Dude, Sponsor These Snowboarders!

If you still think a halfpipe is something they confiscate at rock concerts, you're a fossil, dude. By now you should know that the halfpipe is an icy bowl that serves as a runway for snowboarders to "create some air." Or as a stuffy NBC commentator might put it, "execute an amazing vertical leap."

Forget the skaters, skiers, and bobsledders. The enduring image for marketers of the 2002 Winter Olympics is of American kids flying through the air and having a great time on snowboards. The U.S. men swept the halfpipe event last week -- going gold, silver, and bronze in front of 30,000 screaming fans. Meanwhile, 19-year-old Kelly Clark, Guns N' Roses blaring through her Walkman headphones, scored gold for the women's team as well. In the process they put snowboarding, a sport loaded with attitude and altitude, over the top in terms of marketing potential.


"We've been telling brand marketers for five years that kids don't care about traditional sports anymore," says Bill Carter, president of Fuse Integrated Sports Marketing, based in Burlington, Vt. "This past week should have been a wake-up call for marketers because it was a defining event for snowboarding."


Carter's agency has been swamped since Clark, Danny Kass, Ross Powers, and J.J. Thomas won their Olympic medals. Carter has filled his post-Olympic appointment schedule with potential new Fortune 500 clients who want their brands to fly with the winningness and edge of snowboarding. Fuse has been connecting companies like Pepsi, Sony, and Ford to the world of extreme winter sports for seven years. But now the Olympic medal sweep and ensuing publicity has convinced a new crop of marketers that snowboarding's a great way to reach the fast-moving 12- to 20-year-old demographic.


Just by putting these athletes on cereal boxes or in TV commercials, some of the free-spirited, boogie-down culture of snowboarding can rub off on advertisers. "[Sponsorships] are really going to take off now," says Patrick West, director of marketing at research firm YouthStream. "It's a ticket to the teen market." Among the brands that have already bought the ticket are Mountain Dew, Kellogg's, and Nike, which have crafted ad campaigns around snowboarding. General Mills also created special, themed packaging for five of its brands, including Yoplait yogurt.


There was a time when advertisers steered clear of the sport because of its badass image. Most hard-core snowboarders wore baggy pants and talked like stoned-out surfers. In fact, the first time the sport was included at the Olympics -- in 1998, in Nagano -- it was tainted by a drug scandal after a medalist tested positive for marijuana (though he later argued successfully that this was a result of secondhand smoke). Now snowboarding's image is becoming as clean-cut as its participants' flattop hairstyles. Danny Kass may resemble the brooding James Dean rebel-without-a-cause type. But Ross Powers had no problem telling the world, via his ESPN.com Olympic diary, that he spent most of his Christmas vacation at home with his mom.


Obviously you don't have to make snowboarding gear to play in this game. The style appeal is widespread. In fact, most of the kids who wear the oversize clothes, wraparound shades, and colorful polar-fleece hats these days don't snowboard. According to YouthStream, the average fan is a 17-year-old male, but only 10 percent of kids in that demographic actually board. Dan Pelson, CEO of teen community site Bolt.com, says "most of the kids" who list snowboarding as a hobby when they register have zip codes from Southern states devoid of snow. And still, enthusiasm for the sport is all over the site. "Snowboarding is the most liberating sport in the world (in my opinion)," one girl wrote on a message board, adding, "i wanna c one of u skiers throw down a 900 or a mctwist of the half pipe. its just fun. snoboarding kiks ass cuz it feels more free and it goes faster."

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