How to STAND out!

Overview:

As a company, WFPF often receive enquiries from brands interested in partnering with Parkour Athletes.

The brief is usually along the lines of:

• Someone who relates to the brand.
• Someone with a lot of followers and engagement on their social channels.
• Someone who has a strong identity and is a Key Opinion Leader.

Now, these might sound obvious, and of course, there are elements of these that are out of anyone’s control.

For example, the brand could be targeting specifically towards a Female market. As such, it would not be effective for them to partner with a Male athlete.

• There is nothing the male athletes can do to make that work in that particular instance.

However, there are certainly ways that Parkour athletes can ‘Stand Out’ when an opportunity comes that is suitable.

• For example, if a fashion clothing brand wants to target street style and Parkour athletes, we must ask ourselves: “What is going to make the brand select a particular athlete over all the others?”

Differentiate:

Some athletes have no desire to partner with brands and so for them, this would be irrelevant. However, if you are interested in leveraging your Parkour Skills, or your ‘Following’, to work with brands there are a number of things you can do to make yourself more desirable.

– Many brands have stated that a lot of Parkour Social Channels “look the same”. Lots of cool videos, of crazy movements, but nothing that really makes ‘them’ stand out aside from all the other people posting cool videos of crazy movements.

And even if one athlete has a larger following than others, there is often still no real ‘identity’ to the athlete that would entice a brand to partner with them.

• “Sure, lots of crazy cool videos, but is their audience really going to take note of the cool clothes they’re wearing as the do those flips?”
• “Does the athlete’s personality represent the brand?”

These are all things, that can be consciously curated ahead of time when building a profile in the public world as a Parkour Athlete.

Good Content:

Of course, it all begins with positioning yourself as a provider of good content. The videos and photos, should not only be good quality, but you should be doing things that are going to make people want to view you. i.e. original, cool, content.

Identity:

Make sure that some of your content illustrates who you are. What you are about, what you stand for, your style, and why those things are important to you.

• You are more than “just a performer”.

Mix Content types:

Especially in Parkour, it is unsurprising that video content tends to garner greater views than images.

• It’s a movement sport afterall.

But, it is important that in amongst all the cool videos and crazy movements you are capable of, you break it up a bit. Show your style in an image. Show your face, what you look like, the person behind the movement.

Brands want to partner with athletes who have an identity. Who are relatable, and can therefore, engage audiences in more than just seeing cool moves. But who may aspire to be like you.

Or at least inspired by your style, your look, or your lifestyle.

These are all key points that brands are looking for, because those are the things that can generate a reaction beyond “This person has cool skills”.

The reaction wants to be more like: “Wow, this person has cool skills, and I love his/her sense of style. They are always positive and I relate to their mindset on travel aswell as finding balance in life”…

Hopefully you see the difference.

Hopefully, this makes you think, and helps… even just a little.