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News broke recently that Nike has signed back on with IMG Action Sports for a “multi-year” sponsorship agreement for the U.S. Open of Surfing. After last year’s dramatic investment in the event from Hurley, Nike 6.0, and CONS the announcement brought up a slew of questions. How many years is the “multi-year” deal? What kind of plans do the brands have to out do themselves this year? Was there a measurable return on the company’s investment last year? If so, what was it?

TransWorld Business asked Hurley’s Founder, Bob Hurley all these questions and a few more. We got answers to most of them … well, sort of. Looks like there are some details Nike would prefer to save for later. So stay tuned for much more as the event dates—July 31–August 8—draw closer.

If you were to grade the marketing push, brand enhancement activation, and overall success of last year’s US Open for Hurley (and Nike 6.0 and Cons for that matter) what would give yourselves and why?

I would prefer to let the athletes who participated and the crowd who came out to support them give us a grade. Our whole focus was on elevating the experience. We were definitely happy with the outcome and it was a huge credit to all involved, especially the community.

Based on last year’s turnout, what was the number one lesson learned and how do you plan on adapting this year to implement improvements?

I’d say the lesson we learned is that when the three brands come together, we can accomplish some amazing things. As for what we will improve for this year, you’ll have to wait for more details.

How many years is the “multi-year” deal with IMG? Why not disclose this in the release?

We generally don’t reveal the specifics of any of our contracts.

There are a lot of moving parts to the US Open property and a number of ancillary events in HB during that time frame. How do you approach utilizing all of these (the sporting events, Agenda trade show, movie premieres, parties, etc.) to create the strongest branding opportunity possible?

For all the reasons you mentioned above, we believe the US Open of Surfing has the potential to be an All-Star weekend for action sports, where the sports’ best athletes compete, the fans are entertained, and the industry comes together to celebrate. As far as the branding opportunity, you have to focus and try to make every experience special. You can’t assume that people will be coming along for the week-long journey of everything you do. But for those that do, you will see a common thread in our story telling and experience.

How does the event activation breakdown from a management standpoint between Nike and Hurley?

All three brands (Hurley, 6.0, and Converse) have dedicated teams for their specific event, as well as an overall team (comprised of members from all three brands and IMG) that steers the whole event. Though it’s “lots of moving parts,” as you said earlier, it’s energizing when you bring the thinking of three creative brands together.

Obviously this event is a major investment. How do you measure ROI on something of this magnitude?

The US Open is part of our overall commitment to the action sports community. We measure that success over the long term. In the short term, we judge ourselves on whether or not this event will be better than the last year. We’re confident it will be.

Did Hurley, Nike 6.0, and CONS conduct any sort of research tied to the event as far as regional sales spikes, Web traffic, etc that you can share that offer any significant, quantifiable data or interesting stats?

We have numbers that supported many of the elements of the event last year. We were encouraged, but we expect to deliver on a whole new level this year.

story via transworld.net