UKC

Hi wads!

You're regular guys (I know this because you are at pains to say so in interviews), so I know you won't mind if I give you a teeny bit of advice on how you "deploy" your sponsorship.

We (us truly regular guys, that aren't sponsored and all) don't mind you promoting the brand or products that sponsor you. We really don't. What we mind is being patronised or treated as stupid.

So, go ahead, please put in a video section talking about your sponsored products and what you genuinely believe are their strengths and benefits. Why you like them. The broader work the sponsor does for good in the world if you like. I promise that I will watch it and take it seriously if you add it as a pre- or post-mainclip item. A bit of direct honesty has enormous power in building respect for a brand and the credibilty of its claims.

Equally, please *stop* the product placements and bum-clenching endorsements. Or be sophisticated enough to provide different cuts for different audiences. A climbing audience wants to see the moves and understand the motivation and tenacity that accomplished them. They want to understand the positives the athlete sees in the products. "Wad X uses Y" is not sufficient.

In reply to Deadeye:

I like your style (although there's not enough foul imagery and swearing for my taste), but I think that you're confusing sponsored climbers and their sponsors. After all, I'm not sure that Megos has much to do with the editing of the videos that he's featured in - the punter probably can't even use Windows Movie Maker.

In reply to Deadeye:


If you want "direct honesty", it'd presumably sound a lot like "Er, they're decent shoes and the makers will give me three pairs a year for free."

I'd find it thoroughly patronizing if I was expected to believe that, for example, Climber X suddenly discovered how awesome La Sportiva shoes are and how they are objectively the best in the world and La Sportiva are the nicest people ever -- coincidentally right after Five Ten dropped them and La Sportiva picked them up.

Ondra and Megos aside, most sponsored climbers are not in a position to pick and choose their potential sponsors out of all the manufacturers in the world; they'll be lucky to get a few options. They almost certainly didn't choose a certain brand of harness or cam because they thought it was the absolute best on the market; they chose it because that was the company that'd give them free stuff.

I'd rather have a few awkward close-ups of stuff with the sponsor's logo on it, versus watching minutes of some poor sod who is not a professional actor having to grovel and deliver a speech on why the new Techno-500 high-tension exploding underscore heel makes this shoe the best ever for steep overhanging routes and also delicate slabs and the manufacturers bottle-feed orphan kittens in their spare time.

In reply to slab_happy:


Now you've got it! have a like!

In reply to Deadeye:

I'm not sure a passive aggressive poke on a climbing forum at all sponsored climbers (i'm not sure they all behave the same way) is going to make much difference. Perhaps it'll get you out of your grump and you can get on with your weekend.

They are paid (in kit or cash) to sell products, and they do sound a bit knobby sometimes. Your not even getting paid to sound knobby.......

In reply to Deadeye:

As a 'truly regular guy' your letter does not speak for me. Unless you've got some support from a lot of climbers then I think your letter is misleading.

Slab Happy's response sums up my view perfectly, which is more or less the total opposite of yours.

In reply to CragRat11:



Wow. Not a poke. Not passive aggressive. A gentle way to mock the commercial approach to us as consumers?

But, hey! You think I sound knobby! Want to suck it?

In reply to Greeneye:

I don't drink red bull personally and don't own any shares However they do do the decent thing by their athletes in the event of an injury - like Shauna's shoulder, so if product placement really boils your piss maybe stop watching "free" videos?

In reply to Deadeye:



Sucking off strangers I've met on a climbing forum isn't really my bag. Thanks for the offer though, I'm sure someone will take you up on it.

In reply to Deadeye:


But that is how advertising works, it's called association, that is you see a famous person like Michael Jackson drinking Pepsi and so you start drinking it. It's not a bad thing it's the way of the world

I would take the money if someone sponsored me to climb fat chance

In reply to Deadeye:

So basically you want to see better adverts. Fair enough