Instagram 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. Repeat For Each Platform: Repeat the analysis for every platform that matters to your brand and audience to find platform-specific opportunities.
5. Identify Opportunities: Look at the data and find the content themes that are resonating with the audience based on a set of top creators.

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Instagram Content Bucket Definitions

• Surf Break Spotlight: Videos that focus on a specific surf break and its unique natural elements rather than the surfers.
• Competition Footage: Video clips from recent surf competitions that include commentator play-by-play and provide details on the featured ride and surfer.
• Competitor Moments: These videos capture moments from surf events outside of competition such as athletes reacting to their score, spectators on the water and the overall event atmosphere.
• Surfing Humour: Highlighting the lighter side of surfing, these videos vary in content but are all intended to make viewers laugh.
• World Class Waves: Footage from notorious big-wave surfing spots around the world and the Code Red swell that arrived in Teahupo'o, Maui, and Southern California July 2023.
• Surfing Challenges: Surfers take on unique and sometimes funny challenges, catching waves at unusual breaks or on unconventional boards.
• Tricks and Flips: Videos of talented surfers performing big airs, flips, slides, and impressive combos.
• First-Person & Follow-Cam POVs: These videos are filmed in the water and use a follow-cam or board-mounted camera to capture the action.
• Man Made Waves: Showing how athletes train and compete on man-made waves in surf parks such as NLAND, Waco Wave Lagoon and Kelly Slater’s Surf Ranch.
• Surf Films: Aesthetically pleasing and artistic clips from surf films that direct viewers to full-length films.
• Raw Footage: Action-focused videos of a surfer riding a wave without the addition of stylistic elements or editing.
• Surf Vlogs: Clips from vlogs that illustrate a surf session or trip using multiple POVs, voice-over, and other supporting footage. These posts link viewers to the full-length vlog.
• Interviews: Clips and full-length interviews with significant members of the surf community that discuss their contributions to the sport.

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

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

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

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Low performing content categories for Surf audience on Instagram include:

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Content Opportunities:

1. Surf Break Spotlight

Videos that focus on a specific surf break and its unique natural elements rather than the surfers.

Tactics to Implement:

• Visuals: Both videos veer away from the typical sport-focused content on their respective accounts and instead highlight the natural beauty of these featured breaks.
• Setting: The morning light adds a dreamy element to this content. This is emphasized by the spa-like music in this video and alluded to in the narration from this clip which describes the scene as “quintessential Jeffreys Bay, watching this pod of dolphin as the sun rises.”
• Location: Both videos highlight the location of the surf break in the caption and in the videos, either on-screen or in narration.

Top Format:

• Duration: 0:31 & 0:11
• Hashtags: 1 & 2

1.4M Views

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669K Views

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2. Competitor Moments

These videos capture moments from surf events outside of competition such as athletes reacting to their score, spectators on the water and the overall event atmosphere. The top videos in this category feature Filipe Toledo, WSL Men’s World Champion.

Tactics to Implement:

• In The Moment: These videos capture the emotion in the moments shortly after Toledo won the WSL Finals and became the Men’s World Champion.
• Raw Audio: The unedited audio in the videos adds to the excitement and gives viewers a taste of the energetic atmosphere at the event.
• Tags: Videos tag the featured athletes in their captions.

Top Format:

• Duration: 0:19 & 0:32
• Hashtags: 0 & 0

1.8M Views

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1M Views

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Extreme Performing Segment:‍

3. Competition Footage

Video clips from recent surf competitions that include commentator play-by-play and provide details on the featured ride and surfer. The top videos in this category are from WSL (World Surf League), host of the Surfing World Championships.

Tactics to Implement:

• Commentator Play-by-play: Videos include play-by-play from the competition’s commentators and tag the athlete and event in the caption.
• Technique Highlight: Both videos share details on the specific technique used by the athletes. This example uses visual aids to highlight these details as they are discussed.
• Format: WSL uses an array of angles and post-production editing styles to showcase competition footage holistically for viewers.

Top Format

• Duration: 0:31 & 0:18
• Hashtags: 0 & 0

1.1M Views

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1.1M Views

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4. Surfing Humour

Highlighting the lighter side of surfing, these videos vary in content but are all intended to make viewers laugh. In this post, a pro surfer battles a busy line up on huge swell day in Maui and his ride is cut short by a floating foam board. In this video, competitors try to stand up on tiny waves in a series that Stab calls “Worst Waves Ever Surfed”.

Tactics to Implement:

• On-Screen Text: Both videos contain on-screen text and emojis that poke fun at the video content.
• Voice Over: This video uses a funny voice over that acts as the thoughts running through the surfers head as he navigates through other surfers while on the wave.
• Music: This video plays an ironic heavy metal track as background music to the surfers attempting to ride tiny waves.

Top Format

• Hashtags: 5 & 0

1M Views

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942K Views