Vans Triple Crown of Surfing and Ooyala Team Up to Give Fans a Front Row Seat

The Vans Triple Crown of Surfing presented by Rockstar Energy Drink, the last stop on the Association of Surfing Professionals (ASP) World Tour, known for attracting top-ranked surfers looking to battle it out with the world's biggest and most popular waves, teamed up with Ooyala, a leading provider of end-to-end video platform applications and services, to deliver first-class viewer experiences with continual live-streaming coverage. Ooyala's live-streaming technology provides viewers with the high-quality video experience they've come to expect from a home viewing experience.

Known by fans as the "Super Bowl of Surfing," the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing is the most anticipated surfing event of the season. More than 150 surfers from 17 countries head to the North Shore of Oahu to compete in three events for men and three events for women. Individual event champions are named, along with overall men's and women's champions each year. The coveted title is awarded to the surfer who has performed best across all three competitions, making them the most accomplished big-wave rider in the world. This year's Triple Threat bonus purse made history as it boosted overall winnings to $1 million.

Hundreds of locals headed to the beach, while thousands of fans around the world tuned in online to watch live streaming video of the fierce battle to be crowned champion. By utilizing Ooyala’s online video platform, Vans Triple Crown of Surfing reached over 572,000 unique users in 207 countries around the world. High quality streaming with no buffering was delivered by Ooyala over Akamai’s Live Deployment FMS 3.5. Data on viewer consumption and behavior was collected with Ooyala’s real-time analytics engine and made available to Vans and its partners.

"We are very pleased to team up with Ooyala to provide viewers around the world an inside look in to world championship surfing," said Dan Maiman, Interactive Marketing Manager at Vans. "Ooyala's live streaming solution not only extends our global reach but also provides Vans and our partners real-time viewer statistics to help us deliver a high quality and engaging online video experience."

Ooyala's live streaming technology allows customers to create and manage live streams within the same console from which they manage their Video-on-Demand content. The native support of live streaming makes it very quick and easy to showcase coverage of key events, reaching broader audiences worldwide. Ooyala's analytics engine provides real-time viewership data for key metrics such as the number of plays, displays, amount of video watched, geographical distribution and domain distribution.

"We were pleased to partner with Vans on a very successful event. The use of live streaming for this global event is yet another example of the growing trend to use video to expand a company's global reach," says Bismarck Lepe, Founder and President of Products at Ooyala. "For many sports marketers, live streaming has proven to be one of the easiest and most cost effective ways to reach a global audience. Couple this with the ability to capture and provide real-time analytics to sponsors, and customers will be able to more effectively monetize events and extend their reach even further."

This year's anticipation of the final showdown was intense. Childhood friends Joel Parkinson and Mick Fanning of Australia went head to head in the race to be crowned 2009 ASP Champion. In the end each earned $50,000 bonuses from Vans as Mick Fanning took the world title, while Parkinson won his 2nd consecutive Vans Triple Crown. Female powerhouse, Stefanie Gilmore, clinched the ASP Women's World Title for the third time in a row, along with her second consecutive Vans Triple Crown. Footage from each event is available on the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing website.

About Ooyala Inc.

Ooyala is a video technology company that provides a comprehensive software platform enabling the delivery, management and monetization of high quality online video content. Its innovative analytics engine and monetization server allow video content owners to drive revenue by maximizing the value of their content. Ooyala has over 500 customers, including 150 global media and enterprise customers such as Warner Brothers, Wenner Media, Fremantle, Armani and Electronic Arts. Visit Ooyala

About Vans, Inc.

Vans, the leader in action sports footwear and apparel, is a brand of VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC). Vans collections, which include active footwear, apparel and accessories, snowboard boots and outerwear and the Pro-tec line of protective gear, are sold in the United States through more than 200 company owned stores and factory outlets as well as independent retailers. Internationally, Vans sells its goods in approximately 50 countries through a network of distributors, sales agents and foreign offices. Vans supports and promotes the action sports lifestyle through such events and destinations as, the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing™, The Vans Downtown Showdown, the Pro-tec Pool Party and the Vans Warped Tour®.