SOAR Blog

Well . . . it’s finally official: SOAR is now the public relations agency for Outdoor Retailer! Way, way cool!

I plan to write more about this in the near future, but for now, I’ve enclosed below the “official” text of the full news release announcing this news.

Later,

David (“Poppa P”) Politis

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Outdoor Retailer Signs SOAR Communications as its PR Agency of Record

SOAR Communications selected to manage public relations efforts for Outdoor Retailer, a division of Nielsen Business Media and producer of the leading trade show for advancing the active outdoor marketplace

DRAPER, Utah and SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. – Oct. 21, 2008 – Outdoor Retailer (OR), a division of Nielsen Business Media, today announced it has signed Utah-based SOAR Communications as its public relations agency of record.

Under terms of the multi-year agreement, SOAR Communications (a full-service marketing communications agency), will develop and execute public relations campaigns serving each of OR’s annual events, as well as all of its year-round PR needs.

“During the past three years, SOAR Communications has generated great results for our sister shows – Interbike and Health+Fitness Business Expo – so it’s clear they understand the specialty sports marketplace and our culture,” said Kenji Haroutunian, OR’s show director. “Naturally, we’re looking for similar results from SOAR with Outdoor Retailer, both in solidifying our support for trade media journalists, while also broadening our efforts to reach consumer-focused media outlets throughout the U.S. and abroad. As expected, SOAR has already hit the ground running on some key OR and industry initiatives. We look forward to a long and successful relationship with the SOAR team.”

Formed in 2004, SOAR Communications serves the Sports, Outdoor, Athletics and Recreation industries, thus the moniker SOAR.

“After attending my first OR (Summer Market) in 2004, I soon discovered that there wasn’t a single agency in recreation-rich Utah that focused specifically on servicing the sports, outdoor, athletics and/or recreation industries,” said David Politis, chief executive officer for SOAR Communications. “That led me to form SOAR in the first place, which is why it’s so cool to now be working with OR and the great OR team. I feel like I’ve now gone full circle back to SOAR’s very first beginnings, and that’s just awesome!”

As well as being the CEO of Draper, Utah-based SOAR Communications, Politis is the president and founder of Politis Communications (a long-time strategic communications and public relations agency focused on serving technology clients).

A year after forming SOAR, Politis invited Chip Smith to take the position of president at SOAR, thus leveraging Smith’s nearly 20 years of marketing and sales experience, including 10 years with bicycle industry leaders Shimano and Specialized and three years with Ogilvy & Mather, one of the largest agencies in the world. The resulting combination of Politis and Smith has helped transform SOAR Communications into one of the up-and-coming sports marketing communications agencies in North America.

“We’re excited to take the lessons we’ve learned with Interbike and HFB and apply them to OR,” said Chip Smith, president of SOAR Communications. “Naturally, SOAR will continue to serve the media in a collaborative manner that best meets their needs, while always looking for the best ways to land positive media exposure for the show and its exhibitors. We’re also eager to help Kenji and his team achieve their goals of further strengthening the relationships between OR exhibitors and endemic media, while also expanding exposure to non-endemic journalists as well.”

About Outdoor Retailer
Outdoor Retailer (OR), produced by Nielsen Business Media of San Juan Capistrano, Calif., is a full service trade show company that creates, markets and produces high-quality expos and educational conferences. OR is the leading outdoor industry business-to-business event management company, bringing together manufacturers, retailers, industry advocates and media to conduct the business of outdoor recreation. Now celebrating more than 25 years of successful events, Outdoor Retailer (www.outdoorretailer.com) gathers approximately 40,000 attendees on a semi-annual basis for its Winter and Summer Market shows.

The next opportunity to preview the future of the outdoor industry will start at the 6th Annual Backcountry Base Camp at Snowbasin ski resort on January 21, 2009, followed by the Outdoor Retailer Winter Market at the Salt Palace Convention Center from January 22-25, 2009 in Salt Lake City, Utah. The Outdoor Retailer Summer Market will bring the best of summer outdoor brands to Salt Lake City, Utah at the Open Air Demo from July 19-20, 2009 and the Trade Show from July 21-24, 2009.

About SOAR Communications
Voted one of Utah’s top three marketing agencies of 2008 by the readers of Business Connect magazine, SOAR Communications is an innovative strategic marketing communications agency focused on the sports, outdoor, athletics and recreation industries. SOAR offers clients a variety of services including advertising, collateral development, database-marketing, graphic/web design, public/media relations, social media/networking campaigns and sales support programs. Visit www.soarcomm.com or call 801-556-8184 for more information.

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Paul Zane Pilzer, keynote speaker at Health+Fitness Business Expo & Conference, raised an interesting question during his address. What industry are we in today?

Is it the exercise industry? The fitness industry? The health industry? The weight loss industry?

With the graying of America and the increasing living standards (both here in the U.S. and abroad), Pilzer suggested that, in fact, the companies, organizations and individuals attending H+FB were now in the “Wellness Industry.”

The Wellness Industry touches all things concerned with keeping people “well,” as opposed to the medical industry which is focused on getting people “better” when they get sick.

Pilzer claims that the Wellness industry already generates more than $500 billion in revenues per year and is on its way to topping $1 trillion annually in the near future.

I think this was a new concept for most listeners in attendance.

And although I wish he would have used a PowerPoint presentation to support his speech, I thought Pilzer was spot-on with this concept.

Often the most important thing an executive can do from time to time is to objectively analyze one’s industry, company, product/service mix, positioning, branding, messaging, etc. and ask reflectively, “Are we still on point?” In other words, “Has anything changed in the marketplace that we need to be aware of and make adjustments for?”

Pilzer’s presentation gave me great food for thought about the entire “Wellness Industry” in all of its various aspects, something I hope the other attendees experienced as well.

I love going to a trade show for the first time ’cause it always provides an opportunity to quickly gauge the pulse of an industry.

That said, my trip to the Health+Fitness Business Expo & Conference started off on a somewhat different note than most as I began the afternoon out near the Denver airport to participate in the 2nd Annual SNEWS Golf Scramble at H+FB, a charity event to benefit Augie’s Quest.

To be honest, I was a bit nervous to be out on the links again as I had not been golfing once since I had had surgery to repair labrum tendon in my right shoulder. (Not that I was a great golfer before my surgery, mind you; but I was a bit concerned.)

Nevertheless, the opportunity to support a good cause while golfing with two leaders in the recreation industry — Tim Blumenthal, Executive Director of Bikes Belong; and Joe Flynn, Vice President Sales & Marketing, Nielsen Sports Group – was a chance I could not pass up.

As it was, Tim and Joe were excellent partners for me (and each other) in the scramble, as they both hit quite well and were very supportive of me as I had a consistently inconsistent round. Interestingly, the best part of my round was my chipping game. something that’s never been a strong suit before. Who knew?

Our team finished in the middle of the pack (score-wise) which was fine for me as I wasn’t expecting to compete for top honors anyway, just mostly looking for a good time, an opportunity to make some new friends and the ability to support a worthy cause.

The tourney at Green Valley Ranch Golf Club also allowed me the opportunity to connect up with SOAR Communications clients Lance Camisasca and Rich Kelly, Show Director and Marketing Manager, respectively, for both H+FB and Interbike.

Last comment. Steve Beuerlein, former NFL quarterback and now an NFL Game Analyst for CBS (and fitness club owner), was recruited as “the” celebrity golfer for the tourney. Beuerlein set up camp at the 12th Hole at GVR, where for $20 he was available for an extra drive off the tee for each team in the tourney.

Since it was for a good cause, the members in our team each ponied up twenty bucks, which led Beuerlein to guarantee he’d drive a ball out to the 200-yard marker for us.

And doggone it, sure ’nuff, we found his ball right where he said it would be.

Anyway, thanks to everyone at SNEWS and H+FB for putting together a great event. I look forward to hitting the links once again at next year’s H+FB.

So I’m heading off to Denver tomorrow to attend Health+Fitness Business Expo & Conference (a SOAR Communications client), the Nielsen Business Media trade show focused on the home exercise equipment marketplace.

This will be my first trip to HFB, so I’m excited to see the show, meet many of the players and support the PR needs of HFB, the exhibitors and the journalists.

In addition, I’ll be participating in the 2nd Annual SNEWS Golf Scramble tournament tomorrow afternoon at the Green Valley Ranch Golf Course outside of Denver. Should be an interesting afternoon as I haven’t played a round of golf since my shoulder surgery 18 months ago.

I’ll let you know how it went.