Interview with Ransu Salovaara

Last week I asked a emailed a few questions to Ransu Salovaara, CEO of Sportsyndicator Ltd., an online advertising company focused on sports sites. Mr. Salovaara was kind enough to share some of his insights on the convergence of sports and the Internet.

Q. How can sports properties benefit from the world of Web 2.0?

A. People spend significant amounts of time on sports Web sites and are therefore easy to reach with online advertising. Moreover, these interactions are totally measurable. In regards to sports, the Web has surpassed the print medium as the number one content resource. So, with Web 2.0, sports brands can create services that truly engage customers and attract them to brands. A good example of this is Nikeplus.com, which is a great way to measure and share content – specifically running information.

Q. What do you think will be the most significant change in sports advertising in 2008? In the next 5 years?

A. I see three major changes:

1. Print will die. Already we’re seeing a decline in youth magazines, like those aimed at snowboarders and skiers. Young guys don’t see a reason to buy magazines anymore since the Web is full of info, videos, and other content that appeals to them. I’m sure that outdoor, golf and running titles will soon follow as the active adult generation really picks up on the Internet as a place for news, tips and community.

2. Videos on the Web will grow substantially in coming years and advertisers will find ways to get their messages in.

3. Mobile advertising will take off. This still might be a couple years away, but mobile ads are definitely coming. Now that iPhone has opened its platform to developers, it’s easy to see how resort guides, how-to tips, etc. will work on mobile phones.


Q. What niche sports audiences are the most difficult for advertisers to reach? Why?
A. There are really no hard ones, since everyone is on the Web nowadays. However, high net-worth golfers are probably the toughest as these professionals don’t surf around the “cool” Web sites like snowboarders do.

Local audiences are also tricky. Mastering "the long tail" of sports advertising so that we can target our campaigns to a specific sport and city will be crucial for many advertisers.

Q. In terms of originality and cutting-edge content, what do you think are the top sports Web sites in Europe and the US?

A. Pinkbike.com is a great example of a cool niche site that caters to free-ride mountain bikers and has 40 million page views and 400,000 unique visitors every month. Every day people upload more than 1,000 mountain biking pictures to the service. Pinkbike is from Canada but it has a global audience as is one of the most popular sports sites some European countries.

Another great site is Newschoolers.com, a freesskiing site from California. The site has more than 100,000 registered users and is considered the Facebook of skiers.

(Mr. Salovaara’s responses have been edited for clarity.)