think it's wise to look at individual measures and try to correlate overall health. To me, it has always been more important to look at the overall consumption of the sports. Are our fans engaged across all media, particularly digital and social media? From my perspective, which is generally the perspective of the corporate sponsors we represent, is overall engagement by action sports fans resulting in sales at retail? I don't think we have a problem with overall consumption of the sports and I certainly don't think we have a problem demonstrating that action sports as a platform results in sales.

SMQ: What are the latest trends in the action sports industry?

Carter: To me one of the most interesting trends, in addition to the global impact of action sports, is in reconnecting with the sport's most adamant--or as we like to call them "core"--fans. I think a lot of the work that Wade has done, as well as has been accomplished at events like the U.S. Open of Surfing, has been highly successful in re-engaging with core fans. Core fans don't always mean the youngest fans, but that relationship does often occur. The other major sports, particularly baseball and NASCAR, have demonstrated in a negative way what happens when you don't engage your young fans year after year. Today, those sports, as has been well-documented, have a major age issue--and again as I see it is in many ways a core fan issue.

Martin: At an event and media level, we are seeing some of the individual sports/events pulling away from the action sports "package." Street League is entirely focused on street skateboarding, the World Snowboard Tour continues to grow, and the Red Bull Signature Series is a collection of amazing single sport events. This is definitely a sign of the maturation and growth of all of these sports.

SMQ: What factors do you see as most important to the future growth of the action sports industry?

Martin: Continuing to provide access (skateparks, camps, etc.) and infrastructure at the grassroots level. The television and big event exposure will continue, but the growth of the sports will happen at the grassroots level as the pool of fans and participants grows.

SMQ: The growth model for most sport leagues and properties is to add events. However, in April it was announced that the Dew Tour was going from four summer and three winter events to a total of three events. What factors precipitated what a recent SportsBusiness Journal article described as a "wholesale reinvention of the property?"

Martin: The hardest thing for those outside of the action sports industry to understand about this market is that it's constantly changing and evolving at every level. Every sport or league is evolving "outside the ropes" (i.e., from a business perspective), but action sports are constantly evolving "inside the ropes" as well--the sports, the competition formats, course designs, etc. We are dealing with a completely different animal and one in which change and evolution is a necessity.

We take the role that the Dew Tour plays within the broader action sports industry seriously. And, what the industry wants and needs today is very different from what the industry wanted and needed eight years ago when the Dew Tour was created. As the individual sports have grown it became harder for the Dew Tour to serve as the pro tour across eight different sports and disciplines ... one size no longer fit all. That is why we decided to move to our new "grand slam" format of Dew Tour Beach, City, and Mountain. We believe the grand slam approach--meaning three big, important, and premium events--was what would serve the industry the best today. And I wouldn't be surprised if that changed again in another seven years.

SMQ: What is specifically being done to add value to these three Dew Tour events?

Martin: Our focus is fewer, bigger, better. We have redirected the resources that were going against seven events and are now going against three events. Our goal is to create the three best events in action sports and we have invested against everything from the onsite presentation, the content production, marketing, prize money, music, etc. And the good news is so far it's working. The Ocean City event was by all accounts the best Dew Tour ever held.

SMQ: How is consumption of action sports different from more traditional sport-related tours and leagues that are based on accumulation of points to crown a "tour champion" (i.e., WTA, NASCAR, PGA/LPGA)?

Martin: We have found that they are entirely different, which is a big reason why we changed the format of the Dew Tour. We believe action sports fans want to consume great, unique, innovative, high-quality events and content. Crowning a year-end champion is not as important as seeing the best in the world compete in a unique, premium setting. Again, we believe today it's more important to keep evolving the sports and events than it is to provide a fixed, tour structure that crowns a champion.

Carter: It's so much about how action sports have changed since both Wade and I began to make it our primary career paths in the late '90s. However, one thing that has changed very little is the importance that action sports culture and its fans place on noncompetition elements of the sports. Of course, this is of great importance to Wade and his team too, even while he of course needs to focus on the competition element of action sports. I have more of a luxury of paying attention to developing strategies that tap into the noncompetition aspects, such as the importance of film, video, photography, and general lifestyle elements. One needs to look no further than stars such as Laird Hamilton in surfing, Tony Hawk in skateboarding, and Terje Hakonsen in snowboarding to see that some of the most important figures in action sports have either never competed, have long been retired, or rarely compete.

SMQ: In 2010, Rob Dyrdek of MTV reality show fame created the Street League. How has this impacted the Dew Tour and action sport tour industry in general?

Martin: As mentioned earlier, the growth and strength of action sports as a whole has allowed individual sports and disciplines to grow as stand-alone entities. That's a good thing and Street League is a perfect example of that. That said, I've always disagreed with Rob's approach around athlete exclusivity. This doesn't benefit anyone--the athletes, events, sponsors, or fans. We as an industry need to worry about growing the pie. If we do, there will be enough for everyone. We believe events like the Dew Tour, particularly in its new format, will only benefit Street League. No differently than the Masters supports the PGA Tour and vice versa, we believe the same symbiotic relationship can exist between Dew Tour and Street League. And fortunately it looks like that's where we are headed as we will have all of the top street skaters in San Francisco this month for the Dew Tour.

Carter: I have said many times before that any event that legitimately provides an opportunity for athletes to further their careers and earn a living should be embraced by the industry. All of us who want to see action sports continue to grow need to balance our own individual interests against the interests of the athletes, corporate sponsors, broadcast partners, etc. There is a place for Street League, just as there has been a place for other new events that have been developed in the last 15 years.

SMQ: What do you see as the future in terms of international expansion for the Dew Tour and action sport tours in general?

Martin: It's something we are beginning to look at a lot more closely. There is clearly opportunity internationally with action sports. But, we are just starting to work with Pepsi to explore the right model and approach for the Dew Tour.

Carter: In addition to the global initiatives that Wade and his team have enacted, certainly ESPN's approach to three additional X Games competitions around the world provide a boost of energy internationally. Collectively every one of these efforts sends a message to corporate sponsors that action sports translate to youth globally.

SMQ: What is the social media/digital media strategy for the Dew Tour?

Martin: I wouldn't say that we have a separate social/digital strategy as much as we look at social/digital as one with the rest of our marketing and distribution strategy. Our social/digital strategy is embedded in everything we do whether we are developing our programming/distribution plan and determining where each piece of content will live or we are developing our event marketing plan and looking at social/digital as part of the advertising mix. Its omni-present and critically important to everything we do.

SMQ: What is the latest in social media/digital media trends for action sport generally?

Carter: I think that action sports has done a good job in being at the forefront of digital media as a means to engage its fans. Like many other sports that corporate sponsors use as a platform, action sports will need to continue to find new ways to engage those fans, measure that engagement in sophisticated ways, and then use that engagement to drive sales.

SMQ: How has/will NBC ownership change the future of the Dew Tour?

Martin: NBC's ownership of Alli has been terrific for all aspects of our business, particularly the Dew Tour. We have significantly more assets to market and distribute the Dew Tour under the NBC Sports Group than we ever did before. From the new NBC Sports Network to NBCsports.com to the local RSN's, we have so many touch points with our consumer ... its an exciting time for sure.

SMQ: In 2010, Alli acquired e-tailer Standard Boardshop, leading to the creation of Alli Shop. How has this venture progressed?

Martin: We recently announced a new partnership with dogfunk.com (a leading action sports e-tailer owned by backcountry.com) in which they will now serve as the official ecommerce partner for Alli Sports. We are very excited about the partnership as it allows each of us to do what we do best. They are a terrific merchant and we have a massive audience we can deliver to them. We are excited about the possibilities.

SMQ: How reliant is the newly structured Dew Tour, and action sports tours in general, on "star power"?

Martin: I think every individual sport--tennis, golf, boxing, etc.--is reliant on star power and action sports are no different. When you don't have the same rooting interest that fans have in teams, individual star power is a major driver. Fortunately, the depth of talent and star power has never been stronger in action sports and new stars are appearing faster than ever before.

Carter: Action sports events rely on star power, but I think generally speaking it's a factor that is probably of overstated importance in action sports and in many other sports. The core fan in action sports can watch an action sports event or attend live and name many of the athletes, maybe 50% or more. The casual fan will have a difficult time naming 10% of the athletes by name. That's really no different than any of the major sports, though we don't usually think of it that way. The NFL has about 1,000 players, and even the core football fan would have a hard time naming 50 of them. My point is that stars help you succeed, but the product has to go way beyond the stars.