go pro logo

 

While in Chamonix last week attending the Freeride World Tour, Skipedia caught up with Philip Schlosser, Resort and Sports Coordinator for GoPro in Europe.

 

Why has GoPro sponsored the Freeride World Tour?

We want to be present in all our core verticals, and snowsports is our main market in Europe.

The Freeride World Tour is an authentic fit: the opportunity to be involved with athletes is crucial.  During competition, all riders are equipped with GoPro cameras and this gives us a global reach. It also gives us the opportunity to work directly with resorts.

FWT gopro

Why is working directly with resorts important to GoPro?

We want to increase awareness of the brand with tourists to increase sales.

We are looking for partners who can offer us exclusivity, and the opportunity to brand locations such as air bags, obstacles in the snow park and to partner with their digital assets. We can provide resorts with great content to push through their channels.

Which resorts are you currently working with?

We are discussing partnerships with a number of resorts, but we are already close with Tignes, because of our involvement with the European X Games.   The X Games is another perfect fit for us.  It’s our core vertical, has interaction; allows us to work with athletes and to partner with resorts.

xgames-goPro

Why do you think GoPro is so dominant in the POV camera market?

Most importantly it is because we have the best product.  GoPro cameras have better functions and settings than other cameras.

But our position as global leader is also partly because we started the ‘action cameras’ market [the company was founded in 2004].

Our exponential growth in the last three years has been enabled by GoPro’s understanding of social media: we know how to communicate with users [their Facebook page has a phenonomal 4.4m fans] and our cameras create great content.

Another factor is the value of the brand itself. We associate ourselves with the best athletes; Shaun White, Kelly Slater and Danny MacAskill are all sponsored by GoPro.

 

By Iain Martin