Freestyle Links With Loop’d Network

Lifestyle and action sports watchmaker Freestyle is pushing a contest on Loop’d Network, offering aspiring extreme athletes a yearlong sponsorship.

Freestyle’s contest, Are You Next? offers the sponsorship, a profile posted on its site, along with six of its surf-centric watches per year, T-shirts, hats accessories and stickers. Weekly winners, based on photo and video entries of people “doing your thing” over the course of the 12-week contest at http://freestylecontest.loopd.com, receive a watch, T-shirt, hat and sticker. The grand-prize winner will be revealed on Feb. 29.

Loop’d, a social networking Web site for action, endurance and motor sports, is ideally suited for Freestyle’s target demographic, teens 13 to 18, according to Freestyle marketing director Chad Labass.

“It’s turnkey with the kids in the demographic we want to sell to,” said Labass. “We want to communicate with them instantly.”

Along with promoting the contest on the Loop’d site, and providing a link to its site, Freestyle is also marketing the contest through banner ads online. In the first week of the contest, which kicked off Nov. 28, Freestyle fielded 1,500 entries.

The move is to help to create a viral effect by generating interest in its product with young athletes of all action sports.

“The goal is to get all these kids out there as ambassadors out there around the country,” said Labass. “We want to have our watches be the cool watches with that group.”

Freestyle is nearing the end of a one-year deal with Loop’d, which Labass indicated the watchmaker plans to extend.

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