Extreme Sports & Their Place In The Global Digital Landscape
There was a time when extreme sports were on the fringes of entertainment and media. If you were a fan of pro BMX riding or skateboarding, you might find a few clips online or a monthly magazine that could cater to your interests.
Nowadays, thanks to social media, we can find 24/7 content, we can follow extreme sports icons directly on their social media channels, and we can get involved in communities online. The access to information has been flipped on its head.
However, now that it is easy to find these communities online and to seek out local extreme sports events, has it helped to bolster the market, or does it still find itself playing second fiddle to some of the more notable sports, particularly in the US? Let’s take a look.
Measuring Success Through Investment
Often, the best gauge of how an industry is doing is by measuring the level of investment it is receiving from other industries, companies, or large institutional backers. For instance, the Saudi-led consortium, which recently spent $55 billion on acquiring EA Sports. Such a staggering level of investment speaks volumes about the underlying health and potential of any market or product.
When it comes to extreme sports, there are also other considerations to weigh up. Some companies have opted to partner with companies that operate in other successful areas of entertainment. The Team Ignition partnership with Nitro Circus highlights this. While their aim is to bring both industries together and into the spotlight, there is an overlap between forms of entertainment, extreme sports, and other high-octane forms of entertainment that get people sitting up and taking notice.
It’s a partnership that has been ongoing for quite some time, and has brought in professional skateboarders as well as other top-level extreme sports stars to announce partnerships.
Technology Transforming The Market
The rise of AI has given a lot of different companies and industries something to think about. However, the rise of AI image generator tools and programs that can cut together videos and edit them to perfection has allowed those who have a love of extreme sports an avenue to carve together compilations and ideas without having to go through the specialist training that these jobs used to require.
Over the last decade, some of the world’s biggest companies, such as Red Bull, have been investing enormous sums in extreme sports and events. In the process, many of these big plans have broken Guinness World Records; they are also prevalent in the world of F1, and are home to Max Verstappen, the man who many believe is the best F1 driver in the world.
Social media has brought many positives into the extreme sports landscape. For those who enjoy watching these escapades unfold, the rise of YouTube and other social media channels has ushered in a new era where we can watch these death-defying stunts unfold online.
It’s an attitude that has spread across the world of high-octane entertainment, and finding enormous success, particularly in the emerging world of social media marketing, as you can see in the viral post below.
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However, despite the presence of Red Bull and other huge multi-billion-dollar backers, BMXing and skateboarding are still slightly lower down the pecking order in comparison to more traditional sports.
Could We See A Significant Change?
Social media has created avenues for all sports to thrive and find their audience. It’s fair to say that over the last 20 years, there’s been a noticeable increase in the popularity of extreme sports. There was the landmark success in gaming of Tony Hawks Pro Skater, which is a gaming franchise that still has enormous, nostalgic appeal for millions of gamers, plenty of whom have never stepped on a skateboard in their life.
The success of MTV’s Jackass in the early 2000s brought a number of pro skateboarders into popular mainstream culture, too, such as Brandon Novak and Bam Margera. Taking extreme sports from niche entertainment into the current mould, where it has become an Olympic sport.
Now, some sports come and go from the Olympics. It isn’t always the best measuring stick to use. However, for skateboarding to go from a hobby with no route to professionalism, to professionals standing at the podium at the Olympics, is a giant leap forward.
It’s about keeping up this momentum, and as is often the case in any sport or industry, it’s about having crossover stars that can drive home the appeal of their sport. It’s a marathon, not a sprint, but there’s plenty to be optimistic about.
Staying Relevant In A Changing World
With so many factors driving rapid-fire change in the world of sports entertainment, extreme sports are managing well. There are some key partnerships with some of the world’s biggest brands, which help to generate investment, cultivate interest, and bring in the best marketers in the world, making sure that stunts, extreme sports, and the professionals who risk their health can get as much adulation as possible.
Sure, there might not be the same number of avenues as there are in other pro sports. Still, it is heading in the right direction, and with social media playing a pivotal role, expect it to continue operating as the foundation for this exciting expansion.
