It’s global, it has elite competitors, and no one has to convince you that surfers are cool. Still, the 31-year-old Association of Surfing Professionals decided it needed a rebrand to expand its appeal outside of its aficionados — so as of January, it will be the World Surf League. It’s part of a number of changes under ZoSea Media, which acquired the tour in late 2012. ZoSea is run by former NFL marketing director Paul Speaker and Terry Hardy, longtime manager to 11-time champion Kelly Slater, and backed by billionaire Dirk Ziff. The tour is acting more like a big stick-and-ball league, opening offices in New York and hiring veteran sports sponsorship marketer Mark Noonan in July as chief commercial officer. Noonan spoke about the organization’s mission and reach.
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Sometimes surfing gets lumped together with action sports. But the athletes, the tour and the sport have a real heritage and are popular around the world. If anything, we’re the godfather of action sports.”
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Chief Commercial Officer Mark Noonan leads the rebranding of ASP to World Surf League.
Photos: ASP |
About the rebrand: We’re a new brand as of Jan. 1. World Surf League is just a better expression of who we are and where we are going and a more consumer-friendly way to communicate that. Under our new ownership, we’re a global sports league. Before, we were a multinational event company, with disparate pieces and ownership. We have the best men and women athletes in the world at one sport. We have every sector, from the qualifiers all the way up to Kelly Slater, and we have promotion and relegation.
Connecting with fans: Our audience is millennials and definitely digitally native. More than 40 percent of our content is consumed on mobile devices, and they are engaging for more than 35 minutes every time they come into our live programming. We’ll continue to grow our content play through sponsor content collaborations, like what we’ve done with Samsung, GoPro and Pacifico beer. It’s far less about logo placement and more about content integration, authenticity and relevance, directions every sports sponsorship should be headed.
Surfers as athletes: No disrespect, but that Sean Penn surfer stereotype was a long time ago. You see our athletes and their training regimens and what they can do — we’re a long, long way from “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” … Kelly Slater has to be mentioned in the same breath as Jordan or Gretzky, people who redefined their sport. The difference with Slater is that he’s still doing it at 42 years old; he’s second in the world rankings right now, competing against guys that are half his age.
