XGames: Mass marketing and media strategies tie

in music, fashion, and product endorsements

"Extreme" sports are those largely individualistic athletic activities that require people to push
themselves "to the extreme," often by defying both gravity and society's standards for reasonable risk.
Typically, extreme athletes also project an image that counters that of the "normal" athlete in terms of
appearance, attitude, and training regimen. The emerging popularity of extreme sports in the 1990s
reflected a shift in American fitness trends. The fitness craze of the 1980s inspired many otherwise
inactive, non-athletic individuals to take up activities like jogging and aerobics. Memberships at health
clubs boomed. While health and fitness remained a big business into the 1990s, both advertisers and
young adult consumers transformed fitness into a lifestyle rather than just a periodic visit to the health
club. A cult of "adrenaline addiction" infiltrated the rhetoric of youth culture and influenced the
marketing strategies aimed at these new consumers of the "extreme" image. Sales of mountain bikes,
in-line skates, and snowboards increased dramatically, as did the popularity of bungee jumping and
skydiving. ESPN's X Games capitalized on this emerging fitness and consumer trend.

Ultimately, the X Games represent far more than just a sports competition. Mass marketing and media
strategies tie in music, fashion, and manifold product endorsements aimed at ESPN's mostly male, 12 to
34-year-old viewing audience. Sponsors include caffeinated colas, athletic shoes, fast-food restaurants,
and an "official" pain-killing aspirin. Additionally, the competition annually promotes related alternative
music soundtracks and videos. ESPN also launches a road show prior to the Games, and the touring
sports extravaganza spotlights the various events. The featured sports even have their own unique
language; ESPN offers a glossary of "X Speak" on its World Wide Web X Games homepage.

XGE

X Games Environmentality (XGE) is a program to make X Games fans and viewers aware of

environmental issues. The program promotes recycling and waste reduction. In addition to promoting
recycling at events, X Games organizers use biodegradable cups, plates, and napkins. These materials
are made from corn and potato waste. The paper used at the games is made from 100 percent post-
consumer waste.

The X Games "Get Caught Recycling" program gives fans an added incentive to recycle. At the events,
fans who are caught recycling are rewarded with tokens that can be used for goods and services.

X Marks the Spot

The X in X Games symbolizes many things. X is short for extreme, which defines many of the dangerous,
risky sports in the competition. X is also the mathematical symbol for the unknown, which X Games fans
have come to expect. X is also the label applied to the generation born between the early 1960s and the
early 1980s. When the X Games debuted in 1995, many competitors were members of the last part of
Generation X. Generation X was also the intended audience for the X Games. Now, most competitors
and viewers are members of Generation Y, born between the early 1980s and 2001.
The 13 sponsors include returnees like AT&T; Nike; General Motors, for Chevrolet trucks and Pontiac,
and Pepsico, for Mountain Dew soft drinks and Taco Bell fast food. Among the newcomers are Bell
helmets and Coors beer.

The X Games are a perfect extension of the Mountain Dew brand personality. It reinforces the brand's
active and cutting-edge image, an image that has been largely established through our strong
involvement in extreme sports."

In fact, Mountain Dew advertising, which carries the theme "Do the Dew," features hip young men -- the
Dew Dudes -- who adore extreme sports. That campaign, being supplemented this summer with a
promotion centered on a "Mountain Dew Extreme Network"

"The X Games are a distinctive property with an outdoor attitude that delivers a pure audience," said
Peter Waller, senior vice president for marketing at Taco Bell in Irvine, Calif. "The Games reflect the free-
spirited, energetic attitudes of our consumers." The chain's core customers are ages 18 to 34.