Tony Hawk’s New Trick: 2 Marketers in 1 Campaign
Rolling Stone will run a campaign with Tony Hawk for Activision and Jeep.
By STUART ELLIOTT
Published: October 23, 2006
Rolling Stone magazine is hoping to answer a question that has long tantalized aficionados of advertising and action sports: How much merchandise could Tony Hawk hawk if Tony Hawk hawked merchandise for two marketers at once? Rolling Stone is joining forces with two of its advertisers, the video game publisher Activision and Jeep, for a promotional program centered on Mr. Hawk, the skateboarding star. He has separate endorsement deals with each brand and also works with both together on video games like Tony Hawk’s Underground 2, which incorporates Jeeps into what players see on screen.
The Rolling Stone program begins with an advertorial section in the Nov. 2 issue, now making its way to newsstands and subscriber mailboxes, and moves onto the Internet with five — count ’em, five — Web sites. The timing suits Activision and Jeep because each is now bringing out a new product: a video game called Tony Hawk’s Project 8 and the 2007 Jeep Wrangler Unlimited.
The Rolling Stone initiative, which carries the theme “Exclusive Rides,” also involves Mr. Hawk’s charitable foundation; three of his favorite bands, Bloc Party, Eagles of Death Metal and Lupe Fiasco; and a skateboard maker, Birdhouse. Consumers, too, can join in by designing their own versions of Jeeps and skateboards or by visiting ebay.com to submit bids on prizes.
The multimillion-dollar program, which continues through the end of the year, will also be featured in advertorials in three additional issues of Rolling Stone: Nov. 16, Nov. 30 and Dec. 28.
•The program is indicative of efforts by the traditional media like magazine publishers to convince skeptical marketers that they remain relevant at a time when consumers — particularly the highly-prized, free-spending youth market — are embracing new-media alternatives like podcasts, streaming video and social networking Web sites.
“The power is in the hands of consumers; you have to get them involved and reach them on a lot of different levels,” said Gary Armstrong, chief marketing officer at Wenner Media in New York, which publishes Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal and Us Weekly.
“Instead of a broad approach, placing ads in a lot of magazines to get the coverage, we want to go deeper, focus in on a select group of magazines and do more than just run ads,” said Mike Fulkerson, director for global brand management at Activision in Santa Monica, Calif., who works with the media agency MediaVest, part of the Starcom MediaVest group unit of the Publicis Groupe.
In this instance, “everybody fits,” Mr. Fulkerson said, adding: “Jeep is a brand our audience responds well to. Rolling Stone has been working to make sure all the brands, all the interests, are pulled together.”
At the same time, Mr. Fulkerson said, all those involved want to avoid the program seeming too commercialized — or, as he described it, “sales-y” — to avoid turning off the intended audience.
The importance of that was echoed by Pat Hawk, Mr. Hawk’s sister, who is chief operating officer at Tony Hawk Inc. in Vista, Calif.
“The consumers know the difference, what’s authentic and what’s not authentic,” Ms. Hawk said, especially the younger ones who “can smell it a mile away” when an endorsement rings false.
“He really does say, ‘I was that teen,’ ” Ms. Hawk said of her brother, “so we can tell when something is ‘sold out’ and when it’s not.
“That’s why Tony doesn’t have a deal with Nike,” she added, because young skateboarders prefer other shoe brands, and why he does not endorse Gap, because “they aren’t shopping at the Gap.”
On the other hand, Ms. Hawk said, her brother embraces the brands he chooses to endorse. When Mr. Hawk was asked why he included McDonald’s among the sponsors of his video games and touring skateboard events, she said he replied: “I take my kids to McDonald’s. I always order a No. 2.”
Activision and Jeep, which are also among the sponsors of Mr. Hawk’s tours, collaborated on the new Hawk video game. Jay Kuhnie, director for Jeep communications at the Chrysler Group division of DaimlerChrysler in Auburn Hills, Mich., said, “Part of the game is staged in the Toledo plant while four Jeep vehicles are being assembled: Compass, Patriot, Wrangler and Wrangler Unlimited.”
Asked what would happen if skateboarders try to ride through the plant in real life, Mr. Kuhnie replied, “Hopefully, the plant manager will know how to handle that.”
Jeep learned about the Rolling Stone program, Mr. Kuhnie said, through its media agency, PHD, part of the Omnicom Group; Jeep also works with the Hawks through its creative agency, BBDO Worldwide, another unit of Omnicom.
Mr. Kuhnie praised the cooperative attitudes of everyone who worked on the program, but offered some cautionary words.
“To have a good partnership, you have to absolutely have teamwork, but it isn’t always that easy,” Mr. Kuhnie said, adding: “You have to come to the party willing to be a partner, and not looking at what you can get from the other person.”
“In the past, I’ve been involved in ones that haven’t worked as well,” Mr. Kuhnie said, although he declined to describe them.
• Ms. Hawk said she and her brother were particularly pleased with the decision by Rolling Stone to involve his foundation, which she said had donated more than $1.3 million to help build more than 300 skate parks around the country.
At ebay.com/jeepwrangler, consumers will be able to bid on a new Jeep Wrangler Unlimited that comes with boards for three sports (skate, snow, surf) and the new Tony Hawk video game. The Web site will also accept bids for the skateboards customized by the members of the three bands. One skateboard depicts what are described as “Scenes from modern business as envisioned by Bloc Party.” The grim images include a building labeled “Globo Corp.,” a fever chart slumping downward and a frowning man in a suit saying, “No!”
Underneath the photo of the skateboard in the advertorial are the words: “We only hope that through designing this board we’ve helped the youth of today get closer to the intangible utopia that is modern business.”
With sarcastic warnings like that, how will big business recruit the next generation of chief marketing officers, directors for global brand management and chief operating officers?
since all of america including corporate america is ENDLESSLY SWINGING ON TONY HAWK'S NUT SACK.........
MAYBE IT'S TIME for Tony to step the fuct up to try to tell people about alternative sources of fuel instead of gas and stuff
or how iraq is a half dead abortion.
if hawk was HAD burnquist's intellect -traits of deep thinking and thinking"outside the box" he might be actually able to change something in the world for the better, instaed of just getting richer.
dude has so much power
fer instance...
if he demanded that
"JEEP" build him an eco friendly vehicle that could run on biodisel made right here in america from plants/corn/and yes HEMP they would build it because Tony Hawk said he wanted one and would endorse them.
how can dude really beleive in his heart of hearts that at this point in his career he still needs to endore poison like McDonalds and Soft Drinks filled with sugar ####?
i am not making this #### up
2/3 of american children are out of shape and "obese"
i know my views are radical and people will always want to drive huge suv tonka toys and eat bad food but when are we going to evolve from this facade of bullshit?
hawk is true blue and worked hard to get there
####
duane peters spit in his face and he knew he would get beat silly if he did anything about it
dude is a geek's geek on a skateboard
now show us something cooler
and i know about the stuff he did in india and how he really is a nice guy and not a creep
but damm
I wish he was a lickle more hip ya know>????????????????
that bass terd is also releasing tony hawks "downhill jam" the guy on the cover is riding downhill on a popsicle stick with a really scared/I very well may have doodied myself look on his face. Not wearing slide gloves either. I can only hope somebody somewhere looses money on that game. Maybe L13, 2/3 of american kids are out of shape because they have so many simulated physical activity alternatives to occupy their time instead of the real thing.
I think this kind of thing is "the future". For example, there are rumors that the next issue of Naphte mag will have the beginning of an ad-series run cooperatively by Vespa and Skurf. Savvy people, these marketing wonks.
__________________ Relax, Don't Worry, Ride Your Longboard.
since all of america including corporate america is ENDLESSLY SWINGING ON TONY HAWK'S NUT SACK.........
MAYBE IT'S TIME for Tony to step the fuct up to try to tell people about alternative sources of fuel instead of gas and stuff
or how iraq is a half dead abortion.
if hawk was HAD burnquist's intellect -traits of deep thinking and thinking"outside the box" he might be actually able to change something in the world for the better, instaed of just getting richer.
dude has so much power
fer instance...
if he demanded that
"JEEP" build him an eco friendly vehicle that could run on biodisel made right here in america from plants/corn/and yes HEMP they would build it because Tony Hawk said he wanted one and would endorse them.
how can dude really beleive in his heart of hearts that at this point in his career he still needs to endore poison like McDonalds and Soft Drinks filled with sugar ####?
i am not making this #### up
2/3 of american children are out of shape and "obese"
i know my views are radical and people will always want to drive huge suv tonka toys and eat bad food but when are we going to evolve from this facade of bullshit?
hawk is true blue and worked hard to get there
####
duane peters spit in his face and he knew he would get beat silly if he did anything about it
dude is a geek's geek on a skateboard
now show us something cooler
and i know about the stuff he did in india and how he really is a nice guy and not a creep
but damm
I wish he was a lickle more hip ya know>????????????????
I like my choice to eat a nice juicy mcdonalds burger. I'm not mainstream America but I happen to have the sense to workout 3 times a week. Don't let everyones fatass kid ruin it for me.
When your name becomes a brand, you have to keep the machinery in motion. Its like banks and big business making sure they beat last years profits,year after year using new (and mostly more forceful) marketing tactics. Its a snowball effect. Big biz and marketing are screwing us.
This is why I love longboarding. Its the small companies that are doing the good stuff. We ride without giving a toss about what shirt or shoes go with our decks. We make sliding gloves out of gardening gloves if we want. And if somebody makes their own deck its way cool.
Longboarding will be mainstream, but I wont buy a Tony Hawk longboard. I'd prefer to make my own.
good question...nope...the only people who pay me are the advertisers you see in CW
the fact is that I am presenting all this information for your enjoyment/entertainment.
I scan dozens of pages and pull out what I think would be of interest
the fact is that Tony Hawk is NOT Bob Burnquist...
I feel that everything should be on the table and discussed...it's a two way street in marketing/advertising...
and depending on who you trust, what you believe, etc. etc., there are always two perhaps even three sides to every story.
it's complicated...but better this get's discussed than not discussed.
i think the guy has more offers than anyone can realise.there is strategy in as much as who he says yes to and who he turns down,but there isnt anyone seeking out these deals,come on,his sister is his chief marketing officer.
Tony Hawk in NY Times...the marketing machine
