We came in ready to have a little laugh at Fuel TV‘s expense about having a media panel with no media people on it, but Fuel’s John Stouffer surprised us.
Sure, Fuel TV’s General Manager CJ Olivares was on the panel (as he is every year), but also upfront were several other action sports media people: TransWorld Business Publisher Rob Campbell, The Surfer Group Publisher Rick Irons, and Vans marketing guy Doug Palladini.
The stated point of the discussion was how the Internet is changing action sports media. With the exception of Palladini, however, all the panelists were from old media companies who happen to have websites. No one from any of the emerging online action sports media businesses like loopd, Seshn, Sportnet, Go211, or Bnqt were even represented on the panel. Add to the fact that Vans spends millions of dollars with the other three panelists and it ended up like little more than a one-sided scuffle about advertising.
One of most pointed comments came from the audience when Ransu Salovaara the CEO of online ad network Sportsyndicator.com said:
The readers have already abondonded the magazines. The people are already online but the industry is supporting the magazines. The marketing directors are about two years behind the rest of the world. . . . The magazines are not supported by readers anymore, they are supported by the industry.
As might be imagined the entire panel disagreed.
I would much prefer a magazine ad to one of those cheap banners on the web – sports media is generally targeted towards events and sponsorships, generic ads don’t cut it anymore (especially in the action sports world).
Actually I would prefer if the companies spent less on advertising and more on the product itself! Vans probably spend more on the advertising and sponsorships than the product itself…
I would also prefer if magazine ads did not take up half the magazine that I am paying for; online ads such as buttons and banners, well, I don’t even pay attention to them!
Matt
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