Talib Kweli at Icer Air 2007
Unless all you can see are first week sales, signs of hip hop's relevance to actual humans abound with marketing attached, for example at the Icer Air 2007 with Talib Kweli and Mos Def:
What started out a sketchy jump over a San Francisco intersection in 2005 and turned into an even sketchier jump over a 100-foot tall scaffolding in 2006 has finally evolved into a legitimate contest. As North America’s only stadium snowboarding event, the 2007 esurance Icer Air was an impressive display of what happens when you use the popularity of action sports and hip-hop to get corporate sponsors to kick down hundreds of thousands of dollars for a made-for-TV event that guarantees them countless marketing impressions and plenty of mass media coverage.
Sponsors included:
Title Partner esurance and a variety of other categories of sponsors including Crocs, Toyota, Playstation, Full Throttle Energy Drink, NOS Energy Drink, North Face, Chipotle, SF Weekly, Live 105, SPIN, Outside and a bunch more.
I'm just focusing on some of the bigger names. The full list is pretty impressive and gives one a sense of how an extreme sports type event tied into a musical genre can create [or create the appearance] of a demographic that attracts the attention of all sorts of companies.
Providing a nice looking Sponsor page is also very smart. Sponsors may not expect much more than a place in the list on a press release and a presence at the event but give them a simple online extra that looks good and they do appreciate it. Some may even remember it but, if you keep it alive, you can just point it out on your next sales call and, if there's love to be had, there's a better chance you'll get some of it.
Official Site:
esurance ICER AIR 2007
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