ACM’s Distraction In Action #18
Big TikToks, changing clocks, and mushroom shocks: the big links that are dominating our chat
Your new Distraction In Action email from All Conditions Media is here. Scroll away to get a look at the latest links and talking points from our team chat, so they can successfully distract you from work just as much as they did us…
1. DON’T CALL KIM WOOZY A GAME CHANGER
Where do you even begin when trying to encapsulate how vital Kim Woozy has been in pushing for equality in skateboarding? We’re not about to use some wafty hyperbolic noun – our senior copywriter will rap our knuckles with his TOV bible if we do – so we’ll spell it out instead: along with Skate Like A Girl founder Kristin Ebeling, who Kim works with as the organisation’s Director of Marketing, she has helped completely transform the way skateboarding looks today.
With a pinch of riot grrrl’s fix-it-yourself mindset, a marinade of lived experience, and a generous shake of energy and fire, Kim has not only done a lot of the heavy lifting to bring more women and girls into skateboarding, but also works to safeguard their participation from brands wanting a piece of the pie. From her film production company dedicated to women’s skate content and mentoring newcomers past industry gatekeepers, to playing a role in getting the Equal Pay for Equal Play bill signed into US law, Kim is all over it. Which makes her a proper bucket-list entry for our Outsider Insider interview series. Check it here.
We learned: People really, really love the Osiris D3 skate shoe.
2. PICK A SIDE IN THE TEAHUPO’O VERSUS THE OLYMPICS FIGHT
We know a thing or two (or three, or five, or loads) about the precarious relationships between action sports and the Olympics. Did we mention we helped bring mainstream sponsorship to the GB Park & Pipe team in order to get them to Pyeongchang in 2018 (without trampling on the delicate nuances of snow sports culture)? Have we yabbered on enough about our work with Breaking GB as they start their ascent to the famous five rings next year. Our strategies prove there is a smart and considered way to keep both corners of the core-mainstream boxing ring amicable.
And then there’s building a $5m concrete and aluminium tower atop the fragile coral ecosystem below one of the world’s most beloved waves, for cameras, judges, and media to sit on for half a week of Olympic surf competition at “Paris” 2024. This one’s been bubbling away for a while, but local pro Matahi Drollet’s new social post does a pretty good job of forcing us to scratch our skulls over what the hell the IOC is thinking right now.
We learned: The 126-metre cruise ship Aranui 5, which housed surf athletes at Tokyo 2021, will be parked up off the Tahiti coast, too.
3. LISTEN TO ALEX HONNOLD GET HIS NOSE (RECORD) BROKEN
Love him, bored of him, whatever him, there’s no escaping that Alex mother truckin’ Honnold is the El Dorado of climbing/adventure media SEO. What “Who is the next James Bond?” is to Empire Magazine, he is to Outside Magazine. What “iPhone 25” is to WIRED.com, he is to Gripped.com. Unsurprising, then, that this story about US climber Nick Ehman’s new speed record on Yosemite’s famous The Nose found its way into our lap, via EpicTV’s Climbing Daily vodcast and a bunch of dumb clickbaity headlines (not unlike our own!).
Ehman’s speed – 4 hours 39 minutes – is, obviously, superhuman, and trumps the record previously held by ol’ big mitts himself. But what we liked most about this story is the two-coffees-deep plunge into NIAD – Nose In A Day – nerding it forced us down. Back in 1999, climbing’s OG extreme wild man Dean Potter managed it in 12 hours 59 minutes. Now, just 24 years on, the record is around one third of that. Er… huh?
We learned: The first recorded climb of The Nose was back in 1958 by a fella called Warren Harding and his pals. It took 45 days. That’s from today until your eleventh day of advent chocolate, for context.
4. REACH FOR YOUR TINFOIL TIKTOK HAT
Enable 3rd party cookies or use another browser
We’re getting reports of huge news coming from TikTok towers this month. Over to ACM’s digital marketing specialist, Hannah T, with this special report:
“We’re already seeing the online and offline worlds merge with VR and AI, and TikTok is getting right among the action with its recent Out Of Phone announcement. Imagine TikTok, right, but on the sides of buses, in cinemas, and essentially everywhere your eyeballs point IRL.
“After working in digital marketing for [censored] years, I’ve got more privacy settings and less effective cookies to dance around than ever before, and the all-digital era is not as straightforward as it used to be. TikTok’s Out Of Phone idea is an energetic new move that could help us cut the cord between big marketing and our hyper-digital focus, and nudge us towards a more modern approach to old-school media. Old school meets new. Think social-led campaigns on Old Street roundabout billboards. I’m into it.
“TikTok is positioning itself as more than just an app. It’s an immersive experience that goes beyond your mobile device. And it’ll be absolutely everywhere very soon. Don’t freak out.”
We learned: #oldstreetroundabout videos in TikTok have only had a combined 62k views. Sad!
5. CONSIDER WHAT THE CLOCKS GOING BACK MEANS FOR SOLO FEMALE OUTDOORS LOVERS
It took us just 45 seconds to read this. You’re going to be thinking about it through the darker GMT hours this year, too.
We learned: What to do if, like this author, you’re a 6ft male headed out into the middle of nowhere this winter. Or, y’know, just speak to some female friends?
CREW TO-DO LIST…
…is going into retirement! After doing a full lap of our team, it’s time to refresh this section with something new. Something exciting. Something that’ll make you wish you spent your Friday commute reading this instead of trying to hack your way into Puzzmo. Keep your looking balls peeled…
You made it all the way down here? Here’s a gift for your troubles:
END OF THE ROADER’S BONUS NUGGET
How was that newsletter for you? Let us know in a comment below