World Surf League catches perfect wave with digital-first strategy

According to a New York Times from February, “an average of more than 6.2 million people tuned in live to watch the Billabong Pipe Masters… Those numbers exceeded the American television audience for the final game of the 2014 Stanley Cup hockey finals.” The event was streamed entirely on YouTube.

Later this year, the WSL is set to open WSL Studios in order to elevate the production value of live events and to create originals. Speaker, an NFL league office vet, is looking to model WSL Studios on the ahead-of-its-time NFL Studios.

With Snapchat and Periscope, creating engaging video content now is cheap; creating high quality video content, though, is a different story. Making this type of investment is a testament to the encouraging numbers the league has enjoyed the past two years, and it is also a show of confidence in the league’s potential.

For more on the World Surf League’s winning digital strategy, Found Remote chatted with Speaker:

Found Remote: You told the New York Times in February that "live streaming is our bread and butter." Based on your success live streaming, would you even consider a linear partnership at this point?

Speaker: At the core of our business model, we strive to be fan-centric. As such, all options for bringing the world's best surfing to the largest audience possible are up for consideration. At the WSL, we have a blend of partnerships across both digital and linear platforms as well as social. The surfing audience has always been an early adopter of technology and, out of necessity, the sport has innovated in, and largely at the vanguard of, the digital space - pioneering global digital webcasts as early as the 1990s. This audience characteristic has become more apparent than ever in the millions that tune in for our live webcasts via WorldSurfLeague.com. The excellence demonstrated in the core digital arena of our business has fostered a number of top-of-class linear partnerships including ABC/ESPN in the US, FUEL TV in Australia, Globo in Brazil and many others. In point of fact, 22 million people tuned in on Globo alone to watch Filipe Toledo claim the Oi Rio Pro in May. We consider ourselves privileged to be championing the cutting edge of surfing and have modeled our business approach to suit - an approach that welcomes fans through digital, linear and social platforms.

FR: What is the potential for Meerkat and Periscope, and even streaming via GoPros, to change the way surfing - and sports, in general - is broadcast?

Speaker: Like all sport and entertainment properties, the WSL is having significant internal and external discussions regarding emerging technology and the rapidly-changing consumer and content atmosphere. How do we provide the best product and experience to our fans while improving relationships with our commercial and media partners? Surfing is very much community-focused and the League views all mechanisms of the sport through the lens of the fan when making strategic decisions. Whenever possible, the WSL strives to incorporate user-generated content into our platform - whether it be broadcast, website or social. The reason behind this is two-fold: 1) we strive to provide a comprehensive look at the world's best surfers and the community that supports it, and 2) surfing is a phenomenon that transcends traditional sport and entertainment properties and exists as a way of life for people - we, at the WSL, are tremendously honored to champion the best surfing on the planet and we believe we have a responsibility to engage in dialogue with the surfing fan base. From a content perspective, this season we've been experimenting with a number of different platforms in delivering our fans unique and engaging experiences. Recently, on International Surfing Day (ISD) on June 20, our Social Media Team ran a Periscope activation at Trestles in Southern California with four-time WSL Champion Lisa Andersen, 2015 rookie Keanu Asing and local star Nathan Yeomans in which they shot footage from the water and answered questions. Bringing the fans 'into the lineup' with the world's best surfers is just one example of how the WSL is scratching the surface with emerging technology.

FR: It seems clear that surfing fans would find WSL content no matter where it is or how it is hosted. Why partner with, and more importantly, share revenue with, YouTube?

Speaker: The acquisition of the sport in 2013 was game-changing in a number of ways - one of the most significant was the convergence of the formerly disparate events (and event mechanisms such as broadcast, marketing, sponsorship, etc.) under a singular umbrella. This allowed us to not only invest in a top-of-class entertainment product for our fans, but to provide a consistent one throughout the year - something that had never been offered before. Webcasting/Broadcasting one of the most dynamic sports on the planet from some of the most exotic and remote locales in the world to a truly global audience presents a number of challenges. In 2014, we partnered with YouTube to help us achieve this and remain great partners. Moving into this season, the WSL has succeeded in developing its own LIVE player to accommodate our ever-growing audience as well as a robust international stable of commercial partners.

FR: Live streaming is relatively cheap, but with WSL Studios you will begin investing in documentaries and original programming. What indicated to you that there was strong enough demand for this type of content, which is expensive to produce?

Speaker: Our primary directive upon acquisition of the sport was to invest in the live product. Surfing, as a business, has seen juggernaut growth in recent years. Complementing the evolution out of the water has been the performances of the world's best surfers in the water. The caliber of athlete at the elite level, advances in equipment technology and the growing value of succeeding on the Championship Tour have charged the performance atmosphere like never before. The world's best surfing is happening in real time in the live arena of the WSL and performance barriers are being broken at every event. It was absolutely imperative to us that we focus on bringing this to the audience in the best possible way as soon as we could.

The benefit we have at the WSL is that we own all our own production resources and have them on-site at the most desirable locations on the planet throughout the season. This allows us to efficiently develop content for not only our live product, but shoulder programming and partner content as well. It has been tremendously successful thus far and we look forward to expanding in this arena with the full build-out of the Santa Monica studio in the near future.

FR: How difficult have the conversations been with media buyers in trying to convince them that your online audience is even more engaged and more "premium" than a similar demo on linear TV?

Speaker: All conversations with both media and commercial partners have been extraordinarily positive. The WSL has successfully integrated a number of new partners in Samsung, Jeep, Tag Heuer, Oi and GoPro to complement the continued support of core brands like Quiksilver, Rip Curl, Billabong, Hurley, etc. The League, between men, women and big wave products, is firing on all cylinders.

The centralized and premium audience delivered by the WSL through multiple platforms (digital, linear and social), the fan-focused approach of the League and the in-water performances of the world's best surfers have created a tremendously welcoming environment for the organization and our passion and enthusiasm has been similarly matched by virtually every door we open. Surfing is unique. As an organization, we strive to be unique as well, in our focus on our fans, our servicing of athletes and in our relationships with our partners.

There's never been a more exciting time for professional surfing.