Welcome to the blog of Dr. Lisa Burns' Media Studies senior capstone class (2 pm section) at Quinnipiac University. If you're looking for the latest on media industry trends and insightful media analysis, you've come to the right place!
Wednesday, March 24, 2021
Celebrity & Sports Blog 7, Question 2 (March 30th)
Why is branding so important in sports? How is
it similar to, and different from, celebrity branding?What are some of the ways that successful athletes
and franchises leverage their brands in the marketplace?Limit:
7 responses
Nicole Bruder Part 1: When people’s morals and beliefs can be found in an athlete or celebrity, is when a true fanbase can be created. This is why branding in sports is so important. An athlete needs to be able to align themselves with a strong brand with a message that is noticeable. The best thing when it comes to branding is the fact that it is recognizable. This is the easiest way you’re your fanbase to grow. Growing a partnership with a certain brand will allow people to see what you align with in the industry. Allowing your fanbase to see consistency with this certain brand will allow them to gain trust in you. There is a lot of similarities when it comes to the branding of celebrity and athletes. With both of these categories of people, when it comes to branding, they definitely need to express their passions and beliefs. They could do this in the things they post or the brands they align with. I think that celebrities have a wider range in developing their craft when it comes to branding. Endorsement power is such a big thing when it comes to the branding of athletes more than it is for celebrities. I feel as though athletes should focus on less endorsements but increase the consistency of them. With endorsements, athletes are able to “elevate their celebrity status even when they weren’t competing”(“Tops of 2017: Pro Athlete Marketability). An example of increasing consistency with a brand is Lebron James only wearing the brand Nike. When people think of Nike and the sport Basketball, their mind will automatically think about Lebron James. That is the power of marketing and brand endorsements. It heightens the brand because if someone as good as Lebron James can wear their sneakers and clothes, then anyone can be as good as him wearing Nike. These athletes even get endorsements from brands other than ones that are related to sports. In his article, AJ Henry emphasized the top 10 highest endorsed athletes and their brands. Henry states, “brands realize how much sports fans love their sports heroes and are willing to put up a lot of money to get their brand in front of those cheering fans.” Lebron James has accumulated $55 million in endorsements with his top brands being Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Samsung, and Microsoft (Henry). This shows the value of him being such a credible athlete. Being consistent with these top brands, Lebron James will show his fans his true values and beliefs. I think this also ties into how to leverage your brands in the marketplace. Positioning yourself with a brand that is not only well known but has an overall great message will be perfect for you as an athlete or someone who is trying to grow a following. Focus on targeting people’s minds. When they think of Nike, they should think of Lebron James and vice versa.
Where branding differs between athletes and celebrities is the fact that celebrities need to be original. If a celebrity does not find a way to be unique, it is hard for fans to find anything to really grasp onto. When getting endorsed with brands, I think celebrities need to work harder show that there is a true, authentic connection. If a celebrity is seen on various social media platforms, then fans should be able to find content about the brands they are endorsed by on all of them. I also find that many celebrities like to start up their own brand that they can represent. Examples are Kanye West with his brand “Yeezy,” Emma Chamberlain with “Chamberlain Coffee,” and Diddy with “Sean John Clothing.” Forbes reported that Diddy’s paycheck mostly comes from “the sale of a large chunk of Sean John Clothing equity…”(Greenburg). Forbes reporting this shows that a lot of celebrities, mainly artists, make most of their money from endorsements and brand ownerships. With this, I think brands needs the endorsements from athletes more than the athletes needing the endorsements. Brands only help athletes show what morals they align with because it heightens their credibility.
Works Cited
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. “Full List: The World's Highest-Paid Celebrities 2017.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 21 July 2017, www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/06/12/full-list-the-worlds-highest-paid-celebrities-2017/#43dfd7749eca.
Henry, AJ. “The Top 10 Highest Endorsed Athletes And Their Brands.” Hollywood Branded Blog, 27 Apr. 2020, blog.hollywoodbranded.com/the-top-10-highest-endorsed-athletes-and-their-brands. Tops of 2017: Pro Athlete Marketability. 2017, www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2017/tops-of-2017-pro-athlete-marketability/.
Branding is incredibly important to sports. Not only are teams and leagues sponsored, but athletes are too.
Sports provide brands with a great opportunity to market their product or company to a mass amount of people at one time. Take the Super Bowl for example. Watched by over one hundred million people, one thirty second ad today costs over $5.5 million dollars, a huge jump from the roughly $40,000 price tag it carried way back in 1967 (Omatiga, NBC Sports). The NHL has recently had a sponsor for each of the league’s divisions in an effort to make up money lost following the COVID-19 pandemic. Even NBA teams now depict corporate sponsors on their jerseys. The amount of brand money that is put into north American sports is “expected to grow to over 20 billion U.S. dollars by 2022” (Gough, Statista).
Not only is branding in sports bring in loads of money for the league, athletes, and teams, but is also can provide organizations with an opportunity to provide an identity. The newest NHL expansion team the Seattle Kraken is going to be playing in the newly named Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken and Amazon agreed to a partnership that is “the first of its kind in sports and entertainment and is a commitment to tackle the most pressing problem facing our planet, climate change” (Quinn, Komo News). Athletes also are sponsored, as many have branding deals with apparel and beverage companies among others. Much like celebrities, athletes also have to be careful with who they decide to partner with, and vice versa. If a player or celebrity is attached to a company that finds itself in the news for the wrong reasons, it can ultimately affect their image and hurt their reputation. I also feel like for the most part, athletes are stuck branding companies that only pertain to their profession. For example, most basketball players might sponsor Gatorade or Nike. In hockey, an athlete would likely sponsor Bauer or Powerade. For the most part, very rarely do you find an athlete who sponsors a luxury car brand, or a hotel chain, or anything that isn’t somehow directly related to their sport. While we do occasionally see this, it’s largely only a small handful of athletes who are at the absolute pinnacle of superstardom and celebrity who get to advertise for companies that aren’t somehow related to sports, such as LeBron James with McDonalds, Peyton Manning with Oreos, and Tony Hawk with Guitar Hero. The most common example of athletes advertising brands that aren’t in one way or another directly related to their profession is most likely the insanely popular State Farm ads. Chris Paul and other NBA stars are routinely featured in State Farm ads, which as an insurance company, seemingly has little to do with the NBA. When you do a little digging however, you find that State Farm is actually an official sponsor of the NBA, which explains why they only feature NBA players in their ads, and why they are so heavily aired over ESPN and TNT, which both are home to nationally televised NBA games. When compared to celebrities however, they seem to get the opportunity to advertise everything. For example, Matthew McConaughey is sponsored by Buick, Snoop Dogg advertises Hot Pockets, and Penelope Cruz promotes the Nintendo DS. None of those celebrities have any tie or link to those brands whatsoever other than being famous and having strong marketability.
One of the most common ways that we see companies use athletes to leverage their brands in the marketplace is by having them create their own signature line of apparel. Nike for example makes sneakers such as the LeBron’s, Kobe’s, Kyrie’s, KD’s, and others, which are designed and promoted by the respective athlete. Adidas also does this with their Derrick Rose line, Jordan with their Carmelo Anthony shoes, and Reebok with their Shaq’s. This gives these companies a great opportunity to work closely with their athlete and create products that will likely be purchased by their huge following.
Omatiga, Mary. “Watch Super Bowl Commercials 2021: How Much Do They Cost to Air on TV, See the Best Ads from Super Bowl LV.” NBC Sports, 8 Feb. 2021, sports.nbcsports.com/2021/02/07/super-bowl-commericals-2021-watch-and-preview/#:~:text=Going%20all%20the%20way%20back,advertise%20at%20the%20Super%20Bowl.
Patrick Quinn, KOMO News reporter. “Seattle's KeyArena Gets New Name: It's Now Called Climate Pledge Arena.” KOMO, KOMO, 26 June 2020, komonews.com/sports/nhl/seattles-keyarena-gets-new-name-its-now.
Sports are an essential part of our society. As we saw last March with strict shut-downs, the world just isn’t the same without them. Why are sports so popular in our society?
I believe that branding plays a big role in sports’ popularity. Branding is key in an athlete's identity. When you think of an athlete, you associate certain qualities, personalities, and products with them. According to “Highest Paid Athletes in the World”, Messi, LeBron James, Ronaldo, Steph Curry, and Tiger Woods make up some of the top ten. They are all household names. Besides the talent they possess in their respective sports, they are all known for who they endorse and what companies they are seen in commercials.
According to a SportsPro Insight article, “Messi, who tops the list with a total score of 115, has the broadest reach of any athlete, providing a platform for commercial partners like Adidas, Pepsi, Lays, and Gatorade to engage with upwards of 157 million followers” (Carp). Like many of the athletes I previously mentioned, Messi meets the four Nielson “Athlete Influencer Scores”, reach, relevance, resonance, and return. There is no doubt that people love Messi. That’s the key to being marketable. You must be unique. You must be different. You must have your own identity. In the same article, Sam Carp discusses the changes happening right now in sports branding. “With the exception of soccer and basketball, the results show that simply competing in the most high-profile, lucrative sports no longer translates to being an effective brand ambassador. Marketability is increasingly about how individuals harness social media platforms…” (Carp).
When discussing branding you may assume that celebrity and athlete branding are the same. They are very similar but have some noticeable differences. Both must have a unique identity and persona. No one is going to be interested in influencers if they are all carbon copies of each other. This creates a world where consumers can be fans of Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, who are both pop singers and both in the top 20 for most followed celebrities on Instagram. They both sing in the same genres but have entirely different personalities that attract different brands. The same goes for sports.
The biggest difference between celebrity and athlete branding is that athletes have to be in a high-profile, popular sport, while celebrities, like the Kardashians, qualify as an adequate ambassador by being famous. Serena Williams is the highest-paid woman in sports right now. She's is a pioneer for female representation in sports. The influencer intelligence article “Celebrities or Athletes? The Future of Sports Endorsements,” states “Sports star sponsorships are used to strengthen fan patronage. By using role models, brands are guaranteeing a favorable brand image” (Barnett). While the lines between celebrity and athlete branding begin to blur, athletes require an extra step of playing a high-profile sport to be marketable.
One way for athletes and franchises to leverage their brands would be to give consumers and followers more content. Something that has been proven during the pandemic is that there is never enough content for consumers. A great way to this is by adding a weekly podcast or “vlog” to the agenda during the off-season. A Forbes article states, “Podcasting makes its first appearance in the voice of Bill Simmons (No.13, $82.5 million), who sold his podcast company The Ringer to Spotify in February for $206 million” (Greenburg, LaFranco). Podcasting could prove to be a great source of marketing for athletes, while also giving fans the content they desire. It also provides a more in-depth look at the personality of the athlete, which is essential to branding.
Works Cited
Barnett, Dale. “Celebrities or Athletes? The Future of Sports Endorsements.” Influencerintelligence.com, www.influencerintelligence.com/blog/KF/celebrities-or-athletes-the-future-of-sports-endorsements.
Carp, Sam. "SportsPro Insight: What Makes These the 50 Most Marketable Athletes?" SportsPro 1 Oct. 2020, https://50mm.sportspromedia.com/analysis/most-marketable-2020-messi-lebron-gauff-andreescu-endorsements/
Greenberg, Zach O'Malley and Rob LaFranco. "The World’s Highest Paid Celebrities 2020." Forbes Sept. 2020, https://www.forbes.com/celebrities/
Branding in sports is just as important if not more important than the team’s performance. I have been fortunate enough to work for Quinnipiac Athletics Marketing team, and have learned a ton about what goes into the branding of a sports organization. Especially when it comes to teams at Quinnipiac, the only teams that has sustained long term success are the Men’s hockey team and the Women’s basketball team. I saw how the social media specialist marketing games throughout all platforms to get students and fans excited for gameday. Obviously so much has changed due to the pandemic, but that makes the branding aspect of a sports organization even more integral. With no fans at games, sports franchises among all sports have had to take extra steps to stay engaged with their fan base. It has definitely been a challenge for every team, but that makes team’s social media pages and advertisements even more apparent.
It is similar to celebrity branding for larger market teams. In sports marketing and branding as a whole, often times it is not solely focused on one player. However, in a large market such as Lebron James, who is in the top 5 most marketable athletes according to Sports Pro Media, is the main selling point for the Los Angeles Lakers. Considering he has been the face of the NBA for nearly 20 years and is one of the wealthiest athletes of all time of course the Lakers are going to use leverage to gain more fans, social media followers, and overall attention. On the contrary, I would say that for small market teams, it is very different to celebrity branding. For small market teams, it is all about the team and the idea of inclusiveness. If you do not have a major star, highlighting the team’s overall success is the main point of their branding strategy. For celebrities, it is obviously very focused on the one person. For example, Oral Roberts in this past month became a verified twitter account due to their cinderella story run the NCAA March Madness tournament. They tweeted funny things, such as commented on Ohio States twitter page, who they beat, and being the most rooted for team in the country the past 3 weeks. It is also different from celebrities, because it is almost never fabricated. A lot of times celebrities due things just for views, clicks, and likes to boost their brand, but sports is always authentic.
According to Forbes, the top 3 most valuable sports franchises are the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees, and New York Knicks. Part of what makes them so valuable is their storied history. The Yankees have the most World Series wins of all-time, and the Knicks and Cowboys were dominant in their respective leagues for decades. Another huge factor for these teams, is their home stadium/arena. Old Yankee Stadium was as close to as a historical monument as you can get, while Madison Square Garden is home of some of the greatest events sports and non-sports in history. As well as New York’s great places for entertainment, the Dallas Cowboys were one of the first NFL franchises to revolutionize their stadium.
The giant jumbotron and luxury eating, is part of what makes it so appealing to fans to comes to games. Another huge factor for theses franchises to maintain success and revenue is their owners. Jerry Jones is arguably one of the best owner’s in sports history. He built that team from the ground up with Jimmie Johnson and Troy Aikman and was smart enough to label it as America’s team. The Steinbrenner family has always had tremendous success recruiting baseball’s top stars such as Alex Rodriguez and Rodger Clemmens just to name a few. Lastly, another huge part of their branding is the logos. Everyone knows that Dallas Star and the Knicks Logo has stayed the same for decades and decades and is very recognizable to people who are not even fans of sports. The Yankee’s pinstripes is also one of the most recognizable jerseys in sports.
As far as revenue goes for sports, the amount of money sports reel in is absurd. The NFL just locked in an 11 year $100 billion rights deal with Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, and Amazon. It is pretty incredible how many networks they are able to draw in and reach such a wide audience. Mike Hopkins Senior VP of Prime Video stated, “’NFL Fans from across the country will enjoy a premium viewing experience with Thursday Night Football, as well as access to a broad selection of content including award-winning Amazon Originals available on Prime Video”(Hollywood Reporter). For Amazon who is a newcomer to NFL broadcasting, has a great selling point to users. For fans to enjoy the games on their platform along with everything else Prime has to offer, it is a great deal for Amazon and their customers.
Branding will always be one of the most integral part of any business, celebrity, or athlete. Being able to brand the right way, any follow a similar path of previous successful brand tactics will be something that will be used for generations.
Badenhausen, K. (2020, July 31). The World’s Most Valuable Sports Teams 2020. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/07/31/the-worlds-most-valuable-sports-teams-2020/?sh=2fc40ace3c74
Weprin, A. (2021, March 19). With $100B NFL Deal, TV Networks Keep One Foot In the Bundle and Another in Streaming. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nfl-tv-streaming-analysis
What makes these the 50 most marketable athletes? (2020, October 2). SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable. https://50mm.sportspromedia.com/analysis/most-marketable-2020-messi-lebron-gauff-andreescu-endorsements/
Stephen Halvatzis Part 1 Branding is one of the most vital components of sports and we don't realize many of the impacts it has on the games we watch. I have watched sports for most of my life. I am a lifelong fan of the Rangers, Yankees and Jets and I have attended games and watched on TV for as long as I can remember. Sports are a part of my daily routine and I can't get enough of it. Although for most of my life I have been interested in the athletes, recently I have become more interested in the business of the sports I watch and how branding affects the game itself.
Many people don't realize this, but athletes can have their own brand outside of the games they play. The perfect example of this is Lebron James. Lebron James is currently listed as the 5th highest paid athlete in the world, making $88.2 million in 2020 alone. (Forbes). Lebron James is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. He has won 4 NBA Championships, multiple MVP's and has been breaking records in his nearly 20 year career. Most of his income comes from his NBA contract with the Lakers. However, he does make a large amount from other endorsement deals. He has custom shoes, has raised awareness towards political movements and has opened up his own pizza chain in the California area called Blaze. In addition, Lebron will look to make more money with the release of Space Jam 2, in which he is the lead role.
I believe branding athletes is much different than branding celebrities. Most celebrities are famous because of roles in television, movies or music. They usually sponsor every and any type of brand, whether it's related to their occupation or not. With athletes, they usually endorse brands that relate to their sport. For example, Lionel Messi has endorsement deals with Adidas, the company that endorses his club, FC Barcelona, and his cleats of choice. Lionel Messi is a worldwide star, and people across the world know him and his brand. He has the "broadest reach" of any athlete due to the popularity of his sport and the branding of his club. (SportsPro).
For franchises, their brands are very recognizable and unbreakable. The franchises of the NFL just agreed to an absurd deal that will pay the league $100 billion through 11 years with Disney, Fox, CBS and Amazon. The importance of these deals is that it will affect the players salaries. With the signing of this deal, the salary cap of the league is expected to rise drastically. With a higher salary cap, the players will get more lucrative deals over longer term. The branding of leagues is able to pay players what they deserve, and explain why some leagues make more than others.
Works Cited Weprin, A. (2021, March 19). With $100B NFL Deal, TV Networks Keep One Foot In the Bundle and Another in Streaming. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nfl-tv-streaming-analysis
What makes these the 50 most marketable athletes? (2020, October 2). SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable. https://50mm.sportspromedia.com/analysis/most-marketable-2020-messi-lebron-gauff-andreescu-endorsements/
Greenberg, Zach O'Malley and Rob LaFranco. "The World’s Highest Paid Celebrities 2020." Forbes Sept. 2020, https://www.forbes.com/celebrities/
Hayley Cuttitta Celebrity branding and athlete/sports branding are both really important when it comes to achieving a successful outcome. A good brand can help an athlete or team with amassing a large following and increasing their number of fans. In an article about the importance of branding behind sports teams it was stated, “…branding is a representation of you. It’s what fans think of when your brand comes to mind, and how they view your organization. This is why it’s crucial for sports teams to put out positive images to enhance their fan base” which shows why it is key to try and perfect one’s brand in the industry (Davis). Often, we see branding in ways we may not even realize, like with the representation of a team’s image. Maintaining the brand is also vital because fans gain trust overtime and a sort of “cult following” is created, which these teams and athletes would definitely not want to lose. There are similarities with celebrity branding and athlete branding, but there are clear differences. As stated in the World’s Highest Paid Celebrities 2020, “The top earning celebrities were Kylie Jenner and Kanye West, who brought in $590 million and $170 million, respectively” which came from Kanye’s sales of Yeezy’s and Kylie’s cosmetics (Forbes). We then can look at the article of the Highest Paid Athletes in the World where it is stated that the highest paid athletes of 2020 are Roger Federer and Christiano Ronaldo (Badenhausen). The branding of these celebrities’ vs these athletes is incredibly different. Kylie and Kanye come from the famous Kardashian/Jenner/West families in which their fame has helped them get to where they are successfully with their products. For Christiano and Roger Federer, their brand is based off of their athleticism and talent. Each one of these four has amassed a huge fan base and followings that differ greatly because of what they are specifically famous for. Where Kylie’s following is more of a younger generation mixed with fans who simply find her attractive and fans that are interested in her brand and what she has to offer. Christiano, on the other hand, has a following of a mix of a cult following of his fans, those who find him attractive, and soccer fans from all over the world. I think some of the ways that successful athletes and franchises leverage their brands now in the marketplace are through social media and ads. We all tend to go to social media for information and to see what is currently trending. Most recently we saw the NCAA scandal with the lack of equality between what was offered for the men and women’s teams. This spread on social media very fast, and I think although that was a bad reason for recognition, they did their best to overcome it and make better of what had been done wrong. Social media is a great way for athlete and celebrity branding because of how many people see the content that is put out and how fast it spreads.
Davis, Herman, et al. “Home.” Oregon Sports News, 31 Mar. 2017, oregonsportsnews.com/the-success-behind-sports-team-branding-marketing-doing-it-the-right-way/.
Greenberg, Zach O'Malley and Rob LaFranco. "The World’s Highest Paid Celebrities 2020." Forbes Sept. 2020, https://www.forbes.com/celebrities/
“The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2020.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, www.forbes.com/athletes/#645f839d55ae.
Gianna Petruccelli It is no surprise that branding has become an essential part of an athlete’s career. In recent years, we have seen an influx of branding in sports. The reason branding is so important in sports is because of the fan bases. The fan bases that follow specific athletes, and teams allows for companies to reach huge audiences. Athletes bring in a huge amount of revenue to other companies because of the following that they attract. For example, in an article called “30 highest-paying celebrity endorsements”, it was noted that soccer star David Beckham was the first highest paid celebrity endorsement and multi-million-dollar deal with Adidas (Liscomb). Beckham is right above Paris Hilton, which speaks volumes for the sports industry. To me, this is showing the large difference between athlete and celebrity endorsements. To begin, celebrities can brand almost anything and get away with it. This becomes a little bit harder for athletes, as whatever they are branding should have something to do with the sport they play. In other words, we would not want to see Eli Manning endorsing a baseball bat. Although they cannot market as much, there has been a lot of money made to athletes through branding. According to an article called “The Worlds Most Valuable Sports Teams 2020” by Forbes, it is stated that the Dallas Cowboys take the title for the most valuable team for the fifth year in a row, coming in at about 5.5 million dollars (Badenhausen). To me, this says that it does not matter about the tract record of the team, its their fan base that matters. Obviously, the cowboys are a very notable team but is it because of their talents, or because of their fan base? This is a large difference that I see between athlete and celebrity branding. No matter how terrible a team is doing, it seems that fans tend to stick to their roots and stay rooting for their team, which continues to bring in money. Before doing research I thought it would be harder to be an athlete endorsing a product but I now realize it might be easier. If my favorite athlete was endorsing a pair of sneaker, I would buy them because it would make me think that I too could be as good as an athlete as that person. I believe celebrity branding and athlete branding are similar because in both the person of interest must brand something that is relevant to them. They should find something that makes sense, and something they are passionate about in order to properly brand the item. Furthermore, they could be similar because they are both targeting their own audiences- their fanbases. There is a lot that athletes and franchises leverage their brands in the marketplace, but one brand in particular that truly knows how, is Nike. Nike could be considered the leader in the sports product market and it is because they have created such an effective business strategy. In an article called “How Nike Became Successful and the Leader in the Sport Product Market” it is stated that Nike became so successful through marketing (Keller). I think this is a huge way that franchises leverage their brands.
Works Cited Badenhausen, Kurt. “The World's Most Valuable Sports Teams 2020.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 31 July 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/07/31/the-worlds-most-valuable-sports-teams-2020/?sh=466d6e4a3c74. Keller, Chris R. “How Nike Became Successful and the Leader in the Sports Product Market.” Nike Strategy - How Nike Became Successful and the Leader in the Sports Product Market, profitworks.ca/blog/marketing-strategy/545-nike-strategy-how-nike-became-successful-and-the-leader-in-the-sports-product-market.html. Liscomb, Megan. “30 Highest-Paying Celebrity Endorsements.” Finance 101, 10 Nov. 2020, www.finance101.com/celebrity-endorsements/.
Branding is so important in sports because it allows the opportunity for athletes transcend the sport they play and take on a larger influence. Many professional leagues are filled with talented athletes all participating at the same task. One way to separate oneself from the rest, is of course with elite talent, but also branding. To differentiate from the rest of the filed, athletes can have successful branding to draw more support and fandom. When looking at Forbes highest paid athletes in the world, the list is filled with the top-level talent from various sports. Names like Federer, Messi, and Lebron are all towards the top of the list due to their dominance in the sport, but also in large part due to their branding. Lebron James was listed 5th on the highest paid athletes of 2020 bringing in $88.2 million (Badenhausen) from a combination of being the best at his sport and having effective branding. LeBron has established his brand off the court to allow for partnerships such as his deal with Nike. He speaks out on matters outside of sports and makes an impact of the court by doing things like building schools. Through his talent and off court branding, he has transcended the sport he plays. Someone who knows nothing about basketball still knows who he is because of his branding. Athlete’s endorsements are extremely valuable to brands because of the broad audience that follows them. Athletes have a strong following of fans which is shown through their extreme social media numbers. These numbers were shown to grow during the pandemic, “established names like Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry Rapinoe, Nadal and Federer were also among the athletes that took to Instagram Live during the months of March and April, and each unsurprisingly saw big gains in their following during the past 12 months” (Carp). This explains why brands are so eager for popular athletes to endorse their products as it will draw eyes from their massive following. On top of their large following, athletes are often trusted to be reliable when associating with a product “Seeing a celebrity attaching his or her name and good reputation to a product may help alleviate some of their uncertainty. Consciously or unconsciously, they might say “Lebron would choose to endorse Dre Beats Headphones only if those products truly are of premium quality.” After all, Lebron himself would be at risk of damaging his reputation if that were not the case” (Lemmons). This is where athletes branding can differ from other celebrities. They can endorse products that have to due with fitness or health more successfully than someone who is a singer because their field of expertise is directly connected to it. An athlete is better suited for endorsing certain aspects of life more so than other celebrities. For this reason, they have an advantage when working with these types of companies. They will bring a sense of trust to the product from a consumer’s perspective with their endorsement. This is another way that they can be successful and bring in some much money on top of their talent in their sport.
Badenhausen, Kurt. "Highest Paid Athletes in the World." Forbes 21 May 2020, Carp, Sam. "SportsPro Insight: What Makes These the 50 Most Marketable Athletes?" SportsPro 1 Oct. 2020, Lemmons, M. (2018, June 01). Why are athlete endorsements so important for brands? Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://malcolmlemmons.com/why-are-athlete-endorsements-so-important-for-brands/
Today, an athletes brand can make or break a player’s career. You probably grew up idolizing one athlete, while paying little to no attention to others. So what makes one athlete stand out from another? To understand this, let’s take a look at an article called “What Makes These the 50 Most Marketable Athletes?” It is important for us to look at the most popular athletes now, and see what benefits they get from being more marketable. In this article, they look at athletes and their potential reach. The broader the reach usually means more opportunities for brands and deals. Messi comes to the top of the list in this article. His brand deals range from Adidas, Pepsi, Lays and Gatorade. Overall, this comes out to around 157 million potential customers. Another athlete that had a similar come up with growing their brand is tennis player Andreescu. After she beat Serena Williams in the US open, her following soared up by more than 570 percent. This eventually led to her grabbing a deal with Rolex, Nike and BMW. Both these athletes used their obsessive talent within their craft which allowed both of them to land deals with mainstream brands. They let their skill and hard work do most of the “talking”. This relates to how some celebrities land big brand deals. When a celebrity has a big role in a movie, they are idolized and frozen in time within that character. This makes it easy for brands to pop their face in a commercial or on a poster. If they are talented enough on screen or on the playing field, they naturally build a portfolio for brands just by displaying their skill/talent. Another incentive of branding yourself as an athlete is that it usually comes out to more money too. Lebron James and Kobe Bryant both used a separate persona to try and elevate the brands they were building. Lebron is known as “King James”. Kobe was known as “Black Mamba.” Something as small as a name may not seem like much at first, however, the name is eventually drilled into our brain. Thus, Lebron is known as the King of the NBA. The more respect you obtain; the more brand will want to work with you. As an athlete, you have a choice of which brands you want to work with. This is discussed a bit in the article “The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2020.” Messi’s name was brought up once again. One of the companies he has a deal with is Pepsi. I am sure as a full time athlete; Messi doesn’t drink soda every day. However, the brand doesn’t care about that. They only want Messi to hold a can in a commercial and smile. A similar thing was done in the 80s and 90s with McDonalds. NBA players would compete in commercials for the iconic “Happy Meal.” They do not get paid to consume, they get paid to show their face. With all these athletes getting loads of money, it is interesting to think about what the top brands are and how much they make. Popular brands like Puma and Adidas sit proudly in the top 10. However, only one company can be first. The richest sports brand right now is Nike. This doesn’t come to much surprise either since Nike has been at the forefront my entire existence. According to “Top 10 Richest Sports Brands In The World Right Now” Nike has 27 million dollars’ worth of yearly sales. The bigger Nike gets the more athletes it will sign. The fact it has been around my entire existence also means that athletes are waiting for an opportunity to sing a deal with them. Athletes and brands go hand and hand. Citation “What Makes These the 50 Most Marketable Athletes?” SportsPro's 50 Most Marketable, 2 Oct. 2020, 50mm.sportspromedia.com/analysis/most-marketable-2020-messi-lebron-gauff-andreescu-endorsements/. “The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2020.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, www.forbes.com/athletes/#29a7ad7655ae. “Top 10 Richest Sports Brands In The World Right Now.” Sports Show, sportsshow.net/richest-sports-brands/.
Nicole Bruder Part 1:
ReplyDeleteWhen people’s morals and beliefs can be found in an athlete or celebrity, is when a true fanbase can be created. This is why branding in sports is so important. An athlete needs to be able to align themselves with a strong brand with a message that is noticeable. The best thing when it comes to branding is the fact that it is recognizable. This is the easiest way you’re your fanbase to grow. Growing a partnership with a certain brand will allow people to see what you align with in the industry. Allowing your fanbase to see consistency with this certain brand will allow them to gain trust in you.
There is a lot of similarities when it comes to the branding of celebrity and athletes. With both of these categories of people, when it comes to branding, they definitely need to express their passions and beliefs. They could do this in the things they post or the brands they align with. I think that celebrities have a wider range in developing their craft when it comes to branding. Endorsement power is such a big thing when it comes to the branding of athletes more than it is for celebrities. I feel as though athletes should focus on less endorsements but increase the consistency of them. With endorsements, athletes are able to “elevate their celebrity status even when they weren’t competing”(“Tops of 2017: Pro Athlete Marketability). An example of increasing consistency with a brand is Lebron James only wearing the brand Nike. When people think of Nike and the sport Basketball, their mind will automatically think about Lebron James. That is the power of marketing and brand endorsements. It heightens the brand because if someone as good as Lebron James can wear their sneakers and clothes, then anyone can be as good as him wearing Nike. These athletes even get endorsements from brands other than ones that are related to sports. In his article, AJ Henry emphasized the top 10 highest endorsed athletes and their brands. Henry states, “brands realize how much sports fans love their sports heroes and are willing to put up a lot of money to get their brand in front of those cheering fans.” Lebron James has accumulated $55 million in endorsements with his top brands being Nike, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s, Samsung, and Microsoft (Henry). This shows the value of him being such a credible athlete. Being consistent with these top brands, Lebron James will show his fans his true values and beliefs. I think this also ties into how to leverage your brands in the marketplace. Positioning yourself with a brand that is not only well known but has an overall great message will be perfect for you as an athlete or someone who is trying to grow a following. Focus on targeting people’s minds. When they think of Nike, they should think of Lebron James and vice versa.
Nicole Bruder Part 2:
DeleteWhere branding differs between athletes and celebrities is the fact that celebrities need to be original. If a celebrity does not find a way to be unique, it is hard for fans to find anything to really grasp onto. When getting endorsed with brands, I think celebrities need to work harder show that there is a true, authentic connection. If a celebrity is seen on various social media platforms, then fans should be able to find content about the brands they are endorsed by on all of them.
I also find that many celebrities like to start up their own brand that they can represent. Examples are Kanye West with his brand “Yeezy,” Emma Chamberlain with “Chamberlain Coffee,” and Diddy with “Sean John Clothing.” Forbes reported that Diddy’s paycheck mostly comes from “the sale of a large chunk of Sean John Clothing equity…”(Greenburg). Forbes reporting this shows that a lot of celebrities, mainly artists, make most of their money from endorsements and brand ownerships. With this, I think brands needs the endorsements from athletes more than the athletes needing the endorsements. Brands only help athletes show what morals they align with because it heightens their credibility.
Works Cited
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. “Full List: The World's Highest-Paid Celebrities 2017.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 21 July 2017,
www.forbes.com/sites/zackomalleygreenburg/2017/06/12/full-list-the-worlds-highest-paid-celebrities-2017/#43dfd7749eca.
Henry, AJ. “The Top 10 Highest Endorsed Athletes And Their Brands.” Hollywood Branded Blog, 27 Apr. 2020, blog.hollywoodbranded.com/the-top-10-highest-endorsed-athletes-and-their-brands.
Tops of 2017: Pro Athlete Marketability. 2017, www.nielsen.com/us/en/insights/article/2017/tops-of-2017-pro-athlete-marketability/.
Nick Melanson
ReplyDeletePart 1
Branding is incredibly important to sports. Not only are teams and leagues sponsored, but athletes are too.
Sports provide brands with a great opportunity to market their product or company to a mass amount of people at one time. Take the Super Bowl for example. Watched by over one hundred million people, one thirty second ad today costs over $5.5 million dollars, a huge jump from the roughly $40,000 price tag it carried way back in 1967 (Omatiga, NBC Sports). The NHL has recently had a sponsor for each of the league’s divisions in an effort to make up money lost following the COVID-19 pandemic. Even NBA teams now depict corporate sponsors on their jerseys. The amount of brand money that is put into north American sports is “expected to grow to over 20 billion U.S. dollars by 2022” (Gough, Statista).
Not only is branding in sports bring in loads of money for the league, athletes, and teams, but is also can provide organizations with an opportunity to provide an identity. The newest NHL expansion team the Seattle Kraken is going to be playing in the newly named Climate Pledge Arena. The Kraken and Amazon agreed to a partnership that is “the first of its kind in sports and entertainment and is a commitment to tackle the most pressing problem facing our planet, climate change” (Quinn, Komo News). Athletes also are sponsored, as many have branding deals with apparel and beverage companies among others. Much like celebrities, athletes also have to be careful with who they decide to partner with, and vice versa. If a player or celebrity is attached to a company that finds itself in the news for the wrong reasons, it can ultimately affect their image and hurt their reputation. I also feel like for the most part, athletes are stuck branding companies that only pertain to their profession. For example, most basketball players might sponsor Gatorade or Nike. In hockey, an athlete would likely sponsor Bauer or Powerade. For the most part, very rarely do you find an athlete who sponsors a luxury car brand, or a hotel chain, or anything that isn’t somehow directly related to their sport. While we do occasionally see this, it’s largely only a small handful of athletes who are at the absolute pinnacle of superstardom and celebrity who get to advertise for companies that aren’t somehow related to sports, such as LeBron James with McDonalds, Peyton Manning with Oreos, and Tony Hawk with Guitar Hero. The most common example of athletes advertising brands that aren’t in one way or another directly related to their profession is most likely the insanely popular State Farm ads. Chris Paul and other NBA stars are routinely featured in State Farm ads, which as an insurance company, seemingly has little to do with the NBA. When you do a little digging however, you find that State Farm is actually an official sponsor of the NBA, which explains why they only feature NBA players in their ads, and why they are so heavily aired over ESPN and TNT, which both are home to nationally televised NBA games. When compared to celebrities however, they seem to get the opportunity to advertise everything. For example, Matthew McConaughey is sponsored by Buick, Snoop Dogg advertises Hot Pockets, and Penelope Cruz promotes the Nintendo DS. None of those celebrities have any tie or link to those brands whatsoever other than being famous and having strong marketability.
Nick Melanson
DeletePart 2
One of the most common ways that we see companies use athletes to leverage their brands in the marketplace is by having them create their own signature line of apparel. Nike for example makes sneakers such as the LeBron’s, Kobe’s, Kyrie’s, KD’s, and others, which are designed and promoted by the respective athlete. Adidas also does this with their Derrick Rose line, Jordan with their Carmelo Anthony shoes, and Reebok with their Shaq’s. This gives these companies a great opportunity to work closely with their athlete and create products that will likely be purchased by their huge following.
Sources:
Gough, Christina. “Topic: Sports Sponsorship.” Statista, www.statista.com/topics/1382/sports-sponsorship/.
Omatiga, Mary. “Watch Super Bowl Commercials 2021: How Much Do They Cost to Air on TV, See the Best Ads from Super Bowl LV.” NBC Sports, 8 Feb. 2021, sports.nbcsports.com/2021/02/07/super-bowl-commericals-2021-watch-and-preview/#:~:text=Going%20all%20the%20way%20back,advertise%20at%20the%20Super%20Bowl.
Patrick Quinn, KOMO News reporter. “Seattle's KeyArena Gets New Name: It's Now Called Climate Pledge Arena.” KOMO, KOMO, 26 June 2020, komonews.com/sports/nhl/seattles-keyarena-gets-new-name-its-now.
Emma Frisbie
ReplyDeletePart 1
Sports are an essential part of our society. As we saw last March with strict shut-downs, the world just isn’t the same without them. Why are sports so popular in our society?
I believe that branding plays a big role in sports’ popularity. Branding is key in an athlete's identity. When you think of an athlete, you associate certain qualities, personalities, and products with them. According to “Highest Paid Athletes in the World”, Messi, LeBron James, Ronaldo, Steph Curry, and Tiger Woods make up some of the top ten. They are all household names. Besides the talent they possess in their respective sports, they are all known for who they endorse and what companies they are seen in commercials.
According to a SportsPro Insight article, “Messi, who tops the list with a total score of 115, has the broadest reach of any athlete, providing a platform for commercial partners like Adidas, Pepsi, Lays, and Gatorade to engage with upwards of 157 million followers” (Carp). Like many of the athletes I previously mentioned, Messi meets the four Nielson “Athlete Influencer Scores”, reach, relevance, resonance, and return. There is no doubt that people love Messi. That’s the key to being marketable. You must be unique. You must be different. You must have your own identity. In the same article, Sam Carp discusses the changes happening right now in sports branding. “With the exception of soccer and basketball, the results show that simply competing in the most high-profile, lucrative sports no longer translates to being an effective brand ambassador. Marketability is increasingly about how individuals harness social media platforms…” (Carp).
When discussing branding you may assume that celebrity and athlete branding are the same. They are very similar but have some noticeable differences. Both must have a unique identity and persona. No one is going to be interested in influencers if they are all carbon copies of each other. This creates a world where consumers can be fans of Taylor Swift and Ariana Grande, who are both pop singers and both in the top 20 for most followed celebrities on Instagram. They both sing in the same genres but have entirely different personalities that attract different brands. The same goes for sports.
The biggest difference between celebrity and athlete branding is that athletes have to be in a high-profile, popular sport, while celebrities, like the Kardashians, qualify as an adequate ambassador by being famous. Serena Williams is the highest-paid woman in sports right now. She's is a pioneer for female representation in sports. The influencer intelligence article “Celebrities or Athletes? The Future of Sports Endorsements,” states “Sports star sponsorships are used to strengthen fan patronage. By using role models, brands are guaranteeing a favorable brand image” (Barnett). While the lines between celebrity and athlete branding begin to blur, athletes require an extra step of playing a high-profile sport to be marketable.
DeleteOne way for athletes and franchises to leverage their brands would be to give consumers and followers more content. Something that has been proven during the pandemic is that there is never enough content for consumers. A great way to this is by adding a weekly podcast or “vlog” to the agenda during the off-season. A Forbes article states, “Podcasting makes its first appearance in the voice of Bill Simmons (No.13, $82.5 million), who sold his podcast company The Ringer to Spotify in February for $206 million” (Greenburg, LaFranco). Podcasting could prove to be a great source of marketing for athletes, while also giving fans the content they desire. It also provides a more in-depth look at the personality of the athlete, which is essential to branding.
Works Cited
Barnett, Dale. “Celebrities or Athletes? The Future of Sports Endorsements.” Influencerintelligence.com, www.influencerintelligence.com/blog/KF/celebrities-or-athletes-the-future-of-sports-endorsements.
Carp, Sam. "SportsPro Insight: What Makes These the 50 Most Marketable Athletes?" SportsPro 1 Oct. 2020, https://50mm.sportspromedia.com/analysis/most-marketable-2020-messi-lebron-gauff-andreescu-endorsements/
Greenberg, Zach O'Malley and Rob LaFranco. "The World’s Highest Paid Celebrities 2020." Forbes Sept. 2020, https://www.forbes.com/celebrities/
Matt Gallo
ReplyDeleteBranding in sports is just as important if not more important than the team’s performance. I have been fortunate enough to work for Quinnipiac Athletics Marketing team, and have learned a ton about what goes into the branding of a sports organization. Especially when it comes to teams at Quinnipiac, the only teams that has sustained long term success are the Men’s hockey team and the Women’s basketball team. I saw how the social media specialist marketing games throughout all platforms to get students and fans excited for gameday. Obviously so much has changed due to the pandemic, but that makes the branding aspect of a sports organization even more integral. With no fans at games, sports franchises among all sports have had to take extra steps to stay engaged with their fan base. It has definitely been a challenge for every team, but that makes team’s social media pages and advertisements even more apparent.
It is similar to celebrity branding for larger market teams. In sports marketing and branding as a whole, often times it is not solely focused on one player. However, in a large market such as Lebron James, who is in the top 5 most marketable athletes according to Sports Pro Media, is the main selling point for the Los Angeles Lakers. Considering he has been the face of the NBA for nearly 20 years and is one of the wealthiest athletes of all time of course the Lakers are going to use leverage to gain more fans, social media followers, and overall attention. On the contrary, I would say that for small market teams, it is very different to celebrity branding. For small market teams, it is all about the team and the idea of inclusiveness. If you do not have a major star, highlighting the team’s overall success is the main point of their branding strategy. For celebrities, it is obviously very focused on the one person. For example, Oral Roberts in this past month became a verified twitter account due to their cinderella story run the NCAA March Madness tournament. They tweeted funny things, such as commented on Ohio States twitter page, who they beat, and being the most rooted for team in the country the past 3 weeks. It is also different from celebrities, because it is almost never fabricated. A lot of times celebrities due things just for views, clicks, and likes to boost their brand, but sports is always authentic.
According to Forbes, the top 3 most valuable sports franchises are the Dallas Cowboys, New York Yankees, and New York Knicks. Part of what makes them so valuable is their storied history. The Yankees have the most World Series wins of all-time, and the Knicks and Cowboys were dominant in their respective leagues for decades. Another huge factor for these teams, is their home stadium/arena. Old Yankee Stadium was as close to as a historical monument as you can get, while Madison Square Garden is home of some of the greatest events sports and non-sports in history. As well as New York’s great places for entertainment, the Dallas Cowboys were one of the first NFL franchises to revolutionize their stadium.
The giant jumbotron and luxury eating, is part of what makes it so appealing to fans to comes to games. Another huge factor for theses franchises to maintain success and revenue is their owners. Jerry Jones is arguably one of the best owner’s in sports history. He built that team from the ground up with Jimmie Johnson and Troy Aikman and was smart enough to label it as America’s team. The Steinbrenner family has always had tremendous success recruiting baseball’s top stars such as Alex Rodriguez and Rodger Clemmens just to name a few. Lastly, another huge part of their branding is the logos. Everyone knows that Dallas Star and the Knicks Logo has stayed the same for decades and decades and is very recognizable to people who are not even fans of sports. The Yankee’s pinstripes is also one of the most recognizable jerseys in sports.
DeleteAs far as revenue goes for sports, the amount of money sports reel in is absurd. The NFL just locked in an 11 year $100 billion rights deal with Disney, Fox, NBCUniversal, ViacomCBS, and Amazon. It is pretty incredible how many networks they are able to draw in and reach such a wide audience. Mike Hopkins Senior VP of Prime Video stated, “’NFL Fans from across the country will enjoy a premium viewing experience with Thursday Night Football, as well as access to a broad selection of content including award-winning Amazon Originals available on Prime Video”(Hollywood Reporter). For Amazon who is a newcomer to NFL broadcasting, has a great selling point to users. For fans to enjoy the games on their platform along with everything else Prime has to offer, it is a great deal for Amazon and their customers.
Branding will always be one of the most integral part of any business, celebrity, or athlete. Being able to brand the right way, any follow a similar path of previous successful brand tactics will be something that will be used for generations.
Badenhausen, K. (2020, July 31). The World’s Most Valuable Sports Teams 2020. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/07/31/the-worlds-most-valuable-sports-teams-2020/?sh=2fc40ace3c74
Weprin, A. (2021, March 19). With $100B NFL Deal, TV Networks Keep One Foot In the Bundle and Another in Streaming. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nfl-tv-streaming-analysis
What makes these the 50 most marketable athletes? (2020, October 2). SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable. https://50mm.sportspromedia.com/analysis/most-marketable-2020-messi-lebron-gauff-andreescu-endorsements/
Stephen Halvatzis
ReplyDeletePart 1
Branding is one of the most vital components of sports and we don't realize many of the impacts it has on the games we watch. I have watched sports for most of my life. I am a lifelong fan of the Rangers, Yankees and Jets and I have attended games and watched on TV for as long as I can remember. Sports are a part of my daily routine and I can't get enough of it. Although for most of my life I have been interested in the athletes, recently I have become more interested in the business of the sports I watch and how branding affects the game itself.
Many people don't realize this, but athletes can have their own brand outside of the games they play. The perfect example of this is Lebron James. Lebron James is currently listed as the 5th highest paid athlete in the world, making $88.2 million in 2020 alone. (Forbes). Lebron James is arguably the greatest basketball player of all time. He has won 4 NBA Championships, multiple MVP's and has been breaking records in his nearly 20 year career. Most of his income comes from his NBA contract with the Lakers. However, he does make a large amount from other endorsement deals. He has custom shoes, has raised awareness towards political movements and has opened up his own pizza chain in the California area called Blaze. In addition, Lebron will look to make more money with the release of Space Jam 2, in which he is the lead role.
I believe branding athletes is much different than branding celebrities. Most celebrities are famous because of roles in television, movies or music. They usually sponsor every and any type of brand, whether it's related to their occupation or not. With athletes, they usually endorse brands that relate to their sport. For example, Lionel Messi has endorsement deals with Adidas, the company that endorses his club, FC Barcelona, and his cleats of choice. Lionel Messi is a worldwide star, and people across the world know him and his brand. He has the "broadest reach" of any athlete due to the popularity of his sport and the branding of his club. (SportsPro).
Part 2
DeleteFor franchises, their brands are very recognizable and unbreakable. The franchises of the NFL just agreed to an absurd deal that will pay the league $100 billion through 11 years with Disney, Fox, CBS and Amazon. The importance of these deals is that it will affect the players salaries. With the signing of this deal, the salary cap of the league is expected to rise drastically. With a higher salary cap, the players will get more lucrative deals over longer term. The branding of leagues is able to pay players what they deserve, and explain why some leagues make more than others.
Works Cited
Weprin, A. (2021, March 19). With $100B NFL Deal, TV Networks Keep One Foot In the Bundle and Another in Streaming. The Hollywood Reporter. https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/nfl-tv-streaming-analysis
What makes these the 50 most marketable athletes? (2020, October 2). SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable. https://50mm.sportspromedia.com/analysis/most-marketable-2020-messi-lebron-gauff-andreescu-endorsements/
Greenberg, Zach O'Malley and Rob LaFranco. "The World’s Highest Paid Celebrities 2020." Forbes Sept. 2020, https://www.forbes.com/celebrities/
Hayley Cuttitta
ReplyDeleteCelebrity branding and athlete/sports branding are both really important when it comes to achieving a successful outcome. A good brand can help an athlete or team with amassing a large following and increasing their number of fans. In an article about the importance of branding behind sports teams it was stated, “…branding is a representation of you. It’s what fans think of when your brand comes to mind, and how they view your organization. This is why it’s crucial for sports teams to put out positive images to enhance their fan base” which shows why it is key to try and perfect one’s brand in the industry (Davis). Often, we see branding in ways we may not even realize, like with the representation of a team’s image. Maintaining the brand is also vital because fans gain trust overtime and a sort of “cult following” is created, which these teams and athletes would definitely not want to lose. There are similarities with celebrity branding and athlete branding, but there are clear differences. As stated in the World’s Highest Paid Celebrities 2020, “The top earning celebrities were Kylie Jenner and Kanye West, who brought in $590 million and $170 million, respectively” which came from Kanye’s sales of Yeezy’s and Kylie’s cosmetics (Forbes). We then can look at the article of the Highest Paid Athletes in the World where it is stated that the highest paid athletes of 2020 are Roger Federer and Christiano Ronaldo (Badenhausen). The branding of these celebrities’ vs these athletes is incredibly different. Kylie and Kanye come from the famous Kardashian/Jenner/West families in which their fame has helped them get to where they are successfully with their products. For Christiano and Roger Federer, their brand is based off of their athleticism and talent. Each one of these four has amassed a huge fan base and followings that differ greatly because of what they are specifically famous for. Where Kylie’s following is more of a younger generation mixed with fans who simply find her attractive and fans that are interested in her brand and what she has to offer. Christiano, on the other hand, has a following of a mix of a cult following of his fans, those who find him attractive, and soccer fans from all over the world.
I think some of the ways that successful athletes and franchises leverage their brands now in the marketplace are through social media and ads. We all tend to go to social media for information and to see what is currently trending. Most recently we saw the NCAA scandal with the lack of equality between what was offered for the men and women’s teams. This spread on social media very fast, and I think although that was a bad reason for recognition, they did their best to overcome it and make better of what had been done wrong. Social media is a great way for athlete and celebrity branding because of how many people see the content that is put out and how fast it spreads.
Davis, Herman, et al. “Home.” Oregon Sports News, 31 Mar. 2017, oregonsportsnews.com/the-success-behind-sports-team-branding-marketing-doing-it-the-right-way/.
Greenberg, Zach O'Malley and Rob LaFranco. "The World’s Highest Paid Celebrities 2020." Forbes Sept. 2020, https://www.forbes.com/celebrities/
“The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2020.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, www.forbes.com/athletes/#645f839d55ae.
Gianna Petruccelli
ReplyDeleteIt is no surprise that branding has become an essential part of an athlete’s career. In recent years, we have seen an influx of branding in sports. The reason branding is so important in sports is because of the fan bases. The fan bases that follow specific athletes, and teams allows for companies to reach huge audiences. Athletes bring in a huge amount of revenue to other companies because of the following that they attract. For example, in an article called “30 highest-paying celebrity endorsements”, it was noted that soccer star David Beckham was the first highest paid celebrity endorsement and multi-million-dollar deal with Adidas (Liscomb). Beckham is right above Paris Hilton, which speaks volumes for the sports industry. To me, this is showing the large difference between athlete and celebrity endorsements. To begin, celebrities can brand almost anything and get away with it. This becomes a little bit harder for athletes, as whatever they are branding should have something to do with the sport they play. In other words, we would not want to see Eli Manning endorsing a baseball bat. Although they cannot market as much, there has been a lot of money made to athletes through branding. According to an article called “The Worlds Most Valuable Sports Teams 2020” by Forbes, it is stated that the Dallas Cowboys take the title for the most valuable team for the fifth year in a row, coming in at about 5.5 million dollars (Badenhausen). To me, this says that it does not matter about the tract record of the team, its their fan base that matters. Obviously, the cowboys are a very notable team but is it because of their talents, or because of their fan base? This is a large difference that I see between athlete and celebrity branding. No matter how terrible a team is doing, it seems that fans tend to stick to their roots and stay rooting for their team, which continues to bring in money. Before doing research I thought it would be harder to be an athlete endorsing a product but I now realize it might be easier. If my favorite athlete was endorsing a pair of sneaker, I would buy them because it would make me think that I too could be as good as an athlete as that person. I believe celebrity branding and athlete branding are similar because in both the person of interest must brand something that is relevant to them. They should find something that makes sense, and something they are passionate about in order to properly brand the item. Furthermore, they could be similar because they are both targeting their own audiences- their fanbases.
There is a lot that athletes and franchises leverage their brands in the marketplace, but one brand in particular that truly knows how, is Nike. Nike could be considered the leader in the sports product market and it is because they have created such an effective business strategy. In an article called “How Nike Became Successful and the Leader in the Sport Product Market” it is stated that Nike became so successful through marketing (Keller). I think this is a huge way that franchises leverage their brands.
Works Cited
Badenhausen, Kurt. “The World's Most Valuable Sports Teams 2020.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, 31 July 2020, www.forbes.com/sites/kurtbadenhausen/2020/07/31/the-worlds-most-valuable-sports-teams-2020/?sh=466d6e4a3c74.
Keller, Chris R. “How Nike Became Successful and the Leader in the Sports Product Market.” Nike Strategy - How Nike Became Successful and the Leader in the Sports Product Market, profitworks.ca/blog/marketing-strategy/545-nike-strategy-how-nike-became-successful-and-the-leader-in-the-sports-product-market.html.
Liscomb, Megan. “30 Highest-Paying Celebrity Endorsements.” Finance 101, 10 Nov. 2020, www.finance101.com/celebrity-endorsements/.
Jack Higgins
ReplyDeleteBranding is so important in sports because it allows the opportunity for athletes transcend the sport they play and take on a larger influence. Many professional leagues are filled with talented athletes all participating at the same task. One way to separate oneself from the rest, is of course with elite talent, but also branding. To differentiate from the rest of the filed, athletes can have successful branding to draw more support and fandom. When looking at Forbes highest paid athletes in the world, the list is filled with the top-level talent from various sports. Names like Federer, Messi, and Lebron are all towards the top of the list due to their dominance in the sport, but also in large part due to their branding. Lebron James was listed 5th on the highest paid athletes of 2020 bringing in $88.2 million (Badenhausen) from a combination of being the best at his sport and having effective branding. LeBron has established his brand off the court to allow for partnerships such as his deal with Nike. He speaks out on matters outside of sports and makes an impact of the court by doing things like building schools. Through his talent and off court branding, he has transcended the sport he plays. Someone who knows nothing about basketball still knows who he is because of his branding. Athlete’s endorsements are extremely valuable to brands because of the broad audience that follows them. Athletes have a strong following of fans which is shown through their extreme social media numbers. These numbers were shown to grow during the pandemic, “established names like Golden State Warriors point guard Stephen Curry Rapinoe, Nadal and Federer were also among the athletes that took to Instagram Live during the months of March and April, and each unsurprisingly saw big gains in their following during the past 12 months” (Carp). This explains why brands are so eager for popular athletes to endorse their products as it will draw eyes from their massive following. On top of their large following, athletes are often trusted to be reliable when associating with a product “Seeing a celebrity attaching his or her name and good reputation to a product may help alleviate some of their uncertainty. Consciously or unconsciously, they might say “Lebron would choose to endorse Dre Beats Headphones only if those products truly are of premium quality.” After all, Lebron himself would be at risk of damaging his reputation if that were not the case” (Lemmons). This is where athletes branding can differ from other celebrities. They can endorse products that have to due with fitness or health more successfully than someone who is a singer because their field of expertise is directly connected to it. An athlete is better suited for endorsing certain aspects of life more so than other celebrities. For this reason, they have an advantage when working with these types of companies. They will bring a sense of trust to the product from a consumer’s perspective with their endorsement. This is another way that they can be successful and bring in some much money on top of their talent in their sport.
Badenhausen, Kurt. "Highest Paid Athletes in the World." Forbes 21 May 2020,
Carp, Sam. "SportsPro Insight: What Makes These the 50 Most Marketable Athletes?" SportsPro 1 Oct. 2020,
Lemmons, M. (2018, June 01). Why are athlete endorsements so important for brands? Retrieved March 30, 2021, from https://malcolmlemmons.com/why-are-athlete-endorsements-so-important-for-brands/
Today, an athletes brand can make or break a player’s career. You probably grew up idolizing one athlete, while paying little to no attention to others. So what makes one athlete stand out from another? To understand this, let’s take a look at an article called “What Makes These the 50 Most Marketable Athletes?” It is important for us to look at the most popular athletes now, and see what benefits they get from being more marketable. In this article, they look at athletes and their potential reach. The broader the reach usually means more opportunities for brands and deals. Messi comes to the top of the list in this article. His brand deals range from Adidas, Pepsi, Lays and Gatorade. Overall, this comes out to around 157 million potential customers. Another athlete that had a similar come up with growing their brand is tennis player Andreescu. After she beat Serena Williams in the US open, her following soared up by more than 570 percent. This eventually led to her grabbing a deal with Rolex, Nike and BMW. Both these athletes used their obsessive talent within their craft which allowed both of them to land deals with mainstream brands. They let their skill and hard work do most of the “talking”. This relates to how some celebrities land big brand deals. When a celebrity has a big role in a movie, they are idolized and frozen in time within that character. This makes it easy for brands to pop their face in a commercial or on a poster. If they are talented enough on screen or on the playing field, they naturally build a portfolio for brands just by displaying their skill/talent. Another incentive of branding yourself as an athlete is that it usually comes out to more money too. Lebron James and Kobe Bryant both used a separate persona to try and elevate the brands they were building. Lebron is known as “King James”. Kobe was known as “Black Mamba.” Something as small as a name may not seem like much at first, however, the name is eventually drilled into our brain. Thus, Lebron is known as the King of the NBA. The more respect you obtain; the more brand will want to work with you. As an athlete, you have a choice of which brands you want to work with. This is discussed a bit in the article “The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2020.” Messi’s name was brought up once again. One of the companies he has a deal with is Pepsi. I am sure as a full time athlete; Messi doesn’t drink soda every day. However, the brand doesn’t care about that. They only want Messi to hold a can in a commercial and smile. A similar thing was done in the 80s and 90s with McDonalds. NBA players would compete in commercials for the iconic “Happy Meal.” They do not get paid to consume, they get paid to show their face. With all these athletes getting loads of money, it is interesting to think about what the top brands are and how much they make. Popular brands like Puma and Adidas sit proudly in the top 10. However, only one company can be first. The richest sports brand right now is Nike. This doesn’t come to much surprise either since Nike has been at the forefront my entire existence. According to “Top 10 Richest Sports Brands In The World Right Now” Nike has 27 million dollars’ worth of yearly sales. The bigger Nike gets the more athletes it will sign. The fact it has been around my entire existence also means that athletes are waiting for an opportunity to sing a deal with them. Athletes and brands go hand and hand.
ReplyDeleteCitation
“What Makes These the 50 Most Marketable Athletes?” SportsPro's 50 Most Marketable, 2 Oct. 2020, 50mm.sportspromedia.com/analysis/most-marketable-2020-messi-lebron-gauff-andreescu-endorsements/.
“The World's Highest-Paid Athletes 2020.” Forbes, Forbes Magazine, www.forbes.com/athletes/#29a7ad7655ae.
“Top 10 Richest Sports Brands In The World Right Now.” Sports Show, sportsshow.net/richest-sports-brands/.
Corey Kremberg ^^^^^^
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