The Arby’s Action Sports Awards which aired on Sunday, December 10th on Fox, and will be re-telecast again on Fuel TV, featuring their famous “Blue Carpet Special,” brought back the celebration and awards ceremony of top action sports athletes as voted on by fans and a panel of industry experts.

Hosts of the event included Steve-O, Preston Lace, Dave England, and Danger Ehren from “Jackass,” Pamela Anderson, Paris Hilton, Kelly Carlson, and Xhibit, among others. The top awards went to Travis Pastrana for both the Arby’s “Maverick” Award and Kicker Audio Freestyle Motocross Rider of the Year for his memorable Summer X Games performance pulling a double backflip. Other notables were Ryan Sheckler who captured the Project 8 Skateboarder of the Year Award and Jeep’s Rider of the Year Award.

Other winners included Shaun White and Gretchen Bleiler as Snowboarders of the Year, Kelly Slater and Keala Kennelly for Surfers of the Year, Lyn-Z Adams Hawkins as Skateboarder of the Year, Dallas Friday and Danny Harf as Wakeboarders of the Year, and Tanner Hall and Kristi Leskinen as Skiers of the Year.

As more mainstream sponsors such as Arby’s, Jeep, The Marines, Toyota, Campbell’s Macy’s, Motorola, and others move into sponsoring action sports events, including the X Games, Vans Triple Crown of Surfing, LG Action Sports Tour, The Dew Tour, and even Zumiez Couch Tour, sponsorship of top athletes such as the winners of the Action Sports Awards often resonate among youth culture who look up to the heroes of their time. This is one of the most effective grassroots marketing tools towards reaching youth culture, but is still overlooked by many large brands, especially those who believe that TV reach is the most important mechanism for reaching the youth demographic. However as more intuitive brands are noting, it takes grassroots sponsorship campaigns and events such as action sports and music, and sponsorship that can be the most effective way to reach today’s youth marketplace.