Have you ever chosen a restaurant over another simply because you can see that there are more people eating there? You think “this place is popular, they must be better than the guys next door”! As silly as this sounds, the same principle can often apply in athlete sponsorship. Sometimes a brand will be attracted to an athlete simply because of the other brands that athlete is aligned with.
Brand benefits flow each way in sponsorship. Yes the athlete adds to the sponsor’s brand, but let’s not forget that the sponsor also adds to the athlete’s brand. If you’re an athlete with quality blue chip sponsors then your perceived market value is going to be a lot higher.
So what does this mean? Well sometimes athletes have to sell themselves short just to get in the door with a great brand. But hopefully in doing so, they will attract other great brands at the correct prices.
Let’s say I have an athlete with 1-2 sponsors who aren’t doing much in the way of leveraging the relationship. The money’s ok but I’m really trying to grow the athlete’s brand to attract better quality sponsors. Now let’s imagine a prestige brand comes to me in this situation and wants to sponsor my athlete. Perfect, however they want to pay under what the athlete is worth and use the savings to go above the line (eg. national print campaign and/or TVC featuring the athlete). Do I tell them to go jump or sell my athlete short?
I would take the latter option almost every time. You simply can’t buy the sort of brand positioning and exposure a major campaign with a prestige brand gives your athlete. How do I know this? Because I experienced a similar situation to the one above and the result for the athlete was a flow on effect of blue chip sponsors at the right prices.
Money shouldn’t be the sole consideration when looking at sponsorship deals. Look at the bigger picture. Sometimes you need to take a step back to leap forward.
Tags: athlete's brand, Sponsorship
