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EVENT ORGANIZATION

Mammoth is a fairly sprawling ski area, and the organizers of this first-ever Winter Gravity Games addressed this problem by creating a Festival Village centrally located near the base lodge and within close range of many of the events. The village was organized as a fair of sorts, with sponsor booths encircling a central plaza where spectators could gather and mill.

The focal point was an "iceberg," made of a translucent tinted plastic which contained a staging ground for the event emcees. This was located on one elevated side of the plaza, which included a staging ground in front for the event mcs to provide commentary, conduct interviews and contests. To catch a better view of each event and competitor, a large video screen was located closely behind this village area.

KROQ radio out of LA provided tunes, reinforcing our observation that the music associated with snowboarding has more of a rock flavor than that of skateboarding (which is more in the hip-hop genre).

SPONSORS

The following companies were sponsors of the Winter Gravity Games, and promoted their products and services in the following ways:

•Irish Spring: provided product samples

•Todd McFarlane Productions: at their booth you could buy product, pick up a spring catalog, and a free frisbee

•Boarding For Breast Cancer: most impressive giveaway was offered by Chickclick.com: a graphically-sophisticated favor bag which included stickers and glitter

•Boeri Helmets: you could try on helmets here, and pick up the latest copy of their catalog

•Teton Gravity Research: offered brochures on the production company, and sold videotapes of previous projects

•Polaris: their booth housed demo models

•Den.net (Digital Entertainment Network): gave away stickers and mini snowboards (to a privileged few) distributed as party invites

•Bolt.com: created photo keychains for kids with Polaroid I-Zone cameras, and offered a chance to win a trip to the Summer Gravity Games

•Rossignol: you could check out gear here to take for a test run

•Salomon: like Rossignol, product was available at their booth to try out on the slopes

•Speed Stick: product samples were available, as well as hand warmer packets for mittens

•Clif Bar: offered free samples of their energy bars

•Reaction by Kenneth Cole: gave away CDs with a compilation of selected cuts by new or underground/alternative artists; a catalog was distributed in the form of a set of cards packaged in a thin funky tin

•Kick Media: offered internet access in their booth to the various websites they've designed for alt sport publications; also offered stickers and cards with their logo

Other product promotion for the event sponsors, through the use of motion-graphic logos, was served up on the digital scoreboard further up the hill. Commercial spots for some of the sponsors were interspersed with the play-by-play for many events.

PRODUCT PROMOTION

In addition to the event sponsors, many other brands made their presence known through a number of efforts.

A popular option was the branded company vehicle, which was most often a van but also included Humvees and Ford Explorers. These vehicles not only served to reinforce brand awareness, but were utilized to transport athletes, gear, and company representatives.

Spy developed this trend to an impressive extent by parking a large semi in the parking lot of a local ski shop for the duration of the Games. From the truck, one could buy hats, posters, goggles, shirts and other Spy product, as well as catch a video loop.

Co-branding was also a prevalent way of getting the word out. This was often accomplished through the vehicles as well as through stickers or multiple logos and lettering. For example, we noted an Oxygen Snowboard sticker on the back of a Rossignol van, a K2 van also branded by Volkswagen, and a Ride Snowboards van covered with Reef stickers.

In addition, multiple vehicles were used to make important distinctions between different brands owned by the same company. For instance, Rossignol had two separate vans at the Games—one for their snowboard brand and one for their ski brand‹and the two vans accentuated the different brand logos and identities.

As mentioned above, these vehicles not only offered an excellent opportunity for mobile brand building, but also served a useful purpose. As this is an important element in reaching the New Consumer, it is beneficial to point out some other instances of such positive product promotion. The best example is the shuttle service offered by Polaris, which transported athletes and the injured to and from points on the hill and base camp. It made the Polaris name not only highly visible, but reinforced the company¹s important and relevant link to the snow sporting world.

Rossignol's and Salomon's loan of product and Speed Stick's distribution of hand warmers (although the relevance of Speed Stick's sponsorship was a bit questionable) are other good illustrations of meaningful brand promotion. Athlete sponsorship (such as that by Swatch, Palmer Racing and Santa Cruz) and team riders (e.g. Atomic) were other exercises in brand visibility.

Stickering was also a brand building tool which was exercised everywhere—from bathrooms to barrooms—though we're not sure defacing speed limit signs and private property is the best way to get the word out. Some of the most notable adhesive hounds: Vonzipper, Onset Records, Plastic Nation, Stoner Board Gear, 9021blow.com, switch360flip.com, babyimaSTAR.com, Pharmacy Board Shop, and getfreestickers.com.

SEEN

Animal prints • Cowboy hats in innovative fabrics (such as velour) • Baseball caps by alt sports brands • Beanie caps with small brims, worn off to the side • Frontloading packs for cell phones, gear, etc. • Technicolor hair • Skiboards and skiscooters • Sideburns • Yellow (from lemon to bright) • Camouflage (most often gray tones) • Braids • Beanie caps (particularly with flame graphics) • Neutral tones (khaki, olive, stone), particularly for girls; brights were most often seen on the guys.

GRAPHICS

The sporting goods graphic trends over the past several years have utilized deconstructed or distressed typography and imagery, to give the brand an anti-corporate feel. This was also true in the names of labels, which tried to sound as much like a rock band as a business. Product lines such as Convert and Porn Star were names that were used to say, "we are not a boring corporation, we're hip."

As witnessed at the Gravity Games, that style is out. The graphics today are clean, bright and slick. This has a lot to do with the recent IPOs of small companies out of nowhere trying to be legitimate. Today, businesses do not want to say "we're not corporate," they want to say "we are a hip corporation." This is usually expressed with a fun, simple word (Spoon, Spy, Liquid) and slick, hip, professional design. Colors are bright and papers are hard or replaced by plastics. Companies are playing off themes that are fun and fashion forward, not outdoorsy or environmentally friendly. Typography is sans serif, typically classic, Swiss fonts with one or two ligatures that have been handcrafted. Some also incorporate icons from computers (the forward symbol), although techno graphics were less prevalent. Companies spent little energy explaining what their company does. Many stickers had the name of the company with their URL instead of a tag line that explains what the company does. It is assumed that the viewer will be curious enough to go to the web to find out more. Many companies do not have a specific logo, but more of an iconic system for variety.

SCENE

Most of the event attendees were young, either fellow athletes or amateur participants. The weekend ski crowd from the surrounding area added to the numbers Saturday and Sunday and injected more adults into the mix, but the Gravity Games was overall definitely a youth event.

A good number of after-hours events were held in relation to the Games, hosted both by the event's official organizing body, and by related sponsors and companies (Den.net threw a party one evening, as did Powder magazine). These parties did not encourage interaction between adults, youth, and sponsors. Official events had separate areas cordoned off for VIPs and those over 21, which created physical barriers that discouraged mingling. In addition, industry types and most athletes seemed to choose to attend their own private shindigs rather than those organized by the Games. The official parties were attended mostly by area youth and townsfolk.

In our opinion, these events need some work. Specifically, the floor plan needs to be reworked to encourage more interaction, and they need to hire a more dynamic emcee, perhaps a celebrity. The guy hosting the event the first evening was particularly uncharismatic, encouraging the crowd to just dawdle about. Perhaps a change of venue, new media, catering, or a bigger music headliner could add some oomph.

The private parties stressed exclusivity. Those hosted by Den.net and Powder were invitation-only. Den actually recruited youth/athlete scouts to scope out the crowd and distribute invites to those deemed worthy.

The games were covered heavily by various media. In addition to airing on NBC Sports, reporters for alt sports magazines such as Powder, Surfer, Snowboarder, etc. and alt sports websites like Gohuge.com were present.

MOST SIGNIFICANT TREND

One of the most important things to report from the Winter Gravity Games is the increasing evidence of cross-over among alternative sports: skate brands are producing snowboard gear (e.g. Alien Workshop, Airwalk, and World Industries), and brands associated with mountain biking are even getting into the mix (Giro). In addition, snowboard gear is starting to mimic surf; in the local Wave Rave shop we spotted wooden snowboards from Hawaii which resembled the retro surfboards of the early days of the sport. In addition, the old rivalry among skaters, snowboarders and surfers seems to be dissipating. In one interview conducted during the games, a female snowboarding competitor made a point of stating that she loves participating in other alt sports in the off-season. Look for more cross-over on both sides of the fence among, athletes, brands, and gear styling.

BRANDS

The following brands were expressed by their wearers or packaged in innovative ways. Liquid, 5150, Preston, Cappel, Dub, Board Dokter, Red Bowl, Chester, Phoenix, O'Neill (Nitro), Hurley, Atomic, Sims, Triple Five Soul, Oxygen, Sessions, Elan, Helly Hansen, Volantsports.com, Briko Helmets, Giro, Atomic.