Thomas Meyerhoffer Thomas Meyerhoffer is a world-renowned industrial designer and innovator who has made celebrated forays into technological, lifestyle and sport-oriented design. His boldest sporting creation, The Meyerhoffer surfboard, is possibly the most radical design innovation in longboarding for a generation. This was not the first surfboard he had designed, but it was certainly his most significant experiment to date – in some quarters heralded as the most compelling board design since the Thruster.

Strategy

To convey not just to surfers but to the mainstream public that with this ultra-modern take on the traditional longboard, Meyerhoffer and Global Surf Industries (GSI) had brought his design excellence into the realm of the everyday surfer, increasing the ultimate experience and propelling surfing into the mainstream consciousness more than ever.

Aims

To position The Meyerhoffer as a once in a generation innovation in the surfboard industry.
To attract the interest of not just surfers but the general public through coverage in mainstream media as well as niche surfing media.
To reaffirm GSI as a leading innovator in surfboard design a key surfing-oriented reference point not just for surfers, but for interested observers with only a rudimentary knowledge of the sport.

What we achieved

The interest not just of traditional surfing media but general news and general sport in television, print and radio. UMM had peaked the interest of those not intrinsically involved in the surfing media or surf culture in general.

Media Coverage

Coverage and interviews to herald the design with GSI founder Mark Kelly and footage of The Meyerhoffer being used by a professional longboarder on Channel Ten News. The same coverage on Sports Tonight Channel Ten across Australia, and again on Fox Sports. Coverage in not just surfing publications but mainstream print media including FHM and The Sunday Herald Sun.

The PR campaign was hailed by Mark Kelly as “The surfboard launch to beat all surfboard launches.”