Posts Tagged ‘athlete’s brand’

Brand Building Part 1

Friday, May 8th, 2009

Brand trust and loyalty takes years to build, sometimes lifetimes. But a high profile athlete has the ability to build a successful brand overnight.

As an example let’s compare two brands.

1.    Chiko Roll
2.    Stephanie Rice

One has been around for nearly 60 years, the other about three years. One has spent millions on marketing and advertising, the other has coasted on free publicity. Yet both brands are equally recognised in the public eye and hold much the same loyalty and respect from consumers. How did this happen?

The emotion of sport backed by huge media exposure makes it easy for an athlete to achieve what most brands take 20 years to do.

The biggest challenge for an athlete though, is to change, adapt and evolve to prolong their shelf life. Athletes retire, they stop winning, they grow older. Suddenly all the qualities that made them attractive no longer exist.

In my next post I will tell you the secret to prolonging the life of an athlete’s brand.

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Manage But Don’t Forget to Teach

Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

Some athlete managers do everything for their clients. They pay their bills, they insure their car, they book their holidays, they fill out complex forms, they might even pick up their dry cleaning or run other errands. This type of management style is great except what you’re doing is depriving your client of important life skills.

Yes, athlete managers need to take the reins on different aspects of management but not at the expense of leaving your client without the knowledge or expertise to navigate life by themselves.

It amazes me how many athletes don’t know how to do simple tasks such as booking their own flights online. Everyday jobs are lost on some athletes simply because they have always had someone else do it for them.

You are expected to manage everything that is sponsorship or media driven but often athletes will rely on their managers for totally unrelated personal jobs. And it’s not their fault, it’s just that no one has ever taught them these skills. As a manager, it’s your duty to educate your clients. Athletes really appreciate this, in fact they take ownership and feel empowered to manage themselves better.

Ultimately your job is to build your athlete’s brand and align them with great sponsors, and this will be much easier with a client who is domlife-esticated.

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Posted in Client Relationship, Personal Development, Strategy | No Comments »

Getting Into Bed with TV

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

Australian media deals between TV networks and athletes are extremely lucrative (think Stephanie Rice and Channel Seven) but there are pros and cons. Let’s look at some of them.

Pros

  • Lucrative multi year contracts
  • Great exposure for the athlete that is nearly always positive
  • Broadens the athletes appeal as they are used across different programming
  • Invaluable on-camera experience which helps their presenting and media skills
  • Opportunity to cross promote the athlete’s other sponsors
  • Gives you an excuse to knock back other / unwanted media requests
  • Can help win potential sponsors (they see it as a channel for free and regular publicity)
  • Can help ease the athlete into a media career when they retire


Cons

  • Limits the athletes exposure across other media channels
  • Pushed into programming that may not fit the ‘brand’ of your athlete
  • Media burnout from appeasing the network + all other print, radio requests
  • Creates rivalries with other networks (they can turn against your athlete)
  • Creates friction with the media plans of other sponsors / club / sporting body
  • Disrupts your own media plan as the athlete is always on call for the network
  • You can’t sell paid exclusives to other media outlets
  • Can turn off potential sponsors by limiting the reach of PR campaigns

Personally I think the money on offer from the networks outweighs the cons. But it’s still important to evaluate everything when considering these deals.

For example, a media deal would suit an established athlete who is nearing the end of their career. It keeps them in the spotlight (which is good for sponsors), and helps develop their TV skills which can give them a crack at a career in the media when they do retire.

On the other hand, such a deal might restrict the up and coming athlete and can even make them look bad because they are inexperienced or pushed into uncomfortable roles. Just some points to think about when your evaluating your next media deal.

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Posted in Communication, Media, Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

Like Attracts Like

Friday, March 27th, 2009

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.

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Posted in Sponsorship, Strategy | No Comments »

Car Sponsorships

Friday, March 13th, 2009

When you sit down with an athlete and ask them for a dream list of sponsors (effective way to learn about the products they believe in and admire) one of the most popular answers is a car sponsorship. Sounds reasonable, but is it worth it? Well if the car company is a manufacturer as opposed to a car yard, is a combination of cash and product and the partnership adds value to your athlete’s overall brand positioning then go for it. Otherwise tread carefully.

Firstly, if the car brand doesn’t align with your athlete’s brand then don’t do it, that’s a no brainer. If the car company is a car yard, they won’t have the budget to do quality advertising around the partnership, but that doesn’t mean they won’t try, and your talent will look ordinary. And lastly, if there is no cash incentive then you’re selling yourself short.

Unfortunately most car sponsorships in Australia are product only. What a great deal for the car company! While other sponsors are paying market value to be associated with your talent, the car company gets all the same rights for the price of a car that really doesn’t cost them much. If I’m an athlete do I really want to be doing X number of appearances and photo shoots for the equivalent of $35,000 (or less) when my market value is six figures?? I’d rather give my time and energy to sponsors who are paying me market value and then buy my own car without the headaches of additional commitments.

It’s also important for athlete’s to remember that managers don’t receive any benefit from product only deals, yet they have to service the relationship. This takes up valuable time and resources that could be better spent on more lucrative deals. Don’t get a car deal for the sake of getting a car, make sure it makes sense.

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Posted in Sponsorship, Strategy | 2 Comments »