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Athlete Endorsements Still Viable?

March 3rd, 2013

Tiger Woods. Lance Armstrong. Oscar Pistorius. Every time a well-known athlete brand crashes to the earth in scandal the same headlines appear: “Athlete Endorsements No Longer Viable Marketing Tool.”

Is this true? Of course not. Use of personal brands to endorse products is a marketing tradition spanning more than 100 years. It has withstood the test of time because a strong personal brand influences the promotion of a product or service. “If you like me, you’ll like this product.”honuswagner2

Are athlete brands more subject to destruction than other brands? No more than other industries. After scanning one issue of Us Weekly, you’ll come to the same conclusion as any other reader. Hollywood brands are no less prone to the ups and downs of popularity than athletes.

How about corporate brands? Auto companies have recall issues. Packaged goods companies have production or product tainting crises. Food companies have E .coli and salmonella scares. Generally, the crisis management of the issue drives whether there is serious brand damage or not.

I cannot dispute there is risk in associating an athlete with a brand. Once a clear association is made between the athlete and a company’s product, the two brands are married for better or worse. However, there are ways to mitigate that risk.

1.  Do your homework. Research the athlete’s background beforehand. Determine if any past behavior may predict the future. Before creating the endorsement relationship, seek to know the athlete on a personal, direct level.

2.  Integrate the athlete into campaigns in phases. Start with quick campaigns having a short shelf life. Then work up to longer and more expensive marketing activations. This enables you to observe the athlete over time and understand whether trouble is on the horizon.

3.  Negotiate strong “morals clause” and claw-back language. Sometimes you can’t avoid trouble no matter how carefully you vet a brand ambassador. So, you’ll want to have an easy exit and/or the ability to reclaim bonus money.

No matter the fate of athletes like Armstrong and Pistorius, personal endorsements will continue to influence consumer behavior. If risk exists, mitigate it. Otherwise, marketers will leave a powerful tool off their work table.

 

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Posted in All-Star, Athletes, Behavior, Contract Negotiations, Crisis PR, Elite Athletes, linkedin, Sports Marketing, Uncategorized

Dear Danica: Take Control of Your Brand

June 15th, 2012

Dear Danica,

It was many years ago that I met you.  A bright-eyed young driver came to my office with her race team’s manager wondering whether she could make a successful career in INDYCAR.

Remember When It All Started?

If we’re using dollars and popularity as the gauge, the answer is “YES,” you’ve become very successful.  However, your decisions concerning your personal brand have left tremendous brand potential “on the table.”

Clearly, you are a strong and beautiful woman. However, Go Daddy stole your brand, leveraging your beauty for its own gain.  You were complicit in this theft.  See multiple Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Editions.  The sexual innuendo in your Go Daddy commercials shocked some and amused others.

Sure, it sold domain registrations.  But, what did it do for YOUR brand?

Now that Go Daddy has shifted its brand positioning under new ownership and a new AOR, your brand is left behind in a provocative muddle.   Inside the sports industry, I once heard that your brand is “beautiful revolution.”  Go Daddy exploited the beautiful, but where is your revolution?

You successfully compete in a man’s sport every single day.  Yet, we’d never know it when we see you off the track.  Without question, you “broke through glass ceilings” by showing that women can compete with men . . . and win . . . on a level playing field any day of the week.  Ah!   There’s a brand that is simple, unique, and sustainable for the rest of your life.

Danica, at this point you need to cause every mother to want their daughters to be you when they grown up.  At that point, you will attain the iconic status you should have and make a meaningful difference in our industry and society.

I hope you attain it.  I’d love a good ending to the story I witnessed ten years ago.

Yours truly,

Ken

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Posted in All-Star, Athletes, Branding, Sponsorships and Endorsements, Sports Marketing, Uncategorized

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A Turning Point in Endorsement Deals for Dancer Athletes

August 26th, 2011

In September of 2010, Gatorade.com launched its first “Dancer Athlete” profile. Dancer, Lauren Froderman, winner of So You Think You Can Dance season seven, was featured alongside big name professional athletes, such as Mia Hamm, Derek Jeeter, and Peyton Manning. With this prestige, Froderman realized many newfound perks of life as an elite dancer, including VIP party invites, shoulder rubbing with some of the world’s best athletes, and more.

 

This past month on SYTYCD season eight, dancer Melanie Moore was named “America’s Favorite Dancer” and was named the new athlete for Gatorade.com and model for the G Series FIT print campaign.

SYTYCD winner, Melanie Moore, in her G Series FIT print campaign

 

With the rapid evolution of dance into competitive mainstream entertainment, dancers will truly be able to close the gap between themselves and traditional athlete heroes. And, since brands aim to create emotional connections between consumers and their organization, endorsement deals within the emerging dance market means prime access to new and eager consumers.

 

Historically, dance has not been a sport where an athlete’s success was determined by the number of endorsement deals he or she had. How could it? Endorsement deals for dancers were few and far between. But, because of Gatorade’s “early adapter” attitude, dance may very well have a place in the future of mainstream sports endorsements. Gatorade has finally capitalized on the inherent connection between dancing and athletics. It won’t be long before other brands pick up elite dancers to endorse their products, too.

 

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Posted in All-Star, Athletes, Behavior, Branding, Elite Athletes, Sponsorships and Endorsements, Sports Business, Sports Consultants, Sports Fans, Sports Marketing, Trends

C’mon Tiger. Stand For Something!

November 27th, 2010

Dear Tiger,

It’s been a year since the media reported on the accident outside your home.  For the next three months or so, your life took on the characteristics of a train wreck.  As fans, we knew it was awful, but we couldn’t look away.  Silence . . . denial . . .  accusations . . . sort-of-press conference . . . divorce . . . a career sputtering.  We saw it all.

I read with interest about your desire to re-brand yourself.  I even scanned your Op-Ed piece in Newsweek, How I’ve Redefined Victory.  I assume you intended this piece to be the brand manifesto for “New Tiger.”  I was hoping you’d come out with game.  So, being in the athlete branding business, I thought I’d check out new-and-improved Tiger.  However, I didn’t see new Brand Tiger.  In fact, there wasn’t much brand there at all.

Because I’d love to see you reclaim the greatness that your career once represented, please adjust your re-branding approach.  Pretty please?

Life Is A Test.

First, be real.

Your Newsweek Op-Ed was nicely written and had glimmers of authenticity to it.  However, I didn’t get the true sense of a man redefining his life.   Rather, it seemed like your only profound change was the mere realization that being a father means being a part of your children’s lives.  Like “eating mac and cheese with them.”  Really?  Realizations don’t make you New Tiger.  Actions do.  What are you doing differently?  How are you a different father?  Be honest.  Be vulnerable.  While it’s important that brands be authentic, a “re-brand” must be ultra-authentic because you’ve already broken your brand promise once

Second, be special and noteworthy.

You’ve chosen to communicate New Tiger with a tired, old marketing plan.

You started tweeting and created a Facebook fan site.  Boring.

A nice new website.  Your web guys at MLB.com do a very nice job on design and structure.  However, the content has all the warmth and authenticity of a baseball card.  You don’t have to fill the site with everything-but-the-kitchen-sink.  As a fan, seeing a few special aspects of New Tiger is enough.

So, where’s the overall brand message?  Tell us who are you and what you stand for.  How is this special?  Seems like you’ve admitted that your marketing has been aloof for so long that making yourself look like every other pro athlete will make us love you more.  Think again.

Finally, stand for something.

What one thing will define your life?  (Remember, brand messages must be simple).   If it’s being a better person, just do it.  If it’s being a good dad, how will you make this happen?  Being a better role model?  Show us how.

There’s an old expression, “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.”  I don’t want you to be defined by your critics, or even by a vacuum if you fail to define yourself.  Now, more than ever, it’s  important that you to take your legendary golf focus and apply it to your brand as well.

New Tiger should be Better Tiger.  And, there’s a lot of fans out there that want to see it.  Me, too.

Best regards,

Ken

Posted by Ken Ungar

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Posted in All-Star, Athletes, Behavior, Branding, Elite Athletes, linkedin, Sports Business, Sports Marketing, Uncategorized

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A Lesson in Professional Responsibility

February 4th, 2010

When you think professional responsibility in sports, what do you think of? I think of charity work, good sportsmanship, media appearances and signing autographs for fans.

And, in light of recent gun-toting events in the NBA, I hate to say it, but Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton either have an extremely tainted view of professional responsibility, or they just flat out have none whatsoever.

Arenas and Crittenton, teammates on the Washington Wizards, were suspended this Wednesday for bringing firearms to the locker room at the Verizon Center.  Apparently the two had gotten into a heated argument over a card game on a flight home from an away game, which continued over to the locker room where the two came packin’ heat.

David Stern, the NBA Commissioner, took firm action after completing a full investigation of the two players, and suspended them without pay for the rest of the season (Arenas will lose $9.9 million of his $16.2 million salary this year, and Crittenden will lose $686,000 of his $1.48 million salary) – the 3rd and 4th longest suspensions in NBA history.

There are explicit rules in the NBA and unwritten rules that are commonly understood in sports that players must follow, and Stern made an example of Arenas and Crittenton, proving that in order to participate, players must uphold a certain level of professionalism.

Let this be a lesson to you athletes out there – think of the locker room, the court or field, or really anywhere you go as your office.  It is just like any other job – you need to carry yourself as a professional because you are one; but unlike other jobs, you are on the clock 24-7, 365.  If you choose to act otherwise, there are consequences – you could be fined, suspended, arrested or worse.

We teach our clients that brands are about behavior.  In order to have a marketable brand, athletes must act in a professional manner that represents both their personal brand and the image of their organization in a positive light.  Every touch point is an opportunity to either reinforce or detract from your established brand.

Choose wisely.

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Posted in All-Star, Athletes, Behavior, Branding, Elite Athletes, Sports Business, Sports Consultants, Sports Fans, Sports Marketing

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