Just watched it, thought it was very good.

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Inside The Big Ring: Podcast & Coaching

Why is the timing interesting? She’s racing world champs this weekend and defending her title. It’s a marketing email and wahoo wants to use the likeness of an athlete they pay as a way to promote their product.

That is why it's interesting - intentional and prepared in advance for this purpose.

I think the word you're looking for is "logical". The timing of this is logical.

What's weird about the video? Did she say she was the first mother to win Kona?

Probably because she's a woman he avoided the use of the world logical.


Great video. It's unfortunate, because it's one of those videos that you feel won't get a lot of traction in terms of massive views but clearly a lot of work ($$) was put into it. A real labor of love. Thankful some brands still do this stuff.

Would be great if the OP (?George) cared to speel Chelsea's name correctly in the title.

Chelsey Soldero

Fixed my typo, thanks.
Ironic...'speel'...

Deliberate 'bait': thanks for biting.

Deliberate only if it was pink.

No, the word I was looking for was 'interesting'. It's interesting that a company with so many financial (and other) concerns (Wahoo) would spend the resources on this video. Not bad or negative, just interesting. Says something about the corporate approach/strategy. Again, not good. Not bad. Interesting.

If a sponsor highlighting an athlete through a new video released a couple of days before the WC was 'logical', I imagine that we would see similar, new videos for each of the top athletes produced (or paid for/promoted by) their sponsors. Or maybe the other sponsors are 'illogical'? Point us to those videos...

All companies spend money on marketing. Some more, some less. I think you'll find any company who sponsors an athlete racing Kona this weekend will highlight them in some way this week. Wahoo chose to use a video. What are you implying that says about their corporate strategy?

Well here's Hoka presenting Daniela Ryf:

It's an uphill battle on ST

Kristen Blumenthal
Laura Phillip/Phillips
Daniela Ryff
Sam Laidlaw

Do you understand how marketing, cross promotion and leveraging works? A brand invests in an athlete (Sodaro). Athlete is defending champion and has biggest race of the year in 2 days time. The amount of traffic on Sodaro's social media platforms will be at an all time high for the year. Its a smart and logical decision from Wahoo. The ROI here is a no brainer. It feels like you're diminishing her as an athlete and questioning why they (Wahoo) would spend resources on her?

Sponsors will pick what athletes to promote and spread resources accordingly throughout the year. If you've ever watched a Red Bull documentary, no expense is spared on filming footage over months. Not to mention the editing and post production involved.

I would urge you to do some research or familiarise yourself with how marketing works. The marketing team of Wahoo most likely knows what they're doing.

FTFY

The lecture certainly didn’t age well there

Genuinely surprised by the response to my word - 'interesting' - describing the Wahoo-distributed video about Sodaro. I watched the video last night, BTW, and found it quite good.

A lot of ST lecturing here. Let me add some context and then I'm out. Yes, I understand how promotion works and why companies (and others) conduct it. Are you aware of Wahoo's financial troubles? They are well documented, but maybe not so widely known... They recently announced a shutdown of RGT, their virtual cycling platform and a component of SYSTM. They also whacked a substantial portion of their Sports Science Center - arguably, a key differentiator for SYSTM vs. other online training platforms - and a potentially bad omen. The SYSTM forum is full of concerned users. It looks as if their purchases of The Sufferfest and RGT have not paid off. Earlier this year, Wahoo's credit rating was downgraded to CCC (pretty bad) and they were working on debt restructuring. S&P said, 'Wahoo’s capital structure is unsustainable given its negative EBITDA and cash flow.' So, I'm not convinced of Wahoo's business sense, at least in the last couple of years. Their hardware products (watch, head units especially) are not super competitive (although the trainers seem to be holding up better in the marketplace) - read DC Rainmaker for informed opinions there. And they just emerged from a legal battle with Zwift. So, I *still* find it interesting that Wahoo - clearly not in a strong financial or marketplace position - is using resources to make an exclusive video to sell products rather than using those resources to - I don't know - make better products? As I said before - I don't see Wahoo's decision here as good - or bad. Just interesting.

There is an avalanche of promotion ahead of the WC, for sure. I can only note what I've seen. One ST poster pointed to a Ryf-focused piece from Hoka but did not provide a link (as far as I can see). I don't suspect Hoka suffers from Wahoo-type financial/future direction concerns (but I know far less about Roku than Wahoo). I just got an email from Roka about LCB. A picture in an email and some text. Not a bespoke video - practically free to create. LCB is also featured in a video marketed to me from Maurten - 1/6 the length of the Wahoo/Sodaro video and from a company that seems to be doing well. And to the point about Red Bull preparing terrific documentaries - yup, agreed and I'm guessing that those drive sales. But from a resource POV Red Bull dwarfs Wahoo. So, yeah, interesting.