Action SportsCompanies like Nike and Red Bull have been utilizing action sports in their advertisements to build excitement and add adrenaline for their target audience. People buy based on emotion and using high-energy action is one way you can elicit these strong emotions from your customers.

 

With the boom of superhero movies in the past decade, movie audiences have filled theaters to admire Superman, Batman and Iron Man. But the world of sports has its own superheroes, too: Michael Jordan, Muhammad Ali, and Babe Ruth. Nike’s classic advertisements of Michael Jordan show him larger than life, doing the impossible.  The underlying message is that if you wear Nike shoes, you can be like Jordan. This is an appealing thought for people of all ages. If you buy this product, you can one day pull off the incredible achievements that our best athletes do.

 

Red Bull does a lot of marketing that could be considered action sports style.  Last year, they sponsored the highest skydive in human history.  Felix Baumgartner dove a record 128,000 feet wearing a Red Bull suit, helmet and parachute. People tuned in to see the phenomenal achievement and, in the process, Red Bull got brand recognition as an exciting company.
Not every product needs the action sports treatment. For example, a jewelry advertisement is going to be more about elegance and luxury than high energy. While every advertisement needs to elicit emotion, make sure that the method you incorporate fits your brand and your product.