2016 - 2019

Huntington Beach, CA

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Recognized as the largest professional sports competition and action sports festival in the world this 10-day event hosts over 500K attendees. Year over year Hydro Flask is recognized as the busiest partner activation on site. As with all of our tier one partnerships we ensured a holistic experience. Meaning we included Hydro Flask product for all on air commentators and event staff onsite, we scheduled commentator visits to the booth to highlight our product and event specific initiatives, linear and digital content, conducted Facebook live and other social hits with Hydro Flask ambassadors for increased traffic, partnered with the WSL to cross promote the "StopTrashingWaves" initiative through social channels to promote leaving the beach better than you found it. 

Hydro Flask has sponsored the event for four years and has focused on reducing the environmental impact by providing free hydration stations to all attendees to promote reusable bottles. In addition, we seed thousands of bottles each year to consumers and drive sales to local retailers and through our email collections onsite. 

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My Responsibilities: 

This was the first and the largest project I was responsible for after joining the Hydro Flask team. The planning and logistics for an event of this scale started 6+ months in advance. Some of my key responsibilities are listed below: 

•  Extensive planning with WSL partnership team to create and sign contracts to guarantee KPI's were met

• Activation location selection and footprint development with creative agencies to ensure our onsite presence was engaging to our consumers while also functional to handle the massive crowds

• Completing the vendor activation guide to ensure we were compliant with all state and local regulations

• Heavy logistical planning to forecast, track, and ship all product, swag, uniform, and transportation needs for the 10 day event 

• Honest communication with staffing agency to find the most resilient brand ambassador team. The long days, heat, dust, and massive crowds at this 10 day event have broken many well vetted brand ambassadors

• Selecting, training, and managing the team of the brand ambassadors

• Hydro Flask Athlete and Ambassador social campaign development and onsite execution of Facebook Live interviews, poster signings and photo opportunities

• Redesigning our consumer facing strategy by implementing a text-to-enter system to increase the email collection and eCommerce tracking component of our activations

• Travel and lodging booking and budgeting for internal and external team members that participated

• Close collaboration with production agency to create a custom, branded, hydration station in addition to smaller hydration stations at satellite locations around the event

• Documenting event and creating professional recaps, highlighting consumer feedback, other brand activations, KPI's, and World Surf League feedback

• Documenting any improvements needed to internal and external stakeholders for constant improvements

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Highlights: 

• Custom hydration station next to activation, with additional branded hydration stations at satellite locations to encourage the use of reusable bottles

• Seeded 1,000+ Hydro Flask bottles to participants annually

• Built 4,200+ custom caps for Hydro Flask owners that had their bottle with them in 2019 alone

• Raised $5,000 for partner non profits through twice daily 'Power Hour' giveaways

• Athlete and ambassador integration at activation including, Lakey Peterson, the Gudauskas brothers, Jack Freestone, Reef Heazlewood, Macy Callaghan, and Stafford Slick. 

• We built over 200 custom athlete bottles for all WSL competitors. Included custom boot, bottle, cap, and strap combinations. Athletes were shown on broadcast with these custom bottles and by the public at large during the event.

• We make a point to send people to local retailers, Jacks Surf shop and Huntington Surf and Sport to buy a bottle in order to get a free cap. Every year they sell out of their inventory early into the event.

 

WSL Reach:

• Press: 1.9B+ Media impression in both local and global coverage 

• Webcast: 9.1M+ total digital video plays

• On-Site 450K+ WSL fans in attendance during the event window

• Unique: 1.6M+ Live views on WSL web/app and Facebook

• Social: 93.4M+ social impressions from WSL social platforms

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Hydro Flask Reach:

• New Followers: 8K

• Total engagement: 70,400K+

• Total Reach: 1,200,000+

Instagram: 

• ​4 wall posts:

  • 70.2K likes, 400+ comments

• 7 stories

  • 497,800K+ Views 

  • 568,215 engagements

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