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| Andrew Gauthier |
Targeting
Generations X and Y, the annual X Games competitions are put on
by American sports broadcaster ESPN and also shown on ABC Sports. Since 2002,
the winter event has been held at Aspen’s Buttermilk ski hill. The Summer X Games moved from Los Angeles to Austin, Texas
in 2014.
Chris
Schuster, President & Founder of the Association of Freeskiing Professionals (AFP), provides the management team for
X Games under his company Event Production Specialists (EPS Events). Based in
North Lake Tahoe, Andrew Gauthier is AFP’s Marketing & World Tour Manager. “As a member of the EPS team, we manage all sports and competition at
X-Games. We are responsible for coordinating between ESPN Live TV, the
athletes, the judges, hospitality, medical, and the course builders,” says Gauthier.
“As a crucial pivot point for these events to occur, we ensure that the timing,
the safety, the competition process are all aligned. Furthermore, we also are
responsible for coordinating athlete practices for each discipline.”
Executive Director for AFP, Eric Zerrenner, was originally looking for a
couple of interns from Sierra Nevada College to do the work that Gauthier now does. At the time Gauthier was
evaluating different marketing coordinator roles, going through interviews at
various resorts such as Sugar Bowl, Kirkwood, Squaw Valley, and Northstar while finishing his MBA. When he saw the
request for interns for AFP he
came up with a novel idea. “The job description was extensive, but I thought
two or three internships could potentially add up to one job,” Gauthier explains.
After some negotiations, Gauthier’s new role was created.
Marketing and sales are
his chief areas, with a wide involvement in sponsorships and partnerships,
social media strategy, event promotion, athlete membership drives, and also
basic video editing for exclusive AFP
content. The AFP World Tour is another of his responsibilities. “I accept and review all
event sanctioning applications, update athlete rankings with new event results
and manage the AFP judging program,” he explains. This includes procurement, education and
scheduling for all AFP Certified Judges. Along
side Jeff
Schmuck (Managing Editor of
@SBCSkier Mag), he also
manages all event media and content on afpworldtour.com and is responsible for
athlete communications. Gauthier creates and distributes all formal AFP documentation, manages the inventory logistics
including banners, signage, cameras, equipment etc. And he distributes and
analyzes post-season surveys to both athletes and event organizers. Ironically,
he also gets to manage new interns from Sierra Nevada College.
Despite this taxing tally of tasks, Gauthier thrives on the scope, the deadlines and the competitive nature of his work. And, it’s also a pretty glamorous job. Travelling to the premier North American ski resorts, he meets the world’s top freeskiing and snowboarding athletes. “It is difficult to pinpoint one star struck moment,” he says. “However, I believe when I finished my last powder run at Whistler at the 2013/14 AFP World Championships, myself, Mike Atkinson, and Chris Schuster (ski sport organizer for Winter X Games) popped out of our bindings and there was none other than Mike Douglas. Basically, he was the leader of the Canadian Air Force, creator of the D-Spin and just a huge freeski star. We had lunch soon after with the AFP team, Mike, and Jeff Schmuck. What a day that was!”
The position comes with
other perks, too, particularly living the winter sports lifestyle. “I did not
grow up a skier, racer, or competitor. It was the environment, community and
the people that attracted me to the winter industry. My love for skiing and
snowboarding came later,” Gauthier says.
When it comes to marketing, AFP and the X Games are heavily weighted towards
social media and online advertising. “In the past, many marketing campaigns
have focused on product. Today we see many brands moving away from
product-focused content and more towards entertainment and building a personality
of their brand,” Gauthier explains. “See Salomon
Freeski TV, The North Face’s The
Rise, and Atomic’s
recent video series, all live on You Tube.
In addition, you find many brands have a dedicated online theater, if you will,
to present this content. What’s particularly interesting here is that this is
the most difficult type of campaign to track back to the bottom line, yet
companies continue to invest.”
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| Eric Zerrenner |
Gauthier’s boss, Eric Zerrenner says content is king these days:
“Brands - both hard goods and soft goods - are looking to create their own,
unique content. Typically this has resulted in brands looking to their
sponsored athletes to provide them with this content - whether it's action
footage at a comp, lifestyle footage from the offseason, training, or travels
or general free skiing content. Because of social media, and the scope and
immediate reach via those channels, brands are able to tap into an athlete’s
audience to help them get their brand/marketing message out to a relevant and
receptive audience.”
Media, both traditional and especially social
media are paramount, says Zerrenner: “As the main source for competitive freeskiing, we want to be as informative
as possible about the competitions, courses, athletes and results. If
we're not able to be at an event - or even at every competition at an event -
social media provides instant access. We rely on this information to keeps
us informed and current on what's happening within our sport and culture.”
