COOLANGATTA, Queensland /Australia (Thursday, December 15, 2022) - GWM and the World Surf League are excited to announce their partnership has grown ahead of the 2023 Australian leg of events across the Championship Tour, Challenger Series and World Longboard Tour. GWM's SUV and Utility vehicles are the perfect match for the outdoors and surfing lifestyle making the continuation and growth of this partnership with the WSL an obvious one.
A new deal between the two organisations will not only see GWM continue as the title partner of the Sydney Surf Pro and category partner across the four major Challenger Series (CS) and Championship Tour (CT) events in Australia, but also as the new presenting partner of the Gold Coast Pro and the category partner of the Bells Beach Longboard Classic World Longboard Tour (WLT) event.
"World Surf League and GWM had a fantastic start to our partnership in 2022 and we are thrilled to grow this partnership into its second year," said WSL APAC President Andrew Stark. "The vehicles GWM produce are aligned with an outdoors lifestyle and are suitable for all types of surfers so it's great to see them expand their investment to include all types of surfing events. We'd like to thank GWM for continuing their support and we look forward to watching this partnership grow into the future."
In addition to elevating GWM's onsite activation experience for fans across the Australian events, the partnership will include a broadcast integration in the form of the GWM Catch Up, a daily highlight clip that will be distributed at the end of each day across WSL's owned and operated platform. GWM will also be provided with a custom broadcast feature at the Gold Coast and Sydney CS events.
"Our 2022 sponsorship with the World Surf League provided a valuable opportunity to align GWM with a like-minded partner and to showcase the GWM brand and our range of SUVs and utes to an engaged audience that enjoys the great outdoors," said GWM Head of Marketing & Communications, Steve Maciver. "More and more customers are selecting GWM as their automotive brand of choice and we look forward to the second year of our WSL partnership and building our connection with the surfing community and beyond."
Sally Fitzgibbons will also continue to represent GWM as she embarks on her 2023 World Title campaign. - WSL / Aaron Hughes
Another aspect of GWM's involvement in professional surfing will be Sally Fitzgibbons continuing as a brand ambassador in 2023. Fitzgibbons will be representing the brand once again as she returns to the elite level Championship Tour in search of her maiden World Title.
"We're also delighted to continue our great relationship with Sally and wish her the very best for a successful 2023 WSL Championship Tour - from all of us at GWM, Go Sally!" Maciver added.
Adding to the partnership, WSL will produce branded content for GWM in collaboration with Fitzgibbons that will be leveraged on WSL and GWM platforms.