#!markdown
@Johnny: sorry for not elaborating. Haven't been able to respond to every
comment without wanting to blow my brains out, but clearly, I should have
prioritized which ones got answered. By 'brand ambassador', I mean athletes
who are SPECIFICALLY referred to as 'our brand ambassador, so and so'. No, the
coastal crew doesn't count as the 'brand ambassadors' I'm referring to. Those
guys SHRED. They're athletes. I mean… Come on. They're also an excellent
example of athletes who are insanely awesome athletes and great ambassadors
for the sport; not only do they shred, they make people want to get out and
ride. They push limits, they inspire and they absolutely spread the best parts
of riding bikes with friends: fun. Isn't that the overall goal? I think so.
Second, sorry for my lack of clarity. I apologize for that, because it's led
to a lot of hurt feelings. Put plain and simple: I don't think everyone is a
celebrity, and we need to stop celebrating mediocre shit. 'Brand ambassadors'
are awesome. In the world of marketing, these are supposed to be people who
actively educate and are paid to promote a brand at trade shows, public
events, etc. In MTB, however, they've become the norm of the semi-pro who is
questionably reputable, at best. At the end of my blog, I specified how it
uniquely hurts racing, but I didn't quantify how a public user of Instagram
might be compromised by the lack of differentiation between a pro and a brand
ambassador. Say you log in to social media one day and your favorite company
is hyping up someone you've never heard of before… This person has gotten flow
from said company for a while and their new video is now being promoted by
said company, but this person doesn't seem to have much in the way of skill or
results, yet you sit there and wait for the video edit to be over, while you
wonder how the hell you ended up watching this ridiculously terrible footage.
Suddenly, you think to yourself "shit. This is terrible. how is this person
possibly pro?!" They're not. But they're being promoted in limited airspace as
a pro, and the promotion often doesn't come with a claim about how this
'friend' of said company isn't, in fact, a professional athlete. So the
expectation of pros suddenly drops, because if THIS person can get internet
fame (for whatever reason), why should new pros go above and beyond to push
progression?
It doesn't matter to this company that technically, this person isn't good at
what they do. It doesn't matter that they're not advancing the sport, or
inspiring people to get out. What matters to this brand is that this person
just gave them this free video while wearing the brand's t shirt, and while
it's not the best, it'll do. And it was free!
So: person who isn't the best gets free exposure for being mediocre. Brand
pushes it because they'd rather have 'free' than 'great'. Mainstream accepts
it as what MTB is because they can't differentiate between legitimate brands
and athletes and non-legitimate brands and athletes. Thus MTB gets an influx
of people who come into it because it looks easy and 'cool' instead of what it
is: bicycling down a goddamn mountain.
With this influx of new flesh, everyone is so excited… Until the lawsuits
start. Until little brad and Denise decide that it's too hard and demand
easier trails, or they drop out of the sport. And when they go, all of the
money and growth and projections that were made because of the 'cool' factor…
It goes with them. And it bankrupts everyone who's been inside, working on it
forever, who didn't think the ambassador thing was such a big deal.
Oh, and did I mention that in this new economy, as pros who can win and who
are pushing progression (such as Lauren Heitzman and Anne Galyean and Wil
White) look around them and can't get airtime for their content (because they
have to work to pay their bills and because good content costs money), they
leave the sport as a pro and just ride on the weekends? They stop racing and
competing or putting out edits, because.. Why should they? Brands love the
new, cost-free 'ambassadors' who are providing free promotion and mediocre
content and who have taken over the market because every brand is doing it
now. And it becomes a cycle. Free content takes over. Pros don't get paid to
produce good content because good content = risk on their part = medical bills
and broken equipment = having to make a living to pay for medical bills and
broken equipment = what's all of this work for anyway when there are so many
Jerrys (sorry, actual Jerry below) who don't know the difference and brand who
will promote whatever?
THOSE are the brands and ambassadors I'm talking about. Nothing worth anything
is free.
Sept. 22, 2016, 11:42 a.m. - Amanda
#!markdown @Johnny: sorry for not elaborating. Haven't been able to respond to every comment without wanting to blow my brains out, but clearly, I should have prioritized which ones got answered. By 'brand ambassador', I mean athletes who are SPECIFICALLY referred to as 'our brand ambassador, so and so'. No, the coastal crew doesn't count as the 'brand ambassadors' I'm referring to. Those guys SHRED. They're athletes. I mean… Come on. They're also an excellent example of athletes who are insanely awesome athletes and great ambassadors for the sport; not only do they shred, they make people want to get out and ride. They push limits, they inspire and they absolutely spread the best parts of riding bikes with friends: fun. Isn't that the overall goal? I think so. Second, sorry for my lack of clarity. I apologize for that, because it's led to a lot of hurt feelings. Put plain and simple: I don't think everyone is a celebrity, and we need to stop celebrating mediocre shit. 'Brand ambassadors' are awesome. In the world of marketing, these are supposed to be people who actively educate and are paid to promote a brand at trade shows, public events, etc. In MTB, however, they've become the norm of the semi-pro who is questionably reputable, at best. At the end of my blog, I specified how it uniquely hurts racing, but I didn't quantify how a public user of Instagram might be compromised by the lack of differentiation between a pro and a brand ambassador. Say you log in to social media one day and your favorite company is hyping up someone you've never heard of before… This person has gotten flow from said company for a while and their new video is now being promoted by said company, but this person doesn't seem to have much in the way of skill or results, yet you sit there and wait for the video edit to be over, while you wonder how the hell you ended up watching this ridiculously terrible footage. Suddenly, you think to yourself "shit. This is terrible. how is this person possibly pro?!" They're not. But they're being promoted in limited airspace as a pro, and the promotion often doesn't come with a claim about how this 'friend' of said company isn't, in fact, a professional athlete. So the expectation of pros suddenly drops, because if THIS person can get internet fame (for whatever reason), why should new pros go above and beyond to push progression? It doesn't matter to this company that technically, this person isn't good at what they do. It doesn't matter that they're not advancing the sport, or inspiring people to get out. What matters to this brand is that this person just gave them this free video while wearing the brand's t shirt, and while it's not the best, it'll do. And it was free! So: person who isn't the best gets free exposure for being mediocre. Brand pushes it because they'd rather have 'free' than 'great'. Mainstream accepts it as what MTB is because they can't differentiate between legitimate brands and athletes and non-legitimate brands and athletes. Thus MTB gets an influx of people who come into it because it looks easy and 'cool' instead of what it is: bicycling down a goddamn mountain. With this influx of new flesh, everyone is so excited… Until the lawsuits start. Until little brad and Denise decide that it's too hard and demand easier trails, or they drop out of the sport. And when they go, all of the money and growth and projections that were made because of the 'cool' factor… It goes with them. And it bankrupts everyone who's been inside, working on it forever, who didn't think the ambassador thing was such a big deal. Oh, and did I mention that in this new economy, as pros who can win and who are pushing progression (such as Lauren Heitzman and Anne Galyean and Wil White) look around them and can't get airtime for their content (because they have to work to pay their bills and because good content costs money), they leave the sport as a pro and just ride on the weekends? They stop racing and competing or putting out edits, because.. Why should they? Brands love the new, cost-free 'ambassadors' who are providing free promotion and mediocre content and who have taken over the market because every brand is doing it now. And it becomes a cycle. Free content takes over. Pros don't get paid to produce good content because good content = risk on their part = medical bills and broken equipment = having to make a living to pay for medical bills and broken equipment = what's all of this work for anyway when there are so many Jerrys (sorry, actual Jerry below) who don't know the difference and brand who will promote whatever? THOSE are the brands and ambassadors I'm talking about. Nothing worth anything is free.