Facebook Surf Audience Content Opportunity Analysis™ Q4 2022

Content Opportunity Methodology

1. Measure & Categorize: Sample a large number of social posts to find ones that are significantly outperforming the average.
2. ‍Identify Top Themes: Identify the themes that are resonating most with the audience by sorting the themes by their aggregated performance metrics.
3. ‍Identify a Benchmark: Identify content themes that are performing above and under an average benchmark for the industry based on views & engagements.
4. ‍Identify Opportunities: Look at the data and find the content themes that are resonating with the audience based on a set of top creators.
5. ‍Repeat For Each Platform: Repeat the analysis for every platform that matters to your brand and audience to find platform-specific opportunities.

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Facebook Content Bucket Definitions

• Live Competition Stream: These videos are hosted by WSL to share every moment from international surf competitions with fans at home.
• Surf Edit: These feature beautiful surf visuals that lead to longer YouTube videos with a series of surfing clips throughout the day.
• Raw Footage: These videos feature in-the-moment captures of surfers on the water, their only purpose is to follow a surfer on the waves.
• Stylized Capture: Similar to Raw Footage, these videos are intentional and feature unique angles through drones or effects, like slow motion.
• Historic Swells: These videos feature unreal moments on the water, such as Code Red in Teahupoo, the biggest swell ever surfed in Tahiti. 
• Competition Footage: These videos feature a compilation of competitions, of either a single athlete or a range of athletes over one competition.
• Flips & Tricks: These videos feature short clips of athletes getting high out of the water to perform different stunts.
• Dynamic Surf Vlog: A vlog format where the creator uses an array of angles and clips to share moments from a day of surfing with voice-overs.
• Aerial Wave Footage: Moments from high above, this category features views of the water where the waves are the main focus, not the rider.
• River Breach: Showing how creators make and surf river breaches between a river and the ocean.
• Wave Pool: Videos sharing how athletes enjoy and ride man-made waves.
• Big Wave Activities: Videos that share unique and dangerous activities on big wave swells that aren’t surfing, such as rafting. 
• Surf Film: These videos aim to direct viewers to larger films that have been made to represent different surfing trips and moments artfully.

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Live Competition Stream is an extreme performing content opportunity, averaging 3x the views & engagement rate on Facebook.

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Excellent performing content categories for the Surf audience on Facebook include:

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Good performing content categories for the Surf audience on Facebook include:

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Substandard performing content categories for the Surf audience on Facebook include:

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Low performing content categories for the Surf audience on Facebook include:

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Content Opportunities:

1. Competition Live Stream

These videos are hosted by WSL to share every moment from international surf competitions with fans at home.

Tactics to Implement:

• Video Length: These videos average about eight hours in length.
• Non-Stop Entertainment: Throughout these live streams, there are often constant sources of entertainment. When competitors are not surfing, people are being interviewed, replays are being hosted, and panels are conducted with commentary on the competition.
• Text: To keep viewers who tune in throughout the day up to date, WSL uses text on the screen to display standings and transition cards to tell viewers what is coming up next.  

1.5M  Views

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1.4M Views

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2. Surf Edit

These feature beautiful surf visuals that link to longer YouTube videos with a series of surfing clips throughout the day.

Tactics to Implement:

• Video Length: These videos average about 40 seconds in length. 
• Music: The biggest difference between this content and Raw Footage or Stylized Captures is that these videos are more intentional with their editing. Instead of leaving the video with its original audio, editors aim to add music that fits the energy of the video.
• Context: These videos are short to excite a viewer to follow through and watch more. This video uses the title to guide viewers to the full edit link.

718K  Views

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508K Views

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3. Raw Footage

These videos feature in-the-moment captures of surfers on the water; their only purpose is to follow a surfer on the waves.

Tactics to Implement:

• Video Length: These videos average about 45 seconds in length. 
• Shoot & Post: Raw footage videos have an organic element to them. They often feature the original background audio. This allows viewers to hear the audience's tension, excitement and awe.
• From the Shore: Raw footage is often shared from a viewer on the shore so that other people can be seen in the foreground.
• Purpose: These videos can sometimes redirect to Surf Edits, but the nature of the content is different from a traditional Edit Facebook video because these are less curated and filmed organically. 

612K Views

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502K Views

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4. Stylized Capture 

Similar to Raw Footage, these videos are intentional and feature unique angles through drones or effects, like slow motion.

Tactics to Implement:

• Video Length: These videos average about 36 seconds in length. 
• Visuals: Stylized Captures aim to convey the holistic beauty of the sport from the geography to the swell and the athlete in more detail. 
• Effects: These videos tend to have another element of editing where the footage is intentionally slowed down to help the viewer soak in the moment with the athlete. 
• Angles: Drones and GoPros are used in this segment to create a unique viewing experience for the audience - another way to see the water

405K Views

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359K Views

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Honorable Mentions

While these videos may not have been top performing - they have great concepts that could be executed and experimented with.

Content Buckets

• Dynamic Surf Vlogs: Dynamic surf vlogs feature a creator who engages with the camera and takes viewers through a day of surfing. These are dynamic because they feature a variety of both surfing shots and on-land shots as the athletes take viewers through the moment with voice-overs and mics.

500K  Views*

* Views shown on Facebook represent total for the cross-posted video. These views are how much the video produced itself.

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• Reality Surfing Show: This video is part of a competition series by Stab Magazine, where competitors are tasked with different to-dos based on surfing. In this video, a contestant must try to save surfboards off restaurant walls to get them on the water.

6K Views

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Outliers: These videos were omitted from their content buckets as ‘viral’ outliers for exceeding 3x the views and engagements of their respective benchmarks.

Historic Swells 

Tactics: This is a 14 second video featuring Kai Lenny on Maui’s South Shore surfing one of their biggest swells in history.

2.7M Views

Live Competition Stream 

Tactics: This video is just over 5 hours in length (-37% less than the average stream length). It features a full competition with commentators reporting from the water.

5.2M Views

Raw Footage

Tactics: This video is 33 seconds in length and features two longboard surfers as they share a wave. 

9.6M Views

River Breach 

Tactics: This video is three minutes in length and features the full construction of a river breach from a river to the ocean as well as the creators surfing in it. 

3.5M Views