Surfing Australia partner Hyundai launched a new women’s surfer platform called ‘She’s Electric’ which promotes its new EV range and positioning while offering female surfers a pathway to the top of the sport by identifying and amplifying talented grassroots athletes from across the country.
The first Aussie grassroots women’s surfing leaderboard sees the automotive sponsor leverage ‘LiveHeats’ performance data from Surfing Australia’s eight official ‘Australian Boardriders Battles’ to create national rankings for breakout talent based only on performance.
At the end of the 2022/3 season, the top five surfers will be invited to join Hyundai’s ‘Team Electric’: a team of sponsored female surfers sponsored, supported and promoted by the car company to help them make it to surfing’s elite professional level including intensive training at the Hyundai Surfing Australia High Performance Centre (HPC) and $5,000 cash to support their surfing journey.
To launch the initiative, Hyundai worked with agency Innocean and brand ambassador and professional surfer Laura Enever to create a surfboard named ‘Shaped By Defiance’ which will travel to each state round to inspire the next generation. The physical board was backed by an integrated promotional campaign led by an online film which dropped on 1 August called ‘Introducing She’s Electric’.
She's Electric – Launch Film from Innocean Worldwide Australia on Vimeo.
Another strand of the initiative saw Hyundai partner with online women’s surfing publication ‘MurMur Mag’ – founded by professional surfers Tru and Jesse Starling – to create the official ‘She’s Electric Pre and Post Show’ content series.
This sees a series of films hosted on the magazine’s site which showcases the surfers, analyse the data, highlight leaderboard movements and which also includes interviews with some of surfing’s biggest names and brightest stars.
As the brand backed leaderboard updates, the live data informs all Hyundai and Surf Australia media platforms and partnership touchpoints: promoting who is moving and down the national rankings, showcasing rider profiles and also including the ‘Electric Moves’ top five female surfer wrap-ups.
“Previously there was no national ranking to connect women boardriders around the country, all young female surfers were just anonymous numbers in singular events,” explained Innocean Copywriter Charlotte Berry. “The ‘She’s Electric’ platform drives real competition and reframes female surfing on the undeniable numbers, not vanity metrics. These numbers then affect the media, increasing the profile of the surfer consistently performing well to get her name – rather than her number – out there.”
Hyundai Director Of Marketing Jennifer Gulliver added: “Whether you’re from Trigg Beach or Torquay, Coffs Harbour or Kiama, for the first time we are levelling the playing field and growing competition wherever women surf – then at the end of the season, it starts all over again. Our new brand platform ‘Have you tried it?’, brings innovative thinking to tackle problems and defy barriers that have previously been accepted as the norm. As part of this, we’re using data to unearth female surfing talent around the country in real time, then providing them with a pathway to the top. This transformative approach creates a fairer playing field and helps tackle the underrepresentation of grassroots female surfers.”
“On beaches and Boardriders clubs all around Australia there are women discovering or rekindling their love of surfing, yet many of these faces are yet to be discovered. Hyundai wants to change this,” added Surfing Australia Head Of Partnerships Clarissa Pike. “Leveraging their marquee sponsorship of the biggest grassroots surfing event in Australia, the Hyundai Australian Boardriders Battle, the ‘She’s Electric Leaderboard’ taps into our goal to support and supercharge the trend we’ve seen all over the country of women surfing and will uncover the talented women that will inspire the next generation of girls to surf.”
The campaign was created for client Hyundai Australia’s marketing team which included Marketing Director Jennifer Gulliver, Head Of brand, product and Retail Marketing Alex Pinsuti, Brand and Product Portfolio Marketing Manager Dominique Allen and Social, Partnerships and Product Marketing Specialist Ava Elvy.
It was conceived, created and executed by a group at Innocean led by Copywriters Laura Parker and Charlotte Berry, Art Director Pamela Parrelli, Creative Director Damon Porter, ECD Wesley Hawes, CEO Jasmin Bedir, Client Partner Ian Hartley, Senior Account Director Vincent Pled, Account Director Chiara Marotta, Design Lead Michael MacGregor, Editor David Anlezark, Producers Gabe Hammond and Warrick Nicholson, Junior Integrated Producer Brittany Mirabitur, Head of Production Esme Fisher and Strategist Charlotte Berry.
The Surf Australia team which also worked on the partnership activation included Chief Executive Officer Chris Mater, Head of Partnerships Clarissa Pike, Partnership Account Director Danielle Hankey, Head of Production, Media and Owned Channels Chris Smith, Senior Producer Nimai Strickland and Producers Owen Milne, Sam Walkerdene and Jacob Wooden
Others who worked on the initiative included Live Heats Chris Friend, Shaper Dylan Longbottom, Surfboard Artist Nathan Johnson (Blacklist Studio), Surfer and Hyundai Ambassador Laura Enever and Murmur Magazine Founders Jesse and Tru Starling.
Comment
This is another strand in the struggle for equality in Australian surfing and the initiative rolls out three years after male and female surfers were granted equal pay in World Surf League competitions.
Yet projects like Hyundai’s are still much needed, as there is still significant inequality in the sport of surfing – across participation, sponsorship and opportunity – and, while one in three surfers are women, they represent just 10% of grassroots competitors.
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