Quiksilver’s Marketing Touch: Making Golf Seem Cool
Surf City Goes 3-D With Ad Truck; Juxt Interactive Revamps Reef Online
Marketing & Media
by Jennifer Bellantonio
Huntington Beach-based Quiksilver Inc. always seems give its marketing a fresh touch.
Take the surfwear maker’s new Fidra golf line. The line’s catalog of sorts,dubbed the “Links Soul Journal”,features six-time world surfing champion Kelly Slater on the cover standing knee deep in the ocean slicing the glistening water with a golf club.
The next page features some dramatic photography and the words: “Dedicated to the core golfer.”
“They get an A for imagery,” said Thom McElroy, chief creative officer at McElroy: FCB, the youth marketing arm of Foote, Cone Belding Southern California in Irvine.
FCB doesn’t handle Quiksilver’s marketing, but McElroy did so for years until Quiksilver took the work in-house a few years back.
“They’ve always been true to their core while still going out to the mainstream,” McElroy said.
Quiksilver’s focus on “authenticity” works for the company and has helped it grow, McElroy said. It starts with the surfers and skaters Quiksilver taps and runs through the company’s marketing (it uses athletes instead of models).
It also has made Quiksilver a leader in action sports and lifestyle clothes, he said.
“They’ve always have (been a role model),” McElroy said. “They’ve always been forward thinkers. They’ve always been one step ahead of the game. They’ve grown but they’ve still held onto what they’re about.”
Quiksilver’s not afraid to take risks, which it has done taking on the Fidra golf line, McElroy said
“Getting into golf, (which) is so conservative, is a pretty big risk for them,” he said.
But Quiksilver found a way to connect the game to its lifestyle brand, and reach a younger audience, according to McElroy. The clothes are designed by John Ashworth.
The marketing material features cool guys wearing Fidra clothes, including drummer Russ Kunkel and professional golfer James Driscoll.
“The golf world is so conservative and super cookie-cutter, and if you take the core sports sensibility and infuse that into the golf world, it makes it super exciting,” McElroy said.
Keep on Truckin’
Who’s the poor sucker that gets to drive these things?
Huntington Beach-based Surf City Advertising Co. hopes to stop traffic and drive customers to the doors of Robbins Bros. The Engagement Ring Store with a fleet of advertising trucks,you know, those trucks with billboards on the side that drive around busy city streets.
The Robbins Bros. trucks, which hit the road last week, are cruising OC’s most crowded spots: freeways at rush hour, universities and community colleges during the day, the movies and restaurants at night and the malls and beaches on the weekends.
The twist: the trucks feature lifelike, three-dimensional sculptures of Skip and Steve, the Robbins brothers, in wacky poses.
“The Robbins brothers have never been ones to hold back in getting the word out,” said Chris Epting, Surf City creative director and president. “These trucks are a natural extension of their aggressive, energetic campaign.”
The engagement ring store, known for its flashy neon exterior architecture, particularly at its store in Mission Viejo, already runs radio spots created by Surf City.
Sparking Reef Online
Newport Beach-based Juxt Interactive was tapped by San Diego-based beach sandal and footwear company Reef to handle its online advertising.
The OC shop, which counts Billabong USA, Wells Fargo & Co. and Pacific Sunwear of California Inc. as clients, is set to come up with a new “online brand and Web site,” which matches Reef’s new print campaign and product debut.
The Web site, set to launch at mid-year, promotes products, sponsored events and of course the scantily clad bikini babes known as Reef Girls.
Because of tight vendor relationships, Juxt said Reef does not sell its products online. Rather, the new site will direct customers to the nearest store.
Growing Paine
PainePR is moving to Irvine after 16 years in Costa Mesa.
The public relations agency recently signed a lease for 15,000 square feet of office space with Layton-Belling & Associates and plans to relocate its Orange County headquarters to 19000 MacArthur Blvd. by mid-June.
But first PainePR is revamping the bigger digs, and it retained swanky architecture firm Hellmuth, Obata + Kassabaum Inc. to do the job.
Linda Landers, Paine’s new general manager, and Cynthia Rude, the new assistant general manager, are set to run the office.
Bits and pieces:
Lincoln, part of Ford Motor Co.’s Irvine-based Premier Automotive Group, hopes to lure younger buyers with its new Lincoln Aviator, a midsize luxury sport utility vehicle based on the Ford Explorer that was introduced recently at the New York International Auto Show Our bad: In the Advertising Special Report on March 25 we suggested a Ford Taurus ad was created by Young & Rubicam Inc.’s Irvine office. Y & R;’s local office handles advertising for Lincoln Mercury and Jaguar, but not Ford Three creative directors of leading Southern California advertising agencies, including Ron Nelson, strategic planner at Irvine-based RiechesBaird, will host a panel talk on creativity and marketing at the upcoming SoCal Business Marketing Association dinner set for Thursday at the Irvine Marriott. More information: go to www.socalbma.org Santa Ana-based Script to Screen Inc. recently completed its third direct-response commercial for Icon Health & Fitness Lights, camera, action: McElroy: FCB recently was featured on a VH1 special, “Behind the Orange Curtain,” as were a number of OC bands and hot surfwear companies. In other news, FCB recently wrapped up some new TV and print work for client Kawasaki Motors Corp., Irvine, and its all-terrain vehicles. The TV spots are eyebrow raisers: one titled “Eat Dirt” ends with a non-Kawasaki owner chewing a mouthful of, you guessed it, dirt.
