Mountain Dew has been banging the practice makes perfect drum for a few years as part of its long-running “to get to easy you have to go through hard” campaign. And now, along with Garage TV it’s calling on athletes to submit clips of themselves getting extreeeeeeeme for a weekly half-hour TV show called Easy is hard.
Garage worked with Mountain Dew’s media agency OMD, along with Beat PR, Colenso BBDO and Brand Spanking in putting the show together.
The show, which is airing now at 7.30pm on Saturdays, features a five minute segment of user generated content, “show us your clips” (submissions are incentivised with the chance to win prizes), followed by “zero hour” wherein top athletes try a new activity and see how far they can progress in an hour. The final segment is called “On the bench with Luke” and involves an interview with an action sport athlete talking about how they came to excel at their chosen craft.
It is hosted by previous ZM night show host Luke Taplin and world pro-surfing tour aspirant Luke Cederman.
Premiering November 21st: Easy Is Hard… A show curating content of guys and girls on their journey to easy. Want the world to see your journey? Submit your videos here http://bit.ly/1PF8uXr and your story could be on Garage NZEven better…you could be getting hooked up with some awesome prizes!! #dothedew #easyishardT&Cs: http://on.fb.me/1MafmJV
Posted by Mountain Dew – New Zealand on Sunday, November 15, 2015
Garage TV channel manager Duane Mutu says the show’s philosophy is about working hard to gain competence in an activity and aims to show that even the very best must go through hard in order to get to easy, something Mountain Dew has focused on with campaigns likes this and this.
The game is never over. Go again. Level up. #dothedew #easyishard
Posted by Mountain Dew – New Zealand on Thursday, November 19, 2015
“Everyone’s got to start from somewhere.”
Mutu says the show won’t be too picky about the video quality of submissions because they want to encourage all entries and for viewers to participate through social media.
“We want that content because that’s the one we want them to embrace. We don’t want the barrier to entry to be hard. If [people]are gonna share it anyway, share it with us because you might get it on TV.”
With the easy availability of quality editing software and the near ubiquitous GoPro, highly professional looking video is cropping up everywhere and Mutu says this content would also be featured.
“There’s some really good content coming out, whether it just be some really good riders from Rotorua [who have]a beautiful soundtrack shot with various camera angles, cutaways and the whole nine yards.”
“When we curate the content we actually want a bit of both.”
Everyone can film and share video online and broadcast it to the world on YouTube but there’s so much of it to filter (a search for action sports New Zealand on YouTube returned over 79,000 hits). So Mutu argues TV still holds a major attraction because it offers an avenue for talent to be celebrated.
“The major hook is that it is on TV. There has never been a platform here in New Zealand like Garage. There has been no place to showcase your talent, whether you be a film maker, athlete or enthusiast.”
By showing the content during the five minute “show us your clips” segment, Mutu says it is an opportunity for talented New Zealanders participating in under exposed sports to reach a much wider audience.
“All those other alternate sports don’t get the cut through. It’s not about the prizes for these guys and girls. Yes, you can be on YouTube but you might only get you and your friends [watching it]but by us curating it to New Zealand specifically, we now know, ‘look out on Saturday night every week because we are going to have five minutes of your footage and we will show that to the nation’.”
Mutu says Garage is looking for a wide variety of different action sports video but there are no strict guidelines to decide which entrants will be winners.
“There is no hard and fast rule. It will come up to the guys and what they like out of the chunks that we give them.”
While spectacular wipeouts would be featured, Mutu says the focus of the show will be about overcoming difficulties in getting started in a new sport.
“This isn’t a fail show. We encourage people overcoming starting out before nailing [tricks and moves].”
In this age of short attention spans when some people struggle to watch an entire three minute video, short form content is all the rage, and Mutu says the show caters for both those who enjoy a longer format and the transient content consumer.
“That’s the beauty of the short form clip component. There might be five to eight clips in that space. You don’t have to watch the whole show if you’re not into it but there is enough in it where you can just come [and]dip in, dip out for what you want.”
When we spoke with Garage TV’s Dan Wrightson recently, he said the channel is the next evolution in youth TV.
“Action and adventure entertainment with a killer soundtrack is without doubt, the new ‘Rock n’ Roll’. And like music TV in the past, we’ll be opening up a world of opportunity for young content makers to share and showcase their incredible talents.”
Speaking of incredible talents, check these amazing clips out.
And one actually amazing clip.
