ASB MAGAZINE: Volcom admit they weren’t quite sure what the reaction would be when the company launched their #thisfirst campaign and asked influencers, “What’s your ‘this’?” Volcom were flooded with over 10,000 photos, videos and statements of passion and what being able to put that passion first in life would mean.
Entries spanned a variety of topics, the most common being art, photography and travel, while music, surfing and skateboarding followed closely behind. But according to Volcom, it wasn’t just artistic globetrotting types with a passion for boardsports that entered, people pursuing passions as varied as sustainable farm to table food sourcing, charity work, animal rescue, make-up artistry and even crochet, all shared their stories.
To pick just 60 finalists from the thousands of entries, Volcom judges locked themselves in an office for a week. According to Volcom, the deeper they got, the less it felt like they were going through contest entries and the more like they were parsing the results of a massive survey which was beginning to reveal some trends;
“A lot of you like to take photos and want to travel, especially Australians. Aspirations to become a successful YouTuber were not uncommon. And entrants in Asia had a tendency more than any other region to focus on charitable giving.
“Making the selection of the 60 finalists was hard, narrowing that field of finalists down to 15 winners was even more difficult and we appreciate everyone’s patience (yes, we saw your comments on Instagram) awaiting the announcement.
“Before introducing the winners below, we just wanted to take a final moment and express how truly humbled we were by all the finalists and what it is that is driving you to pursue your ‘this’. To you and everyone else who entered and gave us a peek into your lives, we cannot thank you enough!”
The lone Australian finalist in Volcom’s #thisfirst was Tylah Kerr, a music promoter from Melbourne, who is trying to break her way into the music business. According to Tylah she’s ready to quit slinging tickets for a corporate behemoth and concentrate on her own production and management company.
To learn more information about #ThisFirst visit: www.volcom.com/thisfirst
