Poor Form WTC
Sunday, August 28th, 2011
Ironman races have become a hugely powerful marketing machine. Powerful to the point where normal people can cross their finish line and inspire people for the rest of their lives, even if they don’t know anything about triathlon. Powerful to the point where pro athletes can help put food on their table just by racing with corporate logos splashed all over their kits. (Yes, there is more to the financial side of being a sponsored athlete, but you get the point.)
Recently, Ironman decided to take a little editorial control over what they allow athletes to promote.
Notice anything different between these pictures?
The right is a picture of a poster from Ironman Louisville. The left is the original of Hillary Biscay racing IM Brazil earlier this year.
While the folks at Rev3 had a good sense of humor about the whole thing, it is definitely poor form on the part of WTC. Is WTC scared? To be honest, I have no idea why. Rev3 is still a really young company and has to market the hell out of every race new they do just to get athletes to the swim start. Ironman, on the other hand, can announce a new race and with seemingly zero promotion, they sell the damn thing out. Yet they still stoop so low as to photoshop sponsor logos off of the uniform of one of their most visible athletes?
Shenanigans.
While I’ve had some less than pleasant things to say about WTC, the Rev3 crew has always been pretty professional about their competition with the big red M. They’ve always been very honest in admitting that within the big world of triathlon, they are still a relatively small fish. They may have big aspirations, but fulfilling those takes time. They may put on races with a big feel and world-class production, but they have nowhere near the industry impact that the Ironman brand does (yet).
That is why I was extra surprised to see them sticking gum in Rev3′s hair like a school yard bully.
Earlier this year, WTC named a new CEO, which was really uniquely positioned from a communications perspective. I couldn’t help but interpret the announcement of hiring a “nice guy” to help balance the “cut throat – win at all costs businessman” that is the WTC’s previous CEO and now President. If the WTC is genuinely trying to change their image by being more of a “nice guy” they’ve got a long way to go to scrub the culture of douche-bag-ness from their company.
Support the good guys.
You F with our logos. We win the whole fing race.
How do you like that form?
(Photo credit to the original Hillary Biscay picture from IM Brazil: Jaime Vigaray)
UPDATE:
Dan Empfield over at Slowtwitch covered this story. You can read his article here: http://www.slowtwitch.com/Opinion/Hillary_Biscay_Digitally_Remastered_2298.html
While Dan does some good reporting, I think he skirts around the issue a little. He quotes at WTC spokesperson as saying…
“We do not feel that we should be promoting competing race series. They certainly are not promoting our races.”
Immediately followed by…
“We are protective of our brands and partners. But the athletes are our partners too. Our ambitions do not blind us to the needs of those in our industry, our athletes and their sponsors inclusive.”
If WTC considers pros as their partners, but still justifies scrubbing every single sponsor from a photo of Maik Twelsiek in the Louisville athlete guide, imagine what they’d be okay with if they didn’t like us so much.
Or maybe they just really don’t like Maik and Hillary…
Tags: Ironman, rev3 triathlon, revolution 3 triathlon, Triathlon, wtc | Posted in Ironman, Triathlon | 15 Comments »



























