Reading waves: what can marketers learn from surfers?
Authored by
Bryan Goodpaster, VP Forecasting and Cultural Strategy
The feeling of surfing has been described as the feeling of weightlessness, power and propulsion —a mastery that, once unlocked is absolutely addictive. Watching a surfer paddle madly through the furious white is a portrait of dedication, and a commitment to conquering the challenges and chaos of the breaks.
These devotees find a sort of manic joy in reading the channels, embracing the violence of the sea, and the exhilaration that comes before and after each thunderous crash. It’s equally athletic, visceral, and spiritual.
In a recent conversation with a colleague who I found is devoted to the sport, it struck me that while it might not on the surface look like surfing has anything at all to do with my admittedly far more sedentary activity of brand strategy, the two are identical in one key respect – they’re both all about anticipation.
The art of anticipation
That’s the most incredible thing about surfing: for all the hard paddling and insane maneuvers that go into the sport, surfers spend only a tiny percentage of their time actually riding those big, eye-catching waves. In the same way, for all the trend analysis and cultural immersion that goes into our work, all of the jumping on and off macro and micro trends, the best strategists know ‘the next big thing’ comes around rarely and they need to be ready for it when it does arrive.
It’s all about watching. Surfers paddle fiercely, they fight to make it back out past the wash, where they wait. 10, 20, sometimes 30 minutes for their next big wave, their next shot at greatness. Strategists are usually working on ideas that won’t land in market for three, five or even ten years which means we’re designing for an audience of the future. So, like surfers, we’re watching, waiting, always ready for the trend that will shape tomorrow’s audience.
And for both that time spent in anticipation isn’t simply a mindless exercise in patience. The surfer isn’t just waiting for nature to deal its next hand. It’s about their connection to the board under them, the air surrounding them and the landscape of the ocean around them – the best surfers learn to interpret all this data so they can spot their next big opportunity.
Innovators scan the landscape too. For them it’s understanding what’s grounded you, what’s happening around you and what’s on the horizon - the cultural insights that will deliver relevancy to tomorrow’s consumers.
Get it right and you’re the Netflix team who spotted the potential of streaming; call it wrong and you’re the Blockbuster team, flailing about on the wrong wave. Or are you Apple carving your way past Nokia and Blackberry? Or retailers like Sears Roebuck that used to ride the biggest waves, but now seems lost in the wash?
In search of spectacular
Getting this right matters – to innovators as much as surfers. Where once you could be a fast follower and rely on others to catch the right waves, today change happens so quickly that if you’re not first to market there’s no opportunity to follow quickly. The wave has gone.
And that’s why the conversation with my surfing colleague struck a chord. I think we can learn from the surfer’s mindset. We can focus on being at once connected to the conditions of today, while also learning to better spot the opportunities on the horizon.
Surfers call it reading the waves. I think it can be a useful analogy for breakthrough innovation. Think of the vast waters as culture, the surfboard as today’s capabilities, and the waves as tomorrow’s opportunities.
We have a choice. We can paddle and paddle, spending all our time and energy stuck in the wash. Or, we can learn how to read the waves of culture, better prepare ourselves for the conditions and consumers of tomorrow. and so, like the pro surfer, accomplish something absolutely spectacular at the peak moment in time.