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The energy drink brand took to the streets for a city tour of
best skateboards
and BMX trick displays. Mike Fletcherreports.
The flowerbeds around Birmingham's Symphony Hall feature signsbanning skateboarding in the city's Centenary Square. On 26 August, however,everyone turned a blind eye to the bylaw when 6,000 skateboarders and BMXenthusiasts gathered in front of a 15-metre high ramp to witness skate and BMXtalent from around the world as part of the Red Bull Vert Sessions tour.
The energy drink brand has had a busy summer with the Red BullSoap Box Race in Knebworth Park on 8 August followed later in the month byregional amateur golf tournament Red Bull Final 5. But stretching over theentire summer has been a tour centred around Red Bull's oldest sportingassociation - skateboarding.
For the first time the brand combined workshops for aspiringskaters with professional demonstrations on a new 'King-size II' ramp during atour of four cities.
'We've had a nine-metre vertical ramp since the brand's UKlaunch in 1995 and we'd take it to music festivals,' says Red Bull UKfreesports and event manager Louise Taylor. 'We were at last year's Downloadfestival at Donington and the ramp was getting swamped and being dwarfed by thefairground. I wanted to give the ramp more presence and make it moreviewer-friendly. It was built at ground level so you could only see the actionfrom five rows back. At a festival that's attracting 40,000 people we needed tobe able to command a larger share of that audience.'
Brainstorming session
She continues: 'Star Events Group was there to supply thefestival staging and I asked its director Roger Barrett what could be done.'Together the two held brainstorming sessions with riders, DJs and technicalsuppliers.
The result was a 900sq m Orbit staging system with a transparentroof, Vertech flooring and an elevated sound system and Barco D-Lite screens.
'The clear roof helps the riders as natural daylight is betterthan artificial lights shining in their eyes while they're pulling tricks,'says Star Events project manager Lowri Williams. how to turn on a skateboard
The tour cities - Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham and Brighton - werechosen because of their proximity to skate parks with Vert Ramps that couldhost the clinics.
Last year, the tour just visited skate parks and pro-riderswould give local children the chance to experience and learn about Vert rampriding. The old ramp would then appear at music festivals.
The task of combining the advice clinics with the city centredemonstrations fell to Red Bull project manager Olivia Vaughan. She says:'We've got four of the world's best skaters and four BMX riders and have themdoing the biggest tricks in order to inspire young athletes. Three 45-minutedemos take place daily and in between we offer DJs and live entertainment fromUK breakdancers the B'boys.'
Taylor believes BMX, skateboarding and snowboarding are thethree main action sports driving youth culture. 'Red Bull revitalises both bodyand mind so when athletes participate in these activities and grow tired, theyneed to know that they can rely on the drink to give them that lift and enablethem to push themselves to the limit,' she says.
For this reason, no sampling took place on the tour. 'The mostimportant thing is that people drink Red Bull when they need it. If we were torun around getting people to try it unnecessarily it wouldn't say anythingabout the true brand values,' she continues.
Buzzing crowd
A key strategy of the tour was marketing each two-day event to aspecialist youth audience. 'We worked with Diabolical Liberties, an agency thatspecialises in street marketing, and we plastered a tour identity logo aroundeach city on flyers, posters and leaflets,' says Taylor. 'Brand awareness istracked via specialist studies but you can see how much the crowd are buzzingfrom the performances of the riders.'
Next year, Taylor hopes more cities will be willing to bendtheir bylaws in order to get more youngsters involved in sport. How to ride a skateboard for beginners
The flowerbeds around Birmingham's Symphony Hall feature signsbanning skateboarding in the city's Centenary Square. On 26 August, however,everyone turned a blind eye to the bylaw when 6,000 skateboarders and BMXenthusiasts gathered in front of a 15-metre high ramp to witness skate and BMXtalent from around the world as part of the Red Bull Vert Sessions tour.
The energy drink brand has had a busy summer with the Red BullSoap Box Race in Knebworth Park on 8 August followed later in the month byregional amateur golf tournament Red Bull Final 5. But stretching over theentire summer has been a tour centred around Red Bull's oldest sportingassociation - skateboarding.
For the first time the brand combined workshops for aspiringskaters with professional demonstrations on a new 'King-size II' ramp during atour of four cities.
'We've had a nine-metre vertical ramp since the brand's UKlaunch in 1995 and we'd take it to music festivals,' says Red Bull UKfreesports and event manager Louise Taylor. 'We were at last year's Downloadfestival at Donington and the ramp was getting swamped and being dwarfed by thefairground. I wanted to give the ramp more presence and make it moreviewer-friendly. It was built at ground level so you could only see the actionfrom five rows back. At a festival that's attracting 40,000 people we needed tobe able to command a larger share of that audience.'
Brainstorming session
She continues: 'Star Events Group was there to supply thefestival staging and I asked its director Roger Barrett what could be done.'Together the two held brainstorming sessions with riders, DJs and technicalsuppliers.
The result was a 900sq m Orbit staging system with a transparentroof, Vertech flooring and an elevated sound system and Barco D-Lite screens.
'The clear roof helps the riders as natural daylight is betterthan artificial lights shining in their eyes while they're pulling tricks,'says Star Events project manager Lowri Williams. how to turn on a skateboard
The tour cities - Bristol, Leeds, Birmingham and Brighton - werechosen because of their proximity to skate parks with Vert Ramps that couldhost the clinics.
Last year, the tour just visited skate parks and pro-riderswould give local children the chance to experience and learn about Vert rampriding. The old ramp would then appear at music festivals.
The task of combining the advice clinics with the city centredemonstrations fell to Red Bull project manager Olivia Vaughan. She says:'We've got four of the world's best skaters and four BMX riders and have themdoing the biggest tricks in order to inspire young athletes. Three 45-minutedemos take place daily and in between we offer DJs and live entertainment fromUK breakdancers the B'boys.'
Taylor believes BMX, skateboarding and snowboarding are thethree main action sports driving youth culture. 'Red Bull revitalises both bodyand mind so when athletes participate in these activities and grow tired, theyneed to know that they can rely on the drink to give them that lift and enablethem to push themselves to the limit,' she says.
For this reason, no sampling took place on the tour. 'The mostimportant thing is that people drink Red Bull when they need it. If we were torun around getting people to try it unnecessarily it wouldn't say anythingabout the true brand values,' she continues.
Buzzing crowd
A key strategy of the tour was marketing each two-day event to aspecialist youth audience. 'We worked with Diabolical Liberties, an agency thatspecialises in street marketing, and we plastered a tour identity logo aroundeach city on flyers, posters and leaflets,' says Taylor. 'Brand awareness istracked via specialist studies but you can see how much the crowd are buzzingfrom the performances of the riders.'
Next year, Taylor hopes more cities will be willing to bendtheir bylaws in order to get more youngsters involved in sport. How to ride a skateboard for beginners