Champion Surfer Kelly Slater Finds Tahiti Waters The Perfect Launching Pad for havoc TV’s "Ultimate Wave 3D" Movie Promotion

Leading VOD network initiates outreach in support of $9MM sponsorship from Suzuki Automotive and Tahiti Tourism

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (Sept. 16, 2008)—The unique multi-platform marketing campaign surrounding the anticipated release of next year’s “Ultimate Wave 3D” IMAX theater film recently made a big splash. The movie’s production team was in the water filming as Kelly Slater, eight-time surfing champion, mastered Tahiti’s legendary Teaupoo, possibly the World’s most challenging wave.

Slater is the focus of the film, blending his personal perspectives on the ocean’s roaring waves with a scientific approach to their impact on people and cultures. In addition to bringing Suzuki’s and Tahiti’s support to the project, produced by The Stephen Low Company in association with K2 Communications, havoc TV secured Slater’s involvement. The action sports and indie music digital network also secured a multi-million dollar promotional commitment from action sports brand, Quiksilver, that will coincide with the film’s theater rollout.
The network is executing a unique, long-lead multi-platform marketing campaign on behalf of the film and its sponsors.

According to havoc TV’s vice president, Jeff Cutler, “this represents a very special coalition of organizations that are stepping up to support a really worthwhile project that is both true to the Giant Screen film world’s educational and inspirational mission, and also depicts surfing in an authentic manner.”
The movie will debut in IMAX and other Giant Screen theaters, as well as digital 3D theaters in museums, zoos, and aquaria in October, 2009

The action gathered in Tahiti by producer/director Stephen Low and his award-winning team, along with film shot by havoc TV is being edited into several of what will ultimately be 18 short stories running from three to seven minutes in length. The vignettes—which include interviews with Slater and a behind-the-scenes look at the production, as well as exploring many aspects of waves and surfing through the eyes of other board legends—will receive wide exposure as part of the build-up to the movie’s release. Initial distribution of the short stories, intended to raise awareness and engage surf and action sports enthusiasts along with traditional IMAX Theater film audiences, will be through havoc TV’s varied platforms. Its action sports and indie music VOD channels and its evening block on DirecTV, as well as interstitial “content pods” throughout all day parts on DirecTV Channel 101 will play a lead role in addition to other digital venues.

Suzuki, Tahiti Tourism, and Quiksilver will uniquely blend their individual promotional activities to culminate with the release of the film next year. “Ultimate Wave 3D” represents a union between film producers, multi-platform television, the education and scientific communities, and supportive commercial sponsors—collectively merging interests to deliver a new and enlightened look at the importance of our ocean environment.

Slater is the on-camera focus who engagingly binds the film’s storylines of wave science and surfing excitement with the pervasive beauty of Tahiti’s crystal blue waters. He has played a significant role in bringing the sport of surfing to a larger, mainstream audience.

According to Slater, “Teaaupoo is every bit as intense as any wave in the World, and at a certain size, you don’t know if it can be ridden anymore, and that’s the point where you start being towed into it. You think if you fall on one of those, you’re probably going to die—it’s a radical place.”

If Slater calls it radical, one can only imagine how IMAX theater audiences will react to the 3D experience.

havoc Television is the leading indie music and action sports digital network with distribution to 56 million homes on both cable and satellite television, a social networking website, mobile phones, and out-of-home content distribution. Showcasing the best in punk, metal, underground hip hop, alternative, reggae, electronic, surf, skate, snow, bmx and motocross content, havoc averages over 37 million video views a month and reaches over 10 million unique viewers. havoc sports is the #1 sports related VOD channel and the #2 music related VOD channel, with combined total monthly views exceeding 95 percent of all other cable VOD outlets. havoc also boasts four hours of daily programming on DirecTV’s channel 101; viewers control the playlist in real time by voting via SMS with their mobile phones, and chat via SMS, on-screen, with other viewers and celebrity artists and athletes while their favorite videos are being aired.

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