Skydive Utah
One summer afternoon years ago, I decided to take a friend up on an offer to go do a tandem skydive at Skydive Utah. I don’t remember my expectations, but I recall not being very nervous. I was an action sports guy after all. After meeting my instructor who briefed me on the jump and got me geared up, it wasn’t long before we were walking to the plane. Still, I wasn’t nervous but the excitement was increasing. After a shockingly quick flight, the door flew open and people started jumping out. In an instant, my nerves shot through the roof. I was really doing this. We hobbled to the door, leapt out of the plane, and in that instant my life would never be the same.
After we landed I was hooked. I signed up for ground school, and immediately embarked on my skydiving journey. One in which, for years, was completely all-consuming. All of my free time was spent at the drop zone, jumping as much as I possibly could. Along the way I made some lifelong friends and jumped in amazing places.
These days, with a wife and two young daughters my skydiving has slowed down almost to a halt. I still get in a few jumps every year, but now most of my life happens away from the DZ, and not the other way around. But I find myself missing the lifestyle, fueled by passion and adrenaline. So, I was thrilled when the management at Skydive Utah reached out to us this winter about producing some fresh marketing content for the drop zone. Now I’d have the opportunity to be able to mix work with some play at one of my favorite places.
The goal was twofold: we needed to create two exciting 15-second cuts to be used in paid advertising, as well as a full-form video describing “what to expect” when you come and do your first tandem skydive at SDU. Despite a large and growing experienced jumper community at Skydive Utah, the skydiving business survives on tandem skydives, hence why most of the project was focused around that.
Skydive Utah is the largest drop zone in Utah and aside from Skydive Moab (4 hours away) hasn’t really needed to put too much effort into marketing in years past. The new owners and management are really passionate about growing it into a state of the art destination drop zone and it’s really cool to see them putting the time, effort and money into video projects like this. Brands with good marketing savvy and high-quality video content have an easier time connecting to their customers, and gaining the trust of their customers. And in the skydiving biz, trust is everything!
Project produced by: Sammi Branch
Directed by: Tim Jones
Animation design & creation: Kevin Tomas