SportsPro 50 Most Marketable Athletes 2014

The 50 athletes you should be investing in over the next three years www.sportspromedia.com

June 2014

In collaboration with

who is the world’s most marketable athlete?

For full commercial profiles of all 50 athletes in this year’s rankings, visit www.sportspromedia.com

COVER STORY | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

THE WORLD’S MOST MARKETABLE ATHLETES In collaboration with

The 50 athletes you should be investing in over the next three years #SP50MM 4 18 22 26 28 32 34 36

The 50 Most Marketable Athletes 2014 Brittney Griner and athlete identity James Harden and the age of the beard Sonny Bill Williams and rugby’s player power Mami Sato, Alan Oliveira and the rise of the Paralympians Grigor Dimitrov and the ATP’s new crop Ronda Rousey fights for her right to party Jordan Spieth and the Under Armour mentality

For full commercial profiles of all 50 athletes in this year’s rankings, visit www.sportspromedia.com 2 | www.sportspromedia.com

COVER STORY | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

For full commercial profiles of all 50 athletes in this year’s rankings, visit www.sportspromedia.com

50 Simona de Silvestro

40 Daniil Kvyat

49 Martin Fourcade

39 Taylor Phinney

48 Caroline Wozniacki

38 Fabiana Claudino

47 Youxue Mo

37 James Harden

46 Carmelo Anthony

36 Brittney Griner

45 Masahiro Tanaka

35 Kevin Pietersen

44 Julian Green

34 Mami Sato

43 Gabriel Medina

33 Johnny Manziel

42 Sir Ben Ainslie

32 Steven Stamkos

41 Sonny Bill Williams

31 Victoria Azarenka

Swiss, 25, Motorsport (New)

French, 25, Biathlon (New) The man with the golden gun, not to mention the golden skis, poles and lungs, Fourcade is a serial biathlon winner. Adding two Olympic titles in Sochi to the five he has picked up in world championships, he is the telegenic lead in a telegenic sport and has the credibility to take it into the mainstream.

Danish, 23, Tennis (2013 ranking: 23)

Chinese, 18, Athletics (New)

American, 29, Basketball (22)

Japanese, 25, Baseball (New)

American, 19, Soccer (New)

Brazilian, 20, Surfing (New) The Brazilian is widely tipped to become a world champion in a sport that, under new management and with hordes of teenage fans across the globe, has rarely been so accessible, with the ASP having signed deals with ESPN, YouTube and Facebook that position its leading exponents directly in front of its content-hungry fanbase.

British, 37, Sailing (Re-entry)

New Zealand, 28, Rugby (New)

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Russian, 20, Motorsport (New)

American, 23, Cycling (New) Outspoken, articulate, and anti-any kind of doping including caffeine pills, Phinney is something of a Lance Armstrong antidote. If he continues on his trajectory to success, he could be the balm that cures his country’s disbelief in professional cycling, and shifts the sport into the wider US consciousness once again.

Brazilian, 29, Volleyball (New)

American, 24, Basketball (37)

American, 23, Basketball (New)

British, 33, Cricket (New)

Japanese, 31, Para-athletics (New)

American, 21, Football (New) Like all draft prospects, the extent of Manziel’s marketability will ultimately depend upon whether or not he is able to make the transition into the professional game, but if he succeeds at this, ‘Johnny Football’ will be one of the hottest properties in US sport for years to come.

Canadian, 24, Ice Hockey (New)

Belarusian, 24, Tennis (15)

30 Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

20 Alan Oliveira

29 Anthony Davis

19

28 Katarina Johnson-Thompson

18

27 Sebastian Vettel

17

British, 20, Soccer (New)

American, 21, Basketball (New)

British, 21, Athletics (New)

German, 26, Motorsport (12) A brand set with Vettel is set for a long time – he will now be a global public figure for life, and an engaging one at that. The only trouble, and the reason Vettel’s latest triumphs have prompted a precipitous drop in this list, is that the Red Bull marketing monolith looms large in his commercial affairs.

26 Stephen Curry

American, 26, Basketball (New)

25 Austin Dillon

American, 23, Motorsport (New) For the first time in its existence there is no place on this list for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Perhaps for the first time since Jr inherited the mantle of fan favouritism from his late father in 2001, there is now a genuine contender for that crown. Driving the number 3 car made famous by Earnhardt Sr, Dillon is Nascar’s anointed one.

24 Rory McIlroy

British, 24, Golf (3)

23 Mikaela Shiffrin

American, 19, Skiing (New)

22 Saul Alvarez

Mexican, 23, Boxing (32)

21 Andy Murray

British, 26, Tennis (18)

Brazilian, 22, Para-athletics (17)

Jordan Spieth American, 20, Golf (New) Ronda Rousey American, 27, MMA (New)

M ike Trout American, 22, Baseball (28)

16

Marc Marquez Spanish, 21, Motorcycling (New)

15 14

Novak Djokovic Serbian, 26, Tennis (6)

Alex Morgan American, 24, Soccer (27) A fine player who may soon become a great one, Morgan is probably the brightest star in women’s soccer. With her sport in the ascendant, she is an archetypal American idol, priding herself on providing an example to young girls, literally and literarily – her third best-selling novel was released in March.

13

Eugenie Bouchard Canadian, 20, Tennis (New)

12

Adam Scott Australian, 33, Golf (New)

11

L ionel Messi Argentinian, 26, Soccer (2) Messi remains a humble antidote to Ronaldo’s screaming bravado and, for the right brand, couldn’t tick more boxes. Arguably the most gifted player in the world’s most popular sport, a ticket on the Messi bandwagon will come with a hefty price tag. But a deal will also offer a level of exposure matched by a scarce few.

SportsPro Magazine | 5

COVER STORY | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

After extensive external consultation and internal discussion, SportsPro has settled for the fifth time on its annual list of the world’s 50 most marketable athletes. There are plenty of new faces and, as ever, a vast array of talking points.

N

obody sensible ever wrote a list and expected others to agree with it. Five editions of the SportsPro 50 Most Marketable Athletes rankings have confirmed that much, if nothing else. It is a quixotic task, however carefully it is approached. There are always those baffled by inclusions and infuriated by omissions.

But, hopefully, what begins every year as a blank sheet of paper at least ends up as something worth talking about.

There is a fresh yet familiar look this time around. A remarkable 27 of the athletes listed are new entries but only one of them makes the top ten, which includes seven of those at the head of the rankings last year. Of the 22 who return from 2013 – there is a single re-entry – 14 go down, seven go up and one goes

The criteria Athletes from across the world have been ranked according to their marketing potential over a three-year period from this summer.

■■ Value for money ■■ Age ■■ Home market ■■ Charisma ■■ Willingness to be marketed ■■ Crossover appeal nowhere. There are 13 women, one fewer than last year, and 37 men.

On the basis that any brand signing an athlete to an endorsement deal now would have no time to plan activity around it, the

Fifa World Cup has not been factored into our thinking. With that out of the picture, and the Rio Games looming into view, the list sees some notable changes. Ten of last year’s 50 were soccer players of one stripe or another; this year, that drops to six.

Meanwhile, athletes expected to make a major impression on events in Brazil in 2016 are beginning to filter more rapidly through the rankings. The candidates are not always obvious. Volleyball is the second biggest sport in Brazil, after that one, and Fabiana Claudino, the stalwart captain of the women’s national team, is included this time as she and her team await a golden challenge. Sonny Bill Williams, the hulking cross-code hero of New Zealand rugby, breaks through on the basis of a possible appearance in the inaugural Olympic sevens tournament. Only one rugby player

The new breed: Jordan Spieth, Eugenie Bouchard, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Stephen Curry all make the list for the first time this year

6 | www.sportspromedia.com

has previously made the list but with a Rugby World Cup in England in 2015 as well, the prospects have rarely been better for individual talents to shine in one of the ultimate team endeavours.

Putting the list together is an exercise in assessment and projection, balancing objective reasoning with subjective intuition, and it is one that can throw up some truly unexpected names. At least one this year, admittedly, is an almighty punt.

IAAF world youth champion Youxue Moe’s personal best in the 100 metres wouldn’t yet get him in many national finals as a senior but at 18 he is on the cusp of a decisive period in his development.

Certainly, anything close to a world class showing on home soil at next year’s World Athletics Championships in Beijing – taking him past national record holder Zhang Peimeng on the way – could give China its first major track star since Liu Xiang. There are probably no cold-edged sponsorship metrics by which Youxue Moe would currently better compatriots like Li Na and Sun Yang, but his high potential has proved irresistible.

18-year-old soccer player Julian Green is another who owes his place in the list to what might be, though in this instance there is a little less need for speculation. The German prospect turned US international could make a real impression for the country of his birth at this summer’s World Cup, despite enjoying limited opportunities so far at Bayern Munich. The livewire winger has already excited the US national team’s German coach Jurgen Klinsmann.

If he can have the same effect on the rest of the country, he just might be the first true American soccer superstar – and in an era where the world’s sport has finally been embraced in its biggest market.

Youxue Moe was born in 1996, the same year the oldest entry in the list – a re-entry at that – won his first Olympic medal. Sir Ben Ainslie is probably the best-known competitive sailor in the world and his exploits in Team Oracle USA’s improbable defence of the America’s Cup last September have only built anticipation for his own quest for the Auld Mug. There are often new prospects for an athlete beginning a new phase of his or her career.

Enter Kevin Pietersen. The sudden end of this relentlessly divisive batsman’s England career left many arguments unsettled, but it has opened the world up to one of the most explosive cricketers of the past decade. In sponsorship terms, a domestic figure has become a global one. Unfettered by the demands of the international game and the contractual restraints of his previous employers, the 33-year-old will have complete control of his destiny and identity. He is already pursuing playing opportunities in the lavish Twenty20 arenas of England and the Caribbean – and, of course, the Indian Premier League (IPL) – and wherever he goes, fans will watch.

Cricket is a team sport that gives individuals a platform to excel, and it will be interesting to see if the growing reach of events like the IPL and Australia’s Big Bash will see more cricketers join Pietersen and India’s Virat Kohli on future editions of the list. This year it is one of 22 sports represented – a small but significant rise from 2013.

The increased professionalisation of

The old guard: Roger Federer, LeBron James, Sachin Tendulkar and Serena Williams have all been high-profile absentees due to the list’s specific criteria

SportsPro Magazine | 7

COVER STORY | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

The world’s most marketed athletes

T

he first question asked of the SportsPro 50 Most Marketable Athletes list every year is invariably the same one: “How can you possibly have left out that improbably famous and successful athlete?” Or words – sometimes stronger words – to that effect.

The answer is often the same one, too.

The purpose of the exercise is to judge an athlete’s potential for a new sponsor over a period of three years – this time from after this year’s Fifa World Cup until after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games – taking into account age, home market size and appeal, charisma, willingness to participate and crossover potential.

Critically, value for money is also a major consideration.

The result is that megastars like Serena Williams and Roger Federer, whose current partners are no doubt delighted by their extensive media reach, are excluded on the basis that they would be beyond the budget of most brands. The likes of the recently retired David Beckham and Sachin Tendulkar have never made the list for similar reasons. Age and career trajectory also play their part at the top end: Rafael Nadal and Shaun White remain among the very best at what they

do but their capacity to surprise and the limits of what is left for them to achieve do not match their asking price.

There is as always a generational shift, with US skiing’s new golden girl Mikaela Shiffrin replacing Lindsey Vonn, and Nascar’s Austin Dillon coming in as Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr drop out. Others remain marketable but miss out as the conversation moves on – as in the case of now-established rally driver Robert Kubica or Manchester City captain Vincent Kompany – or injuries and poor form temporarily intervene.

Some big-name athletes are not considered for other reasons. For example, Mexico’s strawberry-golden boy Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez finds his way on to the list for second time. Floyd Mayweather Jr, the recent SportsPro cover star who so brilliantly dismantled his young pretender’s unbeaten record last September, does not. The difference is that the former is seen as someone who can sell brands, but the latter prefers to sell his own – Mayweather has never signed a major endorsement deal.

There is a distinction to be made, then, between those athletes with mass appeal and those suitable for the most marketable list. With that in mind,

SportsPro has surveyed the landscape and put together a list of 20 of the world’s most marketed athletes.

some so-called minor sports and the growth of others beyond their traditional limits is creating new opportunities as well. Biathlon has a substantial following in several key European markets but as the International Biathlon Union (IBU) smartens up its media offering it will provide new outlets for the peerless Frenchman Martin Fourcade, whose star quality and sporting pedigree would work well in other settings.

Ronda Rousey has already served notice of her mainstream appeal in the US. Still, the outstanding female mixed martial artist might not have made the cut but for the rigorously controlled expansion of the Ultimate Fighting Championship, and all of its attendant lifestyle appendages, beyond its strongholds in the Americas.

Time plays its part, too, in the makeup of the list, with some stars moving past their prime and others attaining that established but expensive quality that has

kept Federer, Tendulkar and Beckham from these pages in years passed. LeBron James joins their number in 2014, while the careers of Nascar drivers Danica Patrick and Dale Earnhardt Jr have perhaps rounded their banked curves into the closing straight – at least in terms of media interest. This, though, clears space for a new class: Katarina JohnsonThompson, Austin Dillon, Stephen Curry, Mikaela Shiffrin, Jordan Spieth, Eugenie Bouchard and Grigor Dimitrov are just some of the richly gifted young things who will change the face of the sporting world in the near future.

Still, there will always be room for the familiar and six athletes on the list are ever-presents – all of them major players in sports with an international pedigree.

The reality, ultimately, is that the list is only the beginning of the conversation.

It was notable in 2013 that one of the

athletes whose inclusion drew the most approving comment was Australia’s dual soccer and cricket international Ellyse Perry – an unfortunate omission this time with a number of major events behind her in the past 12 months. This year, more than ever, an attempt has been made to recognise the appetite for different kinds of sporting heroes and heroines, and for stories that linger beyond the pitch. Mami Sato and Brittney Griner are among those listed on this basis.

Moreover, the presentation of the list this year has changed to not just reflect the individual cases for those included but to look deeper at some of the themes that define the public’s relationship with these athletes – and the commercial implications that result.

50 names, 50 stories; perhaps no grounds for consensus. But then debate was always more fun anyway. EC

8 | www.sportspromedia.com

The Most Marketed 2014 Cristiano Ronaldo Lionel Messi Wayne Rooney Neymar Tom Brady Peyton Manning Roger Federer Rafael Nadal Serena Williams Maria Sharapova Li Na LeBron James Kobe Bryant Rory McIlroy Tiger Woods Lewis Hamilton Fernando Alonso Danica Patrick Valentino Rossi MS Dhoni

The scores are in While SportsPro’s annual list looks ahead and attempts to forecast the next three years of an athlete’s career, Repucom’s DBI Index provides a here and now assessment of marketability and awareness.

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he Celebrity Davie-Brown Index (DBI) measures consumer perception of more than 5,600 celebrities in 15 markets around the world. This year, for the first time, Repucom, the sports research giant which operates DBI internationally, has produced a score for a selection of the athletes on SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes list.

Compiled through consumer surveys, DBI is considered the industry standard for celebrity evaluation, capturing public perception on not only athletes, but

also actors, musicians, models and other personalities. Launched by The Marketing Arm in the US in 2006, it is now a genuinely global product which Repucom sells to talent agents, rights holders and brands.

“The surveys run approximately every month, capturing data from a nationally representative sample of 500/ market,” explains Charlie Dundas, the London-based head of strategic product innovation of Repucom’s UK and Ireland division. “We use independent panel providers specific to each local market to conduct the research.”

DBI scores are currently compiled in the USA, the UK, Australia, Japan France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Argentina, Brazil, China, India, Mexico, Russia and Turkey.

There is also a global list for particularly high-profile stars, creating the opportunity for cross-market comparisons.

“Awareness is the chief criteria in determining the DBI score,” says Dundas, “but we track seven additional attributes to create a comprehensive view of a celebrity: appeal, breakthrough, trendsetter, influence, trust, endorsement and aspiration. People answer a list of

Selected 50 Most Marketable Athlete DBI Scores - 2014

Global Name

DBI Score

Awareness

Lewis Hamilton (global without US)

67.20

69.42%

Sebastian Vettel

59.41

54.40%

Novak Djokovic

57.99

51.54%

Andy Murray

56.70

50.62%

Caroline Wozniacki

56.19

45.11%

Victoria Azarenka

48.10

35.85%

Adam Scott

42.73

27.68%

Rory McIlroy (global without US)

41.97

27.94%

Name

DBI Score

Awareness

Virat Kohli

80.72

82.83%

Name

DBI Score

Awareness

Kevin Pietersen

60.42

59.47%

Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain

49.95

39.59%

Lewis Hamilton enjoys strong DBI and awareness ratings around the world

India

United Kingdom

Virat Kohli is incredibly well recognised and liked in India

SportsPro Magazine | 9

COVER STORY | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

USA Name

DBI Score

Awareness

Robert Griffin III

57.37

51.41%

Blake Griffin

53.87

44.62%

Rory McIlroy

49.07

38.82%

Carmelo Anthony

47.71

40.43%

James Harden

46.97

34.82%

Missy Franklin

45.45

26.87%

Johnny Manziel

44.97

34.89%

Anthony Davis

44.95

32.59%

Alex Morgan

44.02

21.69%

Mike Trout

43.60

26.30%

Stephen Curry

43.26

23.71%

Mikaela Shiffrin

42.71

23.20%

Jordan Spieth

41.39

21.48%

Lionel Messi

40.71

20.10%

Brittney Griner

36.40

20.59%

Sloane Stephens

36.39

14.66%

Ronda Rousey

35.19

9.81%

Lewis Hamilton

33.36

11.03%

Austin Dillon

33.18

10.32%

Steven Stamkos

32.83

10.51%

Taylor Phinney

26.68

5.09%

questions on a scoring basis [of one to 10] – obviously if people aren’t aware of the person in question, that’s it, they’re out and the survey ends.” Dundas points to Tour de France winner Chris Froome as an example of a celebrity who is often not recognised at all, but who scores highly amongst those who are aware of him.

Dundas estimates the ratio between sportspeople and other celebrities in most markets is about 60:40 – and events like the Oscars, Brit Awards, and popular, of the moment, television shows such as The X Factor are prompts in certain markets.

“The primary criteria for being surveyed is our own rationale,” Dundas says. “So, broadly speaking, we consider relevant activity around us and react accordingly.

It could be an imminent event, like the World Cup, or an advertising campaign that’s pertinent to a market. We are also able to react and respond to our clients. “Quite often people will say, ‘I’m interested, but I’d really like to know what it looks like for x, y or z.’ It’s very 10 | www.sportspromedia.com

malleable; it’s very easy to add people on. Once people have been tested once, they remain on the panel and they will be tested again periodically on about an annual basis. But if there is a compelling reason to change that or bring it forward then of course we’ll do that and that’s just driven by what our clients need.”

Dundas believes the broad nature of the index adds to its value. “The greater the diversity of talent we have on the list the better, because you can provide a much more robust comparison,” he points out. “For a brand that generically says, ‘I don’t have a sponsorship in sport, but I want a brand ambassador and I’m targeting 16 to 24-year-old women, who do I go after?’, then we can compare Jess Ennis against [British TV presenter] Holly Willoughby against Lady Gaga, for instance. You can see the difference in what those people do.”

The information has multiple uses across the sponsorship spectrum. As Dundas puts it, DBI “holds nuggets of

Robert Griffin III enjoys the best ratings of any American on the list

information that could help position the talent you’re trying to represent as being more engaging, more appealing, better as an endorser than the competition, whether that competition is other sportsmen from within the same genre, other sportsmen in general or maybe other celebrities in general.” For brands and rights holders – particularly those which hold image rights to their athletes – the index can help “either back up decisions they have made or make decisions they are looking to make, or organise their thinking around their current portfolio.”

Further expansion beyond the recent addition of Australia and Japan is not currently on Repucom’s agenda, although there remains a notable gap in Africa. The flexibility of the index, however, means that bespoke pieces of research can be carried out by Repucom should a client request it. SportsPro has procured the scores for a variety of athletes, across a variety of markets, on this year’s 50 most marketable list. DC

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COVER STORY | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Sloane Stephens

American, 21, Tennis (9)

An impressive breakthrough season, in which she reached the fourth round or better at all four Grand Slams and made the Australian Open semi-finals and Wimbledon quarter-finals, saw Sloane Stephens emerge as a genuine force at the top of women’s tennis in 2013.

Victories over Serena Williams and Maria Sharapova were the standout scalps in an emergent year for the young Floridian, but the jury nevertheless remains out on how far she can go on the court. Her critics point to the fact that she has yet to

win a singles title, or even make a final, and there are those who are beginning to question her desire, especially in light of her 6-1, 6-0 demolition at the hands of Caroline Wozniacki in Miami in March.

Yet, at 21, Stephens has plenty of time to learn how to handle the criticism, not to mention the added pressure that comes with being prematurely anointed as ‘it’ without having anything tangible to back it up. She remains, without question, one of the WTA Tour’s bright young things and the best female hope for US tennis

since the Williams sisters. And while she may not yet be a bankable star on the court, her marketing potential is plain for all to see. Should she manage to turn her evident talent into consistent performances and tournament titles, it won’t be long before more brands are lining up to join Under Armour, Head, American Express, Listerine and Usana Health Sciences in her endorsement portfolio. ML

Blake Griffin

American, 25, Basketball (10)

Already a central cog in the LA Clippers’ revamped machine, Blake Griffin has raised his game to new heights this season, adding defensive awareness and all-round intelligence to his long-admired repertoire of ridiculous dunks. Now a four-time NBA All-Star, the 25-year-old is a legitimate MVP candidate, one of the league’s most prolific column-inch fillers, and an instantly recognisable face even for non-basketball fans. Whether dunking on the court or starring in his latest Kia commercial, Griffin is consummate in front of the

camera and if athletes are fast becoming their own mini-media outlets, he does not want for content or consumers. With over 2.3 million Twitter followers, upwards of three million fans on Facebook, and a YouTube channel that boasts more than 28 million views, the power forward’s personal network is already a goldmine for sponsors.

Lucrative deals with the likes of Nike’s Jordan Brand, Vizio and Subway are said to earn the Excel Sports Management client around US$6 million a year in endorsement income. ML

California at Berkeley, where Franklin chose to remain as an amateur, competing in NCAA college competition, while her international superstardom blossomed.

Had she opted to turn professional post-London, she could have made some US$2.5 million in endorsements by this point. Instead she will do so next year when she graduates and will become eligible for personal sponsorship as her preparation for Rio steps up a notch. It goes without saying that as blank canvasses go, they don’t come much bigger than ‘Missy the Missile’.

Unlike in London, Franklin will go into the

next Games as one of the faces, if not the face, of the USA’s pre-Olympic build-up, a probability made even likelier given US Olympic broadcaster NBC also has a batch of swimming rights. Given the career span of elite swimmers, Rio is likely to be Franklin’s crowning moment. JE

Missy Franklin

American, 18, Swimming (20)

America’s breakout star of London 2012, Melissa Jeanette Franklin is a multiple ‘swimmer of the year’, a double world record holder, and will go to Rio in 2016 defending four Olympic titles. The past 12 months have been relatively quiet ones: a mere six gold medals at the world championships in Barcelona – the first time a woman has achieved such a haul in a single competition – confirmed her dominance in the pool in 2013, while she won Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year in late March of 2014. Another year of study ticked past at the University of 12 | www.sportspromedia.com

Neymar

Brazilian, 22, Soccer (1)

The saga surrounding his high-profile transfer may have ultimately proved an embarrassing affair for all involved, not least his destination club Barcelona, but Neymar’s big-money move to the Catalan giants was confirmation of his long-acknowledged talent. Since then, things have not gone entirely Neymar’s way, with a string of mixed performances having provided further fodder for the naysayers. Of those there are inevitably many, but then soccer can be a fickle world. Prior to arriving in Europe last summer Neymar won plaudits for capably shouldering national expectation

by guiding his native Brazil to a home Fifa Confederations Cup, dazzling adoring fans and landing the tournament’s Golden Ball award for the best player in the process.

Away from the pitch, few athletes can rival Neymar’s relevance as Brazil takes the sporting spotlight. Marketers have long scrambled for his signature but where once the commercial game plan behind ‘Brand Neymar’ seemed to entail signing each and every contract that came his way, a pan-global backroom team is now overseeing matters with an evidently more strategic focus. MediaCom Sport has been

brought on board to assist Doyen Global and Neymar’s family-run management company in marketing a man its press release calls ‘one of the most recognised personalities in the world’s most-followed sport’ globally over the next three years, and the endorsements just keep on coming.

WeChat, Police and Castrol are the newest additions to the star’s burgeoning personal portfolio, while more European partners will surely be sought as Neymar attempts to silence his critics by cracking the continent on the pitch after this summer’s Fifa World Cup. ML

Usain Bolt

Jamaican, 27, Athletics (5)

Since his spectacular emergence on the world scene at Beijing 2008, Usain Bolt’s star has burned so bright that looking elsewhere in athletics brings on blind spots. Such have been his unprecedented achievements, his unique character and compelling personality, that something of a vacuum has opened up in the 6ft 5in Jamaican’s considerable wake. Bolt is one of a handful of globally renowned, universally respected pitchmen who can break through. There simply isn’t anyone anything like him, within his sport or without. Of course, at this stage of the 27-year-old’s career,

he is absolutely a known quantity. Rio 2016 is set to be his Olympic swansong.

His place in the sporting pantheon is already guaranteed but another 100m/200m double is an historic target to aim for in Brazil, and the possibility of having a crack at the 400m remains.

Sandwiched either side of the Games are world championships in Beijing and London, chances to revisit venues that served as backdrops to an incredible rise. Beyond that, Bolt’s is likely to be the face of athletics long after he chooses to hang up his spangled Puma spikes for the last time. JE SportsPro Magazine | 13

COVER STORY | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Grigor Dimitrov Bulgarian, 23, Tennis (New)

Young, talented and good looking – and in a globally popular sport looking for a new star to shine long-term – Grigor Dimitrov boasts all the ingredients to become a brand marketer’s dream. Right now he sits on the cusp of a top-ten ranking but before long he could well be much higher, with many having long singled him out as one to regularly rival the very best in men’s tennis in future.

Though that remains to be seen – ATP titles in Acapulco and Bucharest this year were only his second and third to date – it is clear that Dimitrov is already a class act and has the likeability factor to match. A recent altruistic turn in which he assisted a heat-stricken ball girl in Miami won him favour among fans and a healthy dose of good PR, while his always watchable, often graceful playing style has

elicited comparisons with Roger Federer – whose new boutique Team8 agency snared Dimitrov as one of its first clients.

Nobody is genuinely expecting Dimitrov to emulate the great Swiss’ achievements on the court but should he become a regular contender for major honours, there will be no shortage of companies looking to join the likes of Nike and Wilson in backing him. ML

Cristiano Ronaldo Portuguese, 29, Soccer (8)

Along with his diminutive Argentinean counterpart, without whom any Ronaldo profile would be incomplete, Real Madrid’s slick-haired number seven is, and has long-been, both marketed and marketable. With well over 25 million followers on Twitter, a supermodel girlfriend, an everexpanding personal brand – which now boasts a museum and e-magazine along with the customary merchandise line – and a wallet-popping roster of sponsorship deals, ‘CR7’ is also the embodiment of sporting celebrity. He has been an ever-present on this list, despite varying fortunes in the race for league and European titles and the coveted Fifa Ballon d’Or crown. The Portuguese scored a staggering 69 goals in 2013, which was certainly his year 14 | www.sportspromedia.com

– capped when he claimed the world player of the year award for the second time, usurping Lionel Messi. There is, however, a new side to the talismanic forward this time around. It would appear the days of winking on-field theatrics have been replaced with a mature, steely professionalism as the exManchester United winger reaches the eye-watering crescendo of his career.

After the Fifa World Cup in Brazil – for which Nike has trumpeted Ronaldo’s new-found leadership qualities in a star-studded TV campaign – the fatherof-one is likely to have but a handful of major tournaments left. That could well spark a flurry of activity for new sponsors to join the likes of Herbalife, Emirates, and Banco Espirito Santo on the Ronaldo bandwagon. IM

Robert Griffin III American, 24, Football (4) From superstar rookie to Redskins benchwarmer, Robert Griffin III’s first two years in the NFL could hardly have been more contrasting. Since being thrust – or, perhaps more accurately, propelling himself – into the US sporting limelight as the number two NFL Draft pick in 2012, the Heisman Trophy winner endured a tortuous time with injury and form in 2013, while his Redskins finished with a dismal 3-13 record.

However, the new season will bring new promise for ‘RGIII’ and co, particularly given the replacement of former coach Mike Shanahan. And that promise will inevitably extend into the 24-year-old quarterback’s commercial armoury, which

already includes deals with Subway, EvoShield and, as of April, a new Adidasdesigned personal logo. Although some might argue for the on-field credentials of the likes of Andrew Luck, none can match Griffin’s off-field clout. A longtime Facebook and Twitter devotee, he has also absorbed Instagram into his daily routine, and will undoubtedly continue to use the platforms to stoke conversation.

For instance, an intriguing Twitter exchange with Nascar’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr, saw RGIII drive the pace car in a Sprint Cup race this spring – and that should come as no surprise in a fledgling career which has so far been anything but conventional. IM

Twenty20 showed, he is already the man to whom an expectant nation turns its eyes ahead of a Cricket World Cup defence in Australia and New Zealand next year. The great Tendulkar has taken his final bow and the India captain, MS Dhoni, finds his beard greying and his reputation withering slightly as the sport inspects its tainted soul. Kohli stands apart from them both, forged in a different era for cricket and his country. He can speak to younger, more confident Indians and their diasporic kin.

It is how he is able to front campaigns for everything from Nestlé chocolate to Clear shampoo to Adidas, with whom he signed a record endorsement deal in September. He may never become a truly global superstar. Cricket is slowly creeping out beyond its traditional borders – even with its own authorities on patrol – but is in the mainstream in only a handful of countries. But no sport, anywhere, holds as big a market as India in such thrall, and few sportspeople blend excellence with mass appeal like Kohli. EC

Virat Kohli

Indian, 25, Cricket (13)

From the irreplaceable to the irrepressible: Virat Kohli has not so much stepped into a void as created a space all of his own. Here is the complete 21st century cricketer – his game classical but with contemporary bite, his mentality tuned to sporting distinction and the needs of a shape-shifting media. Over the past year the 25-year-old has confirmed his potential to become one of the world’s very best batsmen. He may be in a class of one before too long. As his exploits for India in the ICC World

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COVER STORY | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Lewis Hamilton British, 29, Motorsport (7) Not for the first time this year, Lewis Hamilton finds himself leading a dramatically reordered field. The industry will go into kaleidoscopic flux after the Fifa World Cup in Brazil this summer and as the pieces float dreamily down, it is hard to judge where they will fall. But there are always global stars in global sports.

Whatever the ethics and the methods by which it gets there, Formula One will reach a host of new markets in the next few years: Russia, maybe Mexico, perhaps even Azerbaijan. It will remain in all of the territories where it has established its glamorous reputation; still relevant, despite 16 | www.sportspromedia.com

the machinations of its chief executive and a high-pitched whine over the sound of its new engines. And about those engines: Hamilton took the gamble of his life two years ago when he left McLaren, the team that had reared him from kart-racing adolescence, to join the still-lumbering project at German giant Mercedes. The rewards could now prove substantial.

The Brackley-based team appear to have adapted far more comfortably than their rivals to the sweeping changes to Formula One’s technical regulations. He will have to see off team-mate Nico Rosberg, but the new number 44 has his best chance

at a world title since winning his first seven years ago. It seems remarkable that the Englishman, at 29, has waited this long to realise that ambition but it is in Formula One’s interests that he does.

There is no more exhilarating sight in the sport than Hamilton in a fast car. For sponsors, the package is already in place – the maturing star, the celebrity girlfriend, the seven-figure social media following and the expert management of XIX Entertainment. After a decade endorsing brands this resurgent champion is worth another look. He might just be the best bet in all of sport. EC

FEATURE | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

True identity The athletes who endorse products most effectively are often those whose public image is drawn from some part of their personal identity. Brittney Griner, the 6’8, openly gay centre for the Phoenix Mercury, is determined to go her own way.

By Eoin Connolly

T

wo years ago, heptathlete Jessica Ennis-Hill was the face of London’s Olympics. It was a role to which she rose with aplomb, fulfilling an unyielding sequence of media demands and producing the performance of her career to crown a glorious British summer.

None of which is to say she got through the experience without breaking stride.

“There was a massive poster of me down my road, right outside the chip shop,” she said, speaking to the Daily Telegraph in the build-up to her golden moment. “I was about to go in, but then I saw it and changed my mind. Me coming out with a bag of chips, while I’m up there doing crunches on the poster… well, it would not look good.”

It is an offhand moment of candour but one that says much about her appeal.

The Jessica Ennis – as she was then known – that the home nation’s public fell for was not just the impeccably prepared elite athlete, but also the Sheffield lass denying herself the simple pleasures of a takeaway. It can only be guessed how palatable one facet would have been without knowledge of the other.

The athlete endorsement is a decadesold institution – Babe Ruth and Donald Bradman were prolific spokesmen in the pre-war era while Denis Compton became ‘the original Brylcreem boy’ soon afterwards. The use of commercial deals to finesse a public persona is not new, either. George Foreman’s metamorphosis from the brooding young menace of the 1970s to middle-aged charmer in the 1990s was seen through the prism of dozens of shrewdly judged partnerships.

There is a flipside, though. When Tiger Woods endured a juddering lurch 18 | www.sportspromedia.com

in popularity after revelations about his private life in 2009, it had much to do with how his reputation was controlled. His corporate image was just that, an opaque screen obscuring the real man in a manner that came to seem purely self-serving, and rehabilitation was slow in coming.

Simon Oliveira has spent several years working closely with one of the most followed personalities in modern sporting history, David Beckham, largely as head of global PR for Simon Fuller’s XIX Entertainment. Last year he cofounded Doyen Global, an agency which now also looks after the global interests of Brazilian soccer star Neymar. For Oliveira, authenticity and personal input are critical in making an athlete’s public image hold together.

“It’s absolutely critical, to be honest,” he says. “I don’t think you can do it without them buying into it. All growing brands, whatever field you’re in, have authenticity; are true to the individual. The ones that aren’t successful or have a dip probably begin to lose sight of the individual that they work with. So the core DNA of any brand has to absolutely reflect the individual’s personality, his or her passions, their career and characteristics.”

Still, with most endorsement campaigns bearing an aspirational core, the talents and achievements of any sportsperson are fundamental to their appeal.

“What makes the brand compelling in the first place is the athlete’s work on the field, on the track, on the table, whatever it may be in relation to the sport they’re in,” says Oliveira. “That’s absolutely crucial. And then you build layers on top of that which add depth and variety.”

A new entry at 36 on SportsPro’s list of the world’s most marketable athletes,

Brittney Griner is first and foremost an outstanding basketball player. She is one of the most successful players in the history of women’s college basketball, winning the Naismith Award twice and leading the Baylor Bears to a record 40 victories in an undefeated championship season in 2012.

Last year she was selected by the Phoenix Mercury as the first overall pick in the WNBA Draft, and proceeded to become the first player in the league to dunk twice in one game on her professional debut.

Yet as impressive as all of that may be, it is only part of what makes this striking, likeable Texan so compelling. Griner stands 6’8 with a slender, androgynous physique.

She is an atypical emblem of femininity – but a powerful one.

“Everything about Brittney is real and we’re of the mind that that’s the only thing worth selling,” says Lindsay Kagawa Colas, Griner’s agent and the vice president of Olympics and action sports at Wasserman Media Group. “It’s all about authenticity, which is why we have purposely led with advocacy. Brittney is an incredible athlete, but her value and contribution goes far beyond basketball.

It’s social impact – she changes the way people think about the world.”

Griner signed with Wasserman in April 2013, just ahead of the draft. Later that month Colas – who helped Maya Moore become the first woman to endorse the Jordan brand in 2011 – secured a multiyear deal for her new client with Nike.

Griner had recently come out publicly as a lesbian, casually slipping the information into an interview with Sports Illustrated. She had become the first openly gay athlete on Nike’s books.

Less was made of Griner’s low-key announcement than might have been

expected, as it was swept up in excitement over her apparel deal, her headlinemaking debut, and speculation from Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban that she could be worth a trial in the NBA. However, it soon emerged just how much of a statement it was.

Baylor is a Baptist university; it takes a conservative, if not outright prohibitive stance when it comes to matters of sexuality. Griner happily disclosed the fact that she was a lesbian before joining the school but was told not to make her personal life public during her time there. That hypocrisy created a

suffocating atmosphere for an individual for whom, as Colas says, “there is very little about her that isn’t public and she’s comfortable with that”.

These and other matters came to light again in April with the release of Griner’s memoir, In My Skin: My Life On and Off the Basketball Court, which she wrote with former ESPN executive editor Sue Hovey. Published by Harper Collins, the book presented a chance which Griner “immediately jumped on”.

“After having to censor herself for so long, she was eager to tell her story and most importantly, connect with people

who might be struggling with similar things,” reveals Colas. “As a result, the resulting PR around the book – and the context it gave a lot of the stories people have heard – became a natural extension of the conversations she’s been having.”

Those conversations have taken place across all of the expected settings: the sports pages, chat shows, and those most immediate forums of modern communication, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

“If you’re an up-and-coming athlete or somebody younger then the idea of social media is prevalent and a big part of

“Everything about Brittney is real and we’re of the mind that that’s the only thing worth selling.”

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Griner, wearing a custom-made men’s suit, shows off her NCAA championship ring and 2012 ESPY

your life anyway,” notes Oliveira, “so it’s something that you enjoy doing. But clearly, there’s no doubt it has strengths but it also has a number of pitfalls along the way.”

Oliveira is referring chiefly to the possibility of an athlete slipping up online, proffering a poor choice of words to media outlets eager for an easy story. For Griner, there is a different aspect to beware. In a profile for ESPN The Magazine in May 2013, Kate Fagan noted an incident where Griner picked up her smartphone to peruse her social media accounts, encountering a brief volley of online abuse.

“Here’s one,” she says, rolling her eyes. “‘You have a penis.’” Satisfied that her troll chorus still cares, Griner puts away the phone.

“Reading what people say makes me want to be me even more.”

It may seem counter-intuitive but the 20 | www.sportspromedia.com

last thing Griner will do, clearly, is ignore the insults that come her way.

“We embrace it,” reveals Colas, “and that’s shaped in large part by Brittney’s own attitude about it. Giving people a forum to express their ignorance is important because it simultaneously proves how much work still needs to be done and celebrates Brittney and the legions of fans who jump to her defence.

Brittney is not hiding from anybody and in being so open, she encourages others to do the same. It’s inspiring.”

It is a fearless outlook, perhaps born of a reinforced sense of self. The release of her book has given Griner the space to talk expansively and honestly about adolescent episodes of severe bullying and the difficulties she has had in finding acceptance – until, that is, she sought it of herself. By her own admission, it has

not always been easy to rise above the taunts but her experiences, which include estrangement from and reconciliation with her father, have been an object lesson in the power of perseverance.

With all of this behind her, Griner has taken it upon herself to become a figurehead for youngsters struggling with their identity. “She is who she is, but embraces the opportunity to lead,” says Colas. “She genuinely wants to inspire others and have an impact.”

Griner is a spokesperson for the It Gets Better Project, a campaign where prominent and successful LGBT adults give support to young people suffering from bullying and harassment – telling them, as the name suggests, that it does indeed get better, while working to improve social conditions. In 2013, she also wrote an open letter of congratulation in the New York Times to Jason Collins, the first active NBA player to come out.

“What’s interesting about Brittney is that her appeal comes both for the way she challenges a lot of traditional assumptions, but also because of the way so many people can identify with what she’s overcome,” suggests Colas. “For a brand that understands the power in that, there is a lot to work with – so that’s the opportunity. The challenge is finding brands who want to rise to that occasion.”

Colas is in no doubt of her client’s commercial potential, and says that the team behind Griner “are seeking partners who embrace her as a trailblazer”. It may be that the athlete needs to find her own way.

This, after all, is a jockish skateboard enthusiast with a taste for fast food and a colourful floral tattoo, tended by a hummingbird, tumbling down her left shoulder. Through her advocacy and other community activities it may be that in some circles, Griner’s identity is boiled down to her sexuality. That is not something that concerns Colas.

“Even five years ago, it may have been a risk – today, and looking forward, we see it as an opportunity,” she argues.

“Companies are identifying the LGBTQ community as a demographic they’re interested in reaching and more and more people are making values-based purchasing decisions. The world is changing and diversity and inclusion matter. In a world like that, Brittney and

everything she stands for, including being a ‘gay athlete’, is bankable.”

So far, and perhaps unsurprisingly, Griner has had little difficulty in setting herself apart from other athletes. Under her deal with Nike, she drapes her lengthy frame in men’s sportswear lines. It is an arrangement which is to her taste, and could help her find her niche elsewhere.

“Nike is smart,” says Colas. “It’s not like we had to talk them out of using her to model leggings and crop tops.

Brittney only wears men’s clothing – and custom-made – so it was an organic decision on everyone’s part to embrace that. As for fashion generally, yes – it plays a critical role for Brittney. One of our very first conversations were about which celebrities she admires – and she immediately went to [comedian and talk show host] Ellen [De Generes], not just because she is out and wildly successful, but for her fashion sense. Brittney loved her tomboy sensibility and when we connected her with Ellen’s stylist, Kellen [Richards], she was in heaven. They’ve been working together ever since.

“The fashion world is full of potential for BG – a community that embraces androgyny and where tomboy style has been thriving for years. Women like Casey Legler – who was an Olympiclevel athlete – are modelling menswear in high fashion and you see the tomboy aesthetic appearing more and more in popular culture. Ultimately, we’d love to help her work more in that high-fashion space, but like everything else it will be driven by her own authentic engagement and the enthusiasm of some forwardleaning brands.

“She also probably needs some work on her runway walk.”

Griner has also been seeking other horizons in a different respect. The WNBA lacks the global footprint of other American leagues but a figure as distinctive as Griner will no doubt find commercial openings elsewhere. Griner has spent the WNBA post-season in China, playing for Women’s Chinese Basketball Association (WCBA) team Zhejiang Golden Bulls. Standards are lower than in the US or Europe – the league was only founded in 2002 – but there are growing numbers of highprofile foreign players there and Colas sees ample opportunities in prospect.

After a rookie year blighted by injuries, Griner will aim to make her mark on the WNBA in 2014

“Basketball is really an international game,” she says, “and in China, there are more people playing basketball than we have people in the US – and they absolutely love the NBA. Similar to how the women’s game has grown here, I predict that as the biggest WNBA stars continue to spend their off-seasons playing there, TV coverage of the WNBA and WCBA games in China will expand and the profile of players will follow suit. It’s a process. Look at the NBA of today – is much different than it was 15 years ago.”

Such adventures should be of immense benefit to Griner’s career, both professionally – skills coach Dean Demopolous joined her in Zheijiang – and personally. But for a forthright 23-year-old of her sexual orientation, there are always choices to be made when acting publicly in a different social climate.

“As with anything, our job is to advise her on her options and help her understand what rewards or consequences come with action,” says Colas, when asked whether she would advise Griner to speak

as freely about her personal life outside the US. “I would never tell a client to misrepresent who she is – but rules and rights change when you leave our borders.

It’s just a reality, but if she wants to go join Pussy Riot and is ready for the realities that come with it, I would support her.”

In any case, basketball is Griner’s overriding priority at this stage in her career. As Oliveira points out, the time of an athlete at the top of his or her game is “very precious”.

“It’s limited in terms of what they can do in their careers,” he adds. “As they near the end of their careers they certainly take a more active interests in the future direction of their work and what they will be doing.”

In 2014, Griner will be looking to build on a solid but unspectacular first season with Phoenix. A series of niggling injuries took their toll throughout the last campaign but there were flashes of her remarkable talent as the Mercury returned to the play-offs. Proving she can lead a team to championship titles, as she did at Baylor, will be next on the agenda. Proving she can lead the WNBA to greater prominence will be another target. “We work in partnership with the WNBA and we believe that Brittney’s goals are inextricably linked with the league’s,” says Colas.

The Rio Olympics in 2016 should bring Griner’s skills to the attention of more people than ever before. If selected, she will be making her Games debut, having withdrawn from the selection process in 2012 due to a family illness. It would probably represent the biggest commercial opportunity of her young career.

However she capitalises on that, it is unlikely she will move too far away from her own identity. For Colas, that is more significant than anything else she might achieve.

“My hope for Brittney is that she’s happy and that we’re able to help her grow and build a fulfilling life,” she says.

“In terms of legacy, I believe Brittney’s honesty and efforts to combat bullying have already saved kids’ lives and I hope she’ll be remembered for that – but on a macro level, if we can help her influence brands to celebrate women like her as role models and embrace them as aspirational leaders, we’ll know that society is working better for everyone.”

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Careless whiskers NBA star James Harden is the hairiest man in this year’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes list. He is known as much for his beard as for his success on the court and, as those that market him are finding, it is a useful extension to his public persona.

By James Emmett

F

ilip Peraić is an artist based in Croatia making waves with a series of digital illustrations that depict the same profile silhouette in an imaginative variation of mediums. The profile belongs to James Harden, a 6’5 24-year-old who plies his trade as a shooting guard in the National Basketball Association (NBA) with the Houston Rockets.

Harden, a two-time NBA All-Star and a man on the rise in Houston, is an outstanding basketball player and few would bet against a hugely successful career ahead of him.

But as Peraić has picked up and exploited, Harden’s is one of the most distinctive profiles in sport. “I was looking for a human head interesting enough to draw again and again,” explains Peraić of his project, ‘James Harden Illustrated’. “I made the right choice because this head proved to be food for a designer’s thought.

Obviously, its uniqueness attracted me; his beard differs him greatly from other athletes visually and offers a lot of metaphors and visual possibilities.”

Some of the metaphors that Peraić read into Harden’s profile are depicted overleaf, and it’s not hard to extend the artist’s thoughts into the realms of the marketing world.

To beard or not to beard, that could well have been the question facing Harden as a college player in 2009. From a marketer’s perspective, it’s just as well he opted to let his “facial hair peach fuzz” grow through what he claims was sheer laziness. Five years later, Harden now goes by the nationwide nickname of ‘The Beard’.

That peach fuzz is now not just the muse of Croatian graphic artists: it has been the star of numerous commercials, and has

“The attributes that come along with beards today are a ‘cool factor’, a little bit of mystery, worldliness.” its own Twitter profile with some 17,000 followers. But James Harden’s beard is no vainglorious cry for attention from a man whose ego does not fit within his skin.

It is an unfussy growth, and one that is a perfect extension of the man’s oldschool, unpretentious style. It’s a look that Harden has honed, and one that has been foregrounded by two of his key endorsers, Nike and Foot Locker, for whom he has done a nice line in deadpan ads.

When an athlete sports a consistent aesthetic adornment, they can become known as much for a unique look as for their sporting skill or achievements. A beard offers another dimension to the public persona inhabited by an athlete.

Despite a recent study by Royal Society journal Biology Letters which suggested ‘peak beard’ had been reached and the popularity of facial growth was about to dip – the fashion for hirsute male faces is almost as old as the moon and waxes and wanes with the same inevitability – beards are still in a minority in major western sports leagues. Professional sport is an inherently conservative environment. Taken in that context, the athlete that wears a beard is an athlete signalling his willingness to be different, a quality that plays well in the world of sporting endorsements.

The sporting beard has become a powerful tool in the marketer’s arsenal.

A badge of honour, belonging, or collective effort – as evidenced by the

growing trend for the ‘play-off beard’ in US sport, and the legions of fans who wear stick-on Harden beards to Rockets games – or striking symbol of singularity.

A testosterone-sparked rug of visceral manliness, or a strokeable frame for philosophical thoughtfulness; laid-back or prissy, comfortably self-assured or insecure and hiding – the beard is all things to all men.

We live in an age of the beard, an age in which pre-eminent razor brand Gillette is more likely to use stubbly celebrities to endorse its products than those that more evidently use its products daily. But for marketers, there are still challenges associated with a bearded client. “The attributes that come along with beards today are a ‘cool factor’, a little bit of mystery, worldliness,” explains Jim Andrews, senior vice president at respected Chicago-based sponsorship consultancy IEG. “Those are the attributes brands would look to tap into, to project that worldly, hip image.

“At the same time,” he warns, “something that is very unique may limit the appeal to only certain categories. If you are a middle of the road type of person without a very strong personality, that in some cases can open up opportunities for you because you’re a safe choice. I think for certain sponsorship categories, a beard like that could be limiting. There are certain categories that are still a little bit older in their customer SportsPro Magazine | 23

FEATURE | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Croatian artist Filip Peraić was “looking for a human head interesting enough to draw again and again” when he started ‘James Harden Illustrated’

Stick-on beards in the James Harden style have found favour among the Houston Rockets faithful

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base. Things like financial services are looking to align themselves with conservative or traditional values. A beard could be detrimental there.”

At 24 years old, Harden can expect his beard to be profiled at the highest level for another decade. He would do well to replicate the off-field success of another famous beard from the other side of the Atlantic. At the 2003 IRB Rugby World Cup in Australia, Sébastien Chabal was a solid if unspectacular back-row forward in an underperforming French national team.

If not quite a pretty boy, his was a face not yet battered and misshapen by the physical erosion of elite-level rugby union. Four years later, at the next World Cup in his home nation, Chabal was transformed. His enormous beard and long, jet-black hair were immediately recognisable and imbued him with a wild-eyed ferocity the envy of the hard-man rugby player the world over.

He became an emblem not just of French rugby but of French sport, even French masculinity. Within two years he was the highest-paid player in world rugby and one of the highest-paid athletes in French sport. Still, he was never more than a middle-ranked player in top-level rugby.

Gérald Poncié, a consultant at sports representation agency Essentially France, spent some years marketing Chabal in the wake of his Neanderthal breakout in 2007. “Would he have been less successful without the beard? For sure,”

The Boston Red Sox slugger David Ortiz has his ‘play-off beard’ shaved off, courtesy of Gillette

Poncié says. “Everything started for him when he grew his beard and his hair.

The beard is something with a degree of ambivalence. It can mean different things.

I remember when I was living in England and I had a beard, there were people saying to me: ‘What are you hiding for?’ For Anglo-Saxons it’s completely different. In France it’s something that is reassuring. It’s an image of a father, a

man of experience, but also something quite wild and very masculine.

“If you look in football, there the Mohican is everywhere now,” Poncié continues. “But the beard is something really special. Sébastien likes his beard. It’s even wider now. There was some joking about a bet a while ago, but if he had come to me wanting to shave his beard, I would say, ‘No, no, no – don’t touch it!’”

Beards and their marketing signifiers

37

The ‘Beard’ A timeless classic. A full and unpretentious growth that radiates a nonchalant masculinity and a lingering sense of mystery.

The ‘Caveman’ A wild look made wilder by its partner – an unkempt, pirate-style haircut. Screams raw ruggedness. This is unreconstructed man in all his power and ferocity.

The ‘Fence-sitter’ Neither a beard, nor cleanshaven, the five-day stubble look is probably the most popular in sport. It emphasises cheekbones but scores few points for originality.

The ‘Spiritual’ Sport is a great leveller; it can provide a platform that encourages cross-cultural understanding and tolerance.

The long beard worn for religious reasons is rarely a marketing tool, but it conveys belief and principles.

The ‘Chin Strap’ A dainty little effort that hints at a mind obsessed with the details, or a point of practicality dictated by a job that requires a tight-fitting helmet? Ron Dennis famously enforced a facial hairfree zone at his McLaren team until he stepped away in 2009, which was roughly the time when Lewis Hamilton started experimenting with the trimmer.

The ‘Beardy Weirdy’ Similar to the ‘Beard’ in volume, but grown and kept with an acute sense of selfconsciousness. Designed to be so anti-fashionable it’s fashionable, this beard would be worn through thick and thin.

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Paying the bill Often adored at home and largely unknown abroad, rugby players face a unique set of challenges when it comes to attracting commercial attention. Only a cluster of players have reached anything close to global status, but that could all change in 2016.

By Ian McPherson

“

I

would say one of the tougher challenges, particularly with guys who are playing for the All Blacks or the Wallabies, is if they want to go overseas, that’s the end of their international career,” says Duncan Sandlant, the managing director of rugby management agency Esportif International’s European office. “That’s quite a big call to make. You give up playing for the Wallabies to go offshore, but financially going to Europe or Japan is going to be significantly different from staying in your home country.”

That was the dilemma facing Sonny Bill Williams in 2008 when the then rugby league star decided to turn his back on Australia’s National Rugby League (NRL) in favour of a lucrative move to France – and rugby union. He

spent just one year with Toulon in the Top 14 before returning to his native New Zealand in a bid to win a spot in the All Blacks’ 2011 Rugby World Cup squad. The return proved shrewd as ‘SBW’ lifted the Webb Ellis Cup that year. But it was not long before the Rugby World Cup-winner was looking for a lucrative overseas contract again, and it came in the form of a 15-game deal with Japan’s cash-rich Panasonic club in 2012. Albeit a little disorientating, contract-hopping of this sort to achieve top-level pay and international rugby is part and parcel of the elite game.

Esportif International, which was founded in 2011, represents a clutch of notable rugby stars including Aaron Cruden, Johann Muller, Jonathan Davies, Mike Phillips and Matt Giteau. In the case

Williams returned home for the chance to join Dan Carter in the push for the 2011 Rugby World Cup

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of Giteau, a former Wallaby, the toss-up between cashing in abroad and playing for his country is particularly pertinent.

“I think he’s on 92 or 93 Tests,” says Sandlant, who spent 15 years working in London law firms before getting involved in rugby management. “I’m sure he would love to get to 100 and play in a World Cup, but that’s a tough decision for him to make. He has to weigh up whether he goes back and maybe doesn’t play for Australia, or whether he plays for the top side in Europe, living in the south of France in the sun and getting paid very well. It’s quite a tough decision for those guys, because a lot of them, on ability, could and still would be playing international rugby.”

Beyond playing contracts, personal endorsement deals are, of course, another major income stream for top players.

But, unlike soccer, whose universality gives players the chance to become household names the world over, rugby has a more concentrated popularity in a finite number of markets. Inevitably that restricts players’ marketability. “The global footballer, they’re known by every man on the street,” observes Sandlant. “Where, I think with rugby, the knowledge of general Joe Public in Wales, England, Scotland about southern hemisphere players is about as poor as southern hemisphere Joe Public is about northern hemisphere players.”

Its somewhat limited appeal – compared to soccer or global circuitbased sports such as tennis or golf – has been a factor in rugby’s omission from SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes list in recent years. Beyond that, an emphasis on the overall team rather than individual brilliance has also been central

Sonny Bill Williams splits his time between club rugby in New Zealand and Japan but a Rio 2016 appearance could boost his global profile

to the reasoning behind its absence.

Although Sandlant concedes some positions are not particularly marketable, he disagrees with the notion that rugby has no room for individuality.

“You might have a tight-head prop that has freakish ability,” he says, “but he might not necessarily have freakish marketability. Whereas you might have Sonny Bill Williams or [Israel] Folautype characters: it’s a bit like your Johnny Wilkinson and Dan Carter, they look the part as well as play the part.”

Even if players fit the marketable mould, it does not necessarily translate into endorsement cash – especially if they hail from a modest market. “[England international] James Haskell would make more from his endorsements than Dan Carter would because the markets are so different,” explains Sandlant. “The market in New Zealand is much smaller than the market in Europe. [Sébastien] Chabal was probably making the most off the field due to him being so marketable in France.

He was probably the most after Jonny Wilkinson, the last guy to get up there close to football. That’s because the market that he’s in, the French market, is a big market, whereas the population in New Zealand is four million, it’s not a big market.”

Sandlant argues rugby does have at least one advantage over soccer. “I remember speaking to a lady at [BBC television quiz show] A Question of Sport,” he recalls, “and she said she loved dealing with the rugby players because they would turn up and do it for the UK£500 that they’d pay them, or whatever it was. Whereas Rio Ferdinand wouldn’t even return her call, and when he did it was UK£10,000 for him to turn up and do it. So I think, compared to a footballer, rugby players are significantly cheaper and, on the whole, usually quite well regarded in terms of being articulate, and coming across well and being good with sponsors.”

Rugby’s marketability could transform after 2016, however, when sevens

Williams’ past exploits include a spell with the Sydney Roosters in the National Rugby League

debuts at the Olympics. There is no doubt the short-form game will become gripped with Olympic fever, and that is likely to attract commercial investment from previously rugby-shy brands.

But Sandlant warns the demands and technicality of sevens will likely stop many 15s players from making it to Rio. “Sevens is now such a specialised sport that unless you’re an outside back, you have to lose so much weight to get the speed, it will be massively detrimental to you to try and do both.

“You strip the weight for Rio,” he continues, “but then your club is looking at you as a star player. You’ve got to front up against Toulouse in a Heineken Cup away game and you weigh 90kg when you were weighing 110kg. I’d say there would be a fair bit of resistance from clubs towards that. But if they are that kind of body shape as it is, like a Chris Ashton, it probably wouldn’t make too much difference.”

Sonny Bill Williams’ inclusion in this year’s list is without question hinged on the chance of him playing sevens in 2016. Fortunately, having played both codes of rugby and fought as a professional boxer, he is no stranger to adapting to new challenges.

SportsPro Magazine | 27

FEATURE | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Promoting parity As they seek to raise the profile of the Paralympics and para-sports, the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) and national Paralympic committees around the world have made it a fundamental part of their work to turn their athletes into stars. Through a combination of sporting skill and inspiring stories, Brazil’s Alain Oliveira and Japan’s Mami Sato are just two examples of Paralympians taking centre stage.

By David Cushnan

A

fter Alan Oliveira’s debut on SportsPro’s most marketable athletes list last year, a second Paralympian joins him this year. Mami Sato arrived on the international stage with her short but impactful contribution to Tokyo’s final bid presentation to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in Buenos Aires last September. A cancer survivor, Sato, who lost a leg to the disease aged just 19, turned to long-jumping and has competed in three Paralympic Games to date, with a fourth, in Rio, on the horizon. Her speech to the IOC members who would later vote for Tokyo over Istanbul and Madrid also touched on March 2011, when a tsunami hit Japan’s east coast and her home town.

For six days, Sato did not know if her family had survived. Heartfelt, emotional and inspirational, her speech was warmly received and widely credited with helping Tokyo win the Games.

Oliveira’s victory over Oscar Pistorius in London took para-athletics into the media mainstream

28 | www.sportspromedia.com

If Oliveira – thanks to his brilliant, if controversial, sprinting exploits in London two summers ago – is set to be the international home hero of Brazil’s first Paralympics, then Sato’s inclusion is for the role she will undoubtedly play in helping to tell Tokyo’s story around the world as the Japanese metropolis prepares to stage the summer Games in six years’ time.

Oliveira and Sato are the type of international faces and names that the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) are looking towards to help raise the profile of their sports and, by extension, the Paralympic Games and Paralympic brand. “It’s very important to have faces of athletes being recognised and being part of the promotion globally,” confirms Xavier Gonzalez, the IPC’s bespectacled chief executive.

“Really, our athletes are what we are all about – we want to have our athletes connect with people and tell their stories and show their abilities to people. The fact that some of them are reaching that level of recognition is encouraging.”

Gonzalez points to Sato’s ability to effectively convey her story – over and beyond her role in the Tokyo 2020 bid she is a regular public speaker and estimates she speaks to between 3,000 and 5,000 children at workshops each year – as a model for other para-sport athletes. “It’s great to have athletes that have the ability to express themselves the way Mami did,” he says. “That’s a skill in itself. What is important is all of them have great stories to tell and they all have stories that can teach and can help. When we have athletes who can do that the way Mami did it is a plus. We know she will be a fantastic ambassador for us in Tokyo

as we start to prepare for that fantastic Games in 2020.”

Coached by Seven46’s Nick Varley, who worked closely on Tokyo’s successful bid, Sato admitted earlier this year that she was more nervous speaking in front of the IOC than competing.

For its part the IPC is working with its athletes, as Andrew Parsons, an IPC vice president and the president of the Brazilian Paralympic Committee, puts it, to “train and prepare them” for life in front of audiences and cameras.

“We are not telling them what to say because they have to be spontaneous,” Parsons says. “People want to hear a story. Mami Sato is a natural but, for example, Alan Oliveira is not when he has to speak – and he does not speak any English. But we are working with him to make him a better ambassador and from an IPC perspective we’re doing this with other athletes, encouraging leadership and when they have leadership roles they have to speak for themselves. We are working with them not to have idols by chance – we can’t afford that.”

As Parsons, who, in a third role, also sits on the board of Rio 2016’s local organising committee, points out carefully, the Paralympics did have an internationally recognised star – a household name – up to and including the London Games. “It’s a difficult moment to talk about that now – but we need more,” he says, speaking at the SportAccord convention in Turkey while, on the same day, Oscar Pistorius is taking the stand in a South African court, accused of the murder, early last year, of his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp.

Pistorius the athlete was the face of London 2012’s Paralympics and broke

Alan Oliveira followed up his London 2012 exploits with a T43 100m world record last year and he is set to be the face of Rio’s Paralympics

barriers by qualifying and competing in the 400 metres at the Olympic Games.

He was also one half of a rivalry which, in the UK at least, moved the Paralympics into the mainstream. That the battle with Oliveira involved a dose of controversy, with Pistorius complaining bitterly about the length of blades used by the Brazilian after his defeat in the T44 200 metres, might have caused a few short-term headaches for the IPC, but it could also be viewed as a breakthrough moment, a coming of age for para-sport. Certainly, it was the first time the UK’s mainstream media reported on a Paralympic sporting duel as simply great sport, rather than exclusively as a series of heroic athlete tales. It was a bona fide rivalry, and something of a grudge match.

With Pistorius no longer available, Oliveira has moved into the breach as the primary face of not only para-sprinting but para-sport in general. At the same time the IPC, through communicationsled initiatives like its ‘Ones to watch’ programme, is trying to create the next group of superstars. “It’s the kind of

role Usain Bolt plays in the Olympics,” Parsons says. “We need these kind of characters to inspire the youth, to attract sponsors and broadcasters. We are working on that, we are not letting things just happen.”

The IPC is also trying to look beyond athletics and swimming, its two biggest sports. Team sports like wheelchair basketball and sitting volleyball will be pushed in the build-up to Rio, just as a variety of winter sports were highlighted earlier this year in Sochi. “We cannot only pick athletes from only two or three sports,” Parsons maintains, while Gonzalez adds: “I think you will see a lot more rivalries in the Paralympic Games and a lot more athletes – it is an opportunity to discover a lot more great athletes in many sports.”

The combination, however, of what happened in London, the fact the upcoming Games are being staged in his home country and his sport of choice make Oliveira an obvious candidate to be the global face of the 2016 Paralympics.

Having added to his 2012 accolades

with world record performances in the T44 100 metres last year, the 21-yearold – who had both legs amputated when he was three weeks old – appears in fine form and ready to embrace the responsibility of furthering the Paralympic message, inside and outside Brazil. “He is a fantastic athlete but he is also a fantastic person with a fantastic story,” Gonzalez says. “He represents very well the values of the Paralympic Games.

He helped us during the debrief we had on London, to explain his experience and he was humbled to come and was very honest and very open with everybody.

It is how Paralympic athletes are – they compete very hard, but at the same time understand they are helping to promote our movement on a global basis.”

As president of Brazil’s Paralympic committee, which is based in the capital Brasilia, Parsons – Brazilian-born and raised, despite the name – is tasked with overseeing the preparations for the Brazilian team as a whole, as well as securing the funding which will support them on the road to Rio and beyond.

SportsPro Magazine | 29

FEATURE | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

One of Japan’s top Paralympians, Mami Sato was a pivotal figure in the Tokyo 2020 bid and the IPC wants others to follow her eloquent example

While Oliveira holds the headlines globally, Parsons has identified a crop of Brazilian Paralympians who are poised to make headlines at the Games – amongst them swimmer Daniel Dias, who was a star performer in London; blind sprinter Terezina Guilhermina; and former Big Brother contestant and model Fernando Fernandes, who became a multiple world champion canoeist following a car accident in which he was paralysed. The hope is they will follow Oliveira, not simply as great athletes but as great ambassadors: the kind of competitors, in other words, that will attract corporate support.

“We have a very, very good group,” Parson confirms, explaining that Brazil are looking to finish fifth – “not top five, fifth” – in the medals table, four years after securing 43 medals and seventh place in London.

Oliveira and the athletes who are currently his understudies, in marketing terms at least, are the chief beneficiaries of the support network which is growing around Brazil’s Paralympians as a result of Rio staging the next Games.

Brazil’s Paralympic committee, which, with a staff of around 85, is amongst the larger National Paralympic Committees (NPCs), is well funded but almost entirely state-funded, a model Parsons is looking to alter before he gives up the presidency, as he is required to do, at the 30 | www.sportspromedia.com

end of his second term in 2017. Current investment is through a combination of direct funding from the country’s federal government and that of the city of Rio de Janeiro, and support from state-owned bank Caixa, which announced in April last year it would spend some US$60.6 million across 13 Paralympic sports and around 50 athletes before Rio 2016 – a period also including next year’s Para-Pan American Games.

Through further government support, at state and federal level, a state of the art training centre dedicated to para-sport is under construction in São Paulo, at a cost of some R$260 million (US$116 million). The plan is for the 15-sport centre to open before the Games begin.

The impact, however, will be felt long after Rio’s flame has extinguished. “What we want is to have a better sports system in the country for Paralympic athletes,” explains Parsons. “We want to take advantage of the Games and to offer a better structure for the athletes after the Games and at the same time have more support from the private sector.”

Before he leaves office, Parsons has set a personal goal of securing sponsors in each of the 22 sports – currently 14 have deals in place. In the short term, the prospect of a home Games in Brazil is expected to drive up the price of the domestic broadcast rights to the 2016

Paralympics, a contract which will be negotiated after the conclusion of the Fifa World Cup. Longer-term, Parsons is seeking increased corporate support for his athletes.

“We would like to activate more, with sponsors who are involved in the Games but maybe not that involved with the Brazilian Paralympic team,” he says. “We would like to have them on board and advertising, because we don’t just need results, we need sponsors to activate and help activate the athletes, to associate themselves with the athletes. In the next 12 months, I would like to see the same kind of [sporting] results and to see the young athletes, our post-London generation of athletes who are already winning medals in world championships, become more mature and we would like to have more athletes to work with, so we can be seen and perceived in Brazil as a movement, not just one athlete.”

Oliveira and Sato are the current global standard-bearers of para-sport and a Paralympic movement which is rising in stature, boosted by greater coverage and funding around the world – and neither have yet reached their full marketing potential. If the IPC and its national committees have their way, they will soon be joined by a group of athletes who have been fully prepared for para-sport’s new era in front of the cameras.

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teAM BY teAM 2014

Lewis Hamilton (right), pictured at the Belgian Grand Prix, settled into his new team well in

/1 teAM BY teAM 2014

2013, but it was the last year in charge of Mercedes for Ross

ace as the season wore on. to Every year that Ferrari fails n titles the pressure on Stefano or menicali ratchets up a notch the o. It is now five years since of any uderia won a championship drivers’ rt and six since it won the popular a principal, team le. The ddock figure, looked understandably end, its eary as the season reached though in a significant mid-season Allison, move he did persuade James otus’s talented technical director, o move to Maranello. Allison’s felt next ontribution will start to be work eason. Extensive renovation had also on the team’s windtunnel the year, concluded by the end of on impact albeit too late to have any the performance of the F138.

“The assessment of the season just ended cannot be positive,” up after the Domenicali said, summing after a “because Prix, Grand Brazilian a second half competitive start, we had standards. that did not live up to our all He added, however: “I think and the the decisions we have taken us in the changes we made are taking season in right direction to tackle next the best way possible.”

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s MiD-seAson struggLe its The F138, a better car than that will predecessor but not one be particularly fondly remembered reliable, at Maranello, was certainly years. another Ferrari trend of recent season Felipe Massa, in his eighth two races, with the team, retired from and spinning crashing out in Monaco German off in the early stages of the just one Grand Prix. Alonso had of the second non-finish, skittling out when race of the season in Malaysia in a brush his front wing, damaged the opening with Vettel’s Red Bull on to not lap, gave way; it was a mistake

quite hit a title. His campaign didn’t Alonso was of the best to pit for a replacement. led up to the the heights of 2012 – one on the first The circumstances which driven – but also involved in a skirmish Ferrari. By Formula One seasons ever Reduction change of driver were pure and two lap in India, while a Drag darling still there were nine podiums him mid-season, Alonso, the team’s in Spain.

System (DRS) problem delayed become wins, in China and at home he since arriving in 2010, had in in Bahrain. Elsewhere, however, its failure Massa, who finished eighth the start of increasingly frustrated by 130 points was at his brilliant best at the championship, some pace with other frontrunners, up positions keep to making one frequently just races, fifth in behind Alonso, delivered an notably Red Bull. After finishing in Spain. off the line – Singapore and by reporters what podium finish, a third place asked of was he outside the Hungary Ferrari, for audacious move around birthday It was to prove his last for Hamilton he would like for his upcoming announced Kimi Raikkonen and Lewis else’s in September the Brazilian and dryly replied, “Someone team electing in Barcelona were the standouts. public he would be leaving, the to car.” The remark drew a swift Shortly Indeed, Alonso did nothing Luca di against extending his contract. the greats in rebuke from Ferrari president it had damage his status as one of on the official afterwards, Ferrari confirmed more keenly Montezemolo, published 2014 for 2013, although he will be Raikkonen the re-signed Kimi march of time: Ferrari website. Alonso’s comments, a team aware than anyone of the well and 2015, the Finn rejoining in 2006 and team stated, ‘did not go down his last championship was he left in 2009. without it is now four seasons at Ferrari

it was relatively lenient punishment, Carlo other than an at Silverstone to his Monte hard to see it as anything in India g by triumph, plus a second place admirable piece of loophole-seekin Hamilton, and third in Abu Dhabi. team principal Ross Brawn. in a blaze who arrived from McLaren the 2012 c win in Despite its scruffy end to of publicity, took five: a terrifi look of a poWer sHiFt in Malaysia, season, Mercedes had the Hungary, plus third places championship a team ready to make d season, China, Canada and Belgium.

Lewis Despite a much-improve push at the start of 2013. certainly quick, as was he W04 team e Th the in position force Brawn’s own the season Hamilton’s arrival was a stirring control eight pole positions during for the has led since Mercedes took the habit and there were high hopes for demonstrated, but it retained had begun in 2010 was also under scrutiny eating up its W04, a car on which work winter, of recent Mercedes cars of of an much of the year. Over the Rosberg early in order to gain as much Wolff to run tyres quicker than most, leaving Mercedes recruited Toto through the advantage as possible. and Hamilton falling back division and installed in the that, motorsport Bull its Red the were At races.

So good world pack in the early stages of really another Austrian, three-time a thoroughly end, the title challenge didn’t nonSpanish Grand Prix in May in the champion Niki Lauda, as pole but materialise but second place men received bemused Rosberg started on confirmed executive chairman. Both team’s constructors’ championship, acquiring 30 finished fifth, such was the in Brazil, shares in the team, Wolff Pirellis. at the final race of the year cent. inability to get on top of the indication of per cent and Lauda 10 per was well deserved and an shift Mercedes It appeared to be a power the team’s progress. Indeed, which testing tiMes Bull Racing away from Brawn, a sense reduced its deficit to Red on year, strengthened when the German Grand from 318 to 236 points year technical In the days after the Spanish achieved on manufacturer hired McLaren took scoring 218 more than it Officially, Prix, Rosberg and Hamilton director Paddy Lowe in June. in the way to fifth place in 2012. role of in a test organised by Pirelli the part to team appointed the was for Lowe came There were three wins but the Barcelona, a fact which only from executive technical director Monaco. to cheer in 2013, a fine drive the team, was to light two weeks later in perhaps plan, openly talked of by at what they Nico Rosberg in Monaco of Rival teams were furious in for there to be a gradual handover advantage the highlight, and nine podiums clear a be to taking interpreted by some power, with Lowe ultimately team, total. Rosberg, written off gleaned by the Brackley-based a match from Brawn as team principal. over they least before the season began but if there ever arguing that at the very the year, However, the timeframe, to have for Hamilton throughout and the should have been invited victory was one, was never revealed Pirelli, took four of those, adding especially observers present throughout. team’s strong performance, criticism season, already facing intensifying the of part middle in the it original about the level of tyre degradation then seemed to derail the for to keep had engineered into its product programme entirely. Efforts in the about his 2013, also became embroiled Brawn, apparently undecided protest by controversy after a formal own future, kicked in. the topRed Bull and Ferrari.

Amidst all the speculation the The case went to an FIA Tribunal heavy management got through in June, which decided Mercedes too much friction, at without season young the focus was to be barred from July’s least to the public eye, with took on Ferrari keep to driver test, a session which battle the on very much drivers were Red Bull more relevance when race at bay once it became clear the multiple for the world allowed to take part after Racing were away and clear Grand Prix of the year, tyre failures at the British championship. By the end how Quite rethink. that Brawn prompted a safety Lauda for one was insistent Barcelona advantageous the three-day but less than a week after the stay, must be never confirmed test was for Mercedes will final race of the year the team clear, although Rosberg controlled that the Englishman was leaving. given the the race in Monaco, but,

2013 in reVieW: step MAKing tHe neXt

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The background noise did not seem to affect the team’s were performance, although there final two no podium finishes in the first fruits races. “Our progress is the began of the technical team we I am building two years ago and of progress optimistic that the trend quietly a will continue in 2014,” after pleased Brawn said, immediately second place in the championship will not be was secured, although he around to see it.

driver There are few Formula One and pairings as strong as Rosberg showed well Hamilton and both men the throughout the season, despite Hamilton inconsistencies of the car. team well, played himself into his new to fluctuate although his mood tended was by the weekend, while Rosberg handled the impressive in the way he partner, arrival of another illustrious Schumach after experiencing Michael Perhaps for the past three seasons. had tellingly, however, Hamilton

FEATURE | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Courting the limelight A new generation of rising stars will be expected to take on the mantle of men’s tennis when the reign of the ‘Big Four’ finally comes to an end. Nicola Arzani, the ATP’s senior vice president of PR and marketing, explains why he thinks Grigor Dimitrov ticks all the right boxes.

By Michael Long

A

photograph recently posted on Twitter neatly summed up just how far Grigor Dimitrov has come in a short space of time. There he was, barely a handful of seasons ago, a fresh-faced and fluffy-haired fanboy clearly smitten as he posed with a young Maria Sharapova.

Fast forward to today and the pair are now being snapped together under entirely different circumstances: Dimitrov decidedly more grown-up – if no less baby-faced – and his glamorous Russian girlfriend a global superstar.

Dimitrov’s swift development off the court has been matched by marked progress on it in recent months. Notable scalps in the shape of Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray were both impressive in their maturity last season but titles in Bucharest and Acapulco this year, added to his inaugural tournament victory in Stockholm last October, suggest the 23-year-old, born in Haskovo, southern Bulgaria in the spring of 1991, might just be beginning to fulfil his long-mooted potential.

Indeed, his is a name that has been bouncing around tennis circles for some time. With a graceful playing style and a raw talent for improvised shot-making, Dimitrov is a fan favourite with the rare ability to draw in the crowds wherever he plays. Perhaps of more importance, though, is his relationship with the media, who have taken to the current world number 14 in a way that is sure to set him in good stead for the future.

As senior vice president of PR and marketing at the ATP World Tour, Nicola Arzani’s job is to help publicise Dimitrov, as well as many of the other more soughtafter players on the elite men’s circuit. A tennis industry veteran, the Frenchman 32 | www.sportspromedia.com

has helped build individual player profiles since the days of Boris Becker and Stefan Edberg, and he has a clear idea as to what makes ‘Brand Dimitrov’ so appealing.

“I think with him it is the complete package,” he says. “Exciting tennis, great looks and he’s so comfortable off the court, interacting with people and giving great interviews. He is so authentic.”

The ATP is facing the uncertainty of undergoing a potentially difficult generational shift in the coming years, and Dimitrov is one of a number of players born in the 1990s who the organisation hopes will fly the flag for the tour when the dominance of the ‘Big Four’, who have been carrying the men’s game for so long, eventually subsides. Canadian Milos Raonic and Japan’s Kei Nishikori also fall

into that group of young pretenders who are set to come increasingly to the fore as the ATP prepares for life after its current golden generation.

“One of our focuses is on the young players, these players born in the 1990s like Milos and Grigor who we feel will be the superstars of the future,” says Arzani.

“We want the public to get to know them because they are interesting characters and they have a great story to tell, and at the same time we want to gradually prepare them to be more exposed and be able to be the ambassadors of the ATP World Tour in the years to come.”

Fully aware that individual sports live and die on the marketability of their athletes, Arzani has been working to secure interviews for Dimitrov with

Dimitrov is often compared to Roger Federer and signed with the Swiss’ Team8 Global agency in 2013

media outlets across the globe as the ATP prepares for the next chapter. “I’m really trying to get him as much publicity as possible because I believe he is going to be the next superstar in tennis,” he says.

“We did an interview for Corriere della Sera at the Monte Carlo tournament last week and the interviewer covers a lot of sports – the Olympics and so on - and Grigor was so good in the interview. I mean, really thoughtful and with fantastic quotes. She was very impressed; she was like, ‘Wow, this is one of the best sporting interviews I’ve done in my life.’

“We are selecting good opportunities, not to overexpose him or burn him out, but really to make him better known,” Arzani continues. “At the end of last year we had a couple of big opportunities that came out in Latin America, in France, and now we did a big interview for the biggest newspaper in Italy. We will continue to look for opportunities for him to be better exposed on a global scale.”

Arzani says that part of his role is to work closely with Dimitrov’s new management team at Team8 Global, the Cleveland, Ohio-based agency established last year by Roger Federer and his long-time agent at IMG, Tony Godsick.

Dimitrov joined the agency along with Argentine Juan Martín del Potro in January, in a move that was unexpected and yet somewhat fitting given Federer’s influence on his career so far.

Like all tennis players of his age Dimitrov grew up watching the 17time Grand Slam champion dominate the men’s game as few others had done before, and like them he has sought to follow in the footsteps of the Swiss great. In 2008, he took his first significant step towards doing so by winning junior Wimbledon prior to landing the US Open equivalent the same year. Since then, he has signed endorsement contracts with Nike and Wilson – two of Federer’s longest-standing sponsors – and now, inevitably, there is an unwanted nickname brought about by stylistic comparisons between the pair.

“He has to shake off this label of ‘Baby Federer’,” says Arzani, referring to the moniker given to him by the tennis media. “Of course, he has the same kind of natural talent, with the onehanded backhand, and he was always

Grigor Dimitrov is the highest new entry on the SportsPro 50 Most Marketable Athletes list

looking up to Roger when he was a kid. So now it’s fitting that he is part of Roger’s broader management team; they share the same agent, the same structure.

Really Grigor talks a lot with Roger and he is like a mentor for him.”

Even with Federer in his corner, success is far from guaranteed for Dimitrov as he sets out to emulate his great predecessor both on and off the court. One thing is for sure, though: his quest to do so will only aid Arzani as he seeks characters and stories compelling enough to maintain interest in men’s tennis for years to come.

“Who knows what the future holds?”

Arzani asks. “That’s the beauty of the sport: we cannot predict. The Big Four has been incredible in carrying the game and such a generation will probably never grace the tennis court again, being so dominant and so different also off the court. But there has been sometimes too much attention from the media and the fans only on those Big Four, or only on the Grand Slam tournaments. Our message is [that with] so many more players and so many more great events, they should have better exposure and that is really our goal.”

SportsPro Magazine | 33

FEATURE | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Rousing reception Olympic judoka turned UFC champion and Hollywood actress Ronda Rousey has enjoyed a meteoric rise to US fame. Movie roles, book deals and personal endorsements are now rolling in for the California native. But far from being universally adored, ‘Rowdy’ is a polarising figure – and that is exactly how she likes it.

By Ian McPherson

“

S

he’s the hugest superstar. I’m going to go out and say she’s the biggest star we’ve ever had.”

Those were the words of Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) president Dana White during a press conference in February this year, describing women’s bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey. White’s claim, bold as it is out of context, represents a remarkable turnaround for the promotion and its outspoken frontman, who publicly claimed that women would never compete in the UFC as recently as 2012.

Since the UFC changed its gender policy in early 2013 the floodgates have opened, and leading the charge has been Ronda Rousey. The 27-year-old adopted mixed martial arts (MMA) after winning bronze in judo at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 – becoming the first American woman to earn an Olympic medal in the sport – and today she is perhaps the most talked-about athlete in the octagon.

According to Bloomberg, 40 per cent of UFC tickets are now purchased by women. Meanwhile, Rousey was expected to rank among the top ten highest-earning UFC fighters ever after just her third fight, against Sara McMann at UFC 170.

On the night Rousey ended the contest in 66 seconds, landing a punishing knee to her opponent’s midsection. The stoppage was the fastest ever in women’s UFC and confirmed Rousey’s in-octagon dominance. It was also the first time she had ended a UFC fight without employing her trademark ‘armbar’ move.

Needless to say, UFC wins against the right opponents can lead to status and media attention. However, in sports such as MMA – where a combative

34 | www.sportspromedia.com

UFC bantamweight champion Ronda Rousey is a popular and divisive draw

personality almost seems a prerequisite for success – wins do not necessarily come hand in hand with likeability.

In fact, quite the opposite can be the case, and Rousey’s win over McMann in February was a telling example. The stoppage was met by a clamorous chorus of cheers and boos; one section of Rousey-supporting fans celebrating the win, another reeling at a decision which seemed premature. And in that moment, Rousey’s public persona was encapsulated: simultaneously loved and loathed, stood at the centre of the ring – and controversy – and positively revelling in it.

“If you can be more than 100 per cent authentic, that’s what she is,” explains Brad Slater, Rousey’s agent at William Morris Endeavor Entertainment. He recalls an incident at UFC 168 where, having just retained her title, Rousey refused to shake hands with rival fighter Miesha Tate.

Her support team did not dwell on the

contentious snub. “I can tell you,” Slater says, “nobody sat around in her world and said, ‘You should apologise for that.’ There was nothing to apologise for. They didn’t like each other and that’s that. If people don’t like her for that, she’s OK, and if people do like her for that, she’s totally OK. Like I said, if you can be 500 per cent authentic, that’s Ronda Rousey.”

The ability to split opinion is by no means uncommon in fight sports – pound-for-pound boxing champion Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather is particularly skilled in this area – and, channelled correctly, it can be a potent marketing tool. “I want everyone to disagree about me, that’s the thing,” Rousey told Fox News Latino in a February 2012 interview. “I don’t want everyone to think I suck and I don’t want everyone to like me because if there’s a general consensus, there’s nothing to talk about. I want every single time that my name comes up for it to spark a debate.”

There is no denying she has achieved

Dana White, the UFC president, has described Rousey as “the biggest star we’ve ever had”

Rousey makes swift work of Sara McMann (left) in her latest title defence at UFC 170, dropping the challenger with a knee 66 seconds into the bout

that objective. A nude cover shoot for ESPN The Magazine’s ‘Body Issue’ certainly sparked conversation back in 2012, while more recent comments about fellow MMA fighter Cris ‘Cyborg’ Justino – in which Rousey claimed the 28-year-old has been “injecting herself [with steroids] for so long that’s not even a woman anymore. She’s an ‘it’” – fuelled the fires of anti-Rousey sentiment. Apparel brand Americana MMA even posted a tweet in response to Rousey’s jibes claiming it would pay US$5,000 to “the first fighter that knocks out Ronda Rousey”.

But, as the old adage goes, any publicity is good publicity. And, after she was named on Forbes’ 30 under 30 list in the sports category for the past two years, it

would appear Rousey’s commercial team have found her marketing sweet spot.

Endorsements have been struck with US mobile network MetroPCS and energy drink producer Xyience, while she will appear in upcoming blockbusters The Expendables 3, Fast and Furious 7 and Entourage, and she has a book deal in the works. She will also face Alexis Davis at UFC 175 in July.

Rousey’s schedule has not always been so hectic, however, and the Beverly Hillsbased Slater admits much of her success today is a result of a “pretty severe” launch in the early days. “She’s way ahead of even where we thought she was going to be in terms of crossing over,” he admits.

“I probably sent her on, and this is a

real number, about 35 meetings around town after she fought for the first time. I just started sending her out for meeting after meeting after meeting with movie executives, directors, producers, casting directors. She without fail went to every single one, never asked a question, and she started to create a groundswell.

“We had some great footage to send around from her fights – it’s unique watching somebody break people’s arms for a living – and we’d back that up with photographs of her because she’s obviously easy on the eye and that juxtaposition was unbelievable. Because she carries herself the way she does in those meetings, people come out and they’re completely mesmerised.”

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FEATURE | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Underdog on top With four endorsers on this year’s most marketable list, Under Armour clearly has an eye for marketing potential. Matt Mirchin, the company’s executive vice president of global marketing, explains why it is promise, not profile, that is driving the brand forward.

By Michael Long

W

hen Jordan Spieth walked down the 18th fairway on the penultimate day of his Masters debut in April, dreams of making history no doubt coursing through the 20-year-old’s mind, the talk was as much about what he was wearing as what he was doing.

Co-leading on his sport’s biggest stage, the little-known Texan was on the verge of becoming golf ’s youngest Major winner in 83 years. And yet, for some industry observers, it was a sportswear brand from Baltimore with almost no discernible connection to golf that had become the story – or at least an ostensibly inordinate part within it.

“When your athlete is in the final pairing on a Saturday and Sunday, it becomes basically a three or four-hour television commercial for you because of the exposure you get of him with the brand

and the amount of coverage you get,” says Matt Mirchin, the executive vice president of global marketing at Under Armour.

“It’s very important for the athlete to perform on the big stages so you get that exposure. When you negotiate the deal with an athlete, you’re banking on them getting to that stage and performing at a high level on that stage.”

Sporting no fewer than 12 of the company’s intertwining UA logos, the emergent Spieth certainly did no harm for Under Armour’s brand awareness. In the absence of Tiger Woods he became a focal point as the media moved to anoint US golf ’s new star. For his principal backer, itself hardly an established name in the sport, Spieth’s Augusta debut could not have gone much better and, while he fell agonisingly short thanks to a finalday master class from his idiosyncratic compatriot Bubba Watson, Mirchin is

Sloane Stephens, the “next great American tennis player”, signed with Under Armour in 2010

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confident that plenty more is to come from a youngster many within golf tip for the very top.

“We’re thrilled that Jordan Spieth is part of our family and we see that relationship going on for an extremely long time,” he says, speaking in the days after the tournament. “We believe that he will win many events and many Majors and have a very, very long career. He could play golf for 30 years and we think he could be one of the best to ever play the game.”

Mirchin’s faith in Spieth illustrates why Under Armour was tracking him for some time prior to making him its first ‘headto-toe’ golfer in January 2013 – and why it wasn’t the only company doing so. Two US Junior Amateur crowns and a sparkling cabinet of top collegiate awards had seen the teenager become one of America’s hottest golfing prospects, ensuring that major brands were circling long before he elected to drop out of the University of Texas and turn pro in late 2012.

“When Jordan came out after his first semester of sophomore year in college and decided to turn pro in January of 2013, Under Armour was the first and only endorser that he had,” recalls Mirchin. “Our deal was a long-term deal and it compensated him so he could concentrate 100 per cent of his effort on golf and not have to worry about winning events or competing in certain events because he didn’t have a card.”

Putting such trust in unproven potential is now a common theme within the world of athlete marketing, but for Under Armour it is an especially relevant strategy. A youngster itself, at least by global sportswear industry standards, the company that started out just 18 years ago armed with a single moisture-wicking

Aged 20, Jordan Spieth confirmed his potential in April with a superb showing at his first Masters at Augusta, where he finished second

T-shirt has quickly grown and diversified into a multi-faceted sports apparel, footwear and equipment concern which last year generated over US$2.3 billion in sales. It is that rags-to-riches narrative that has come to define the Under Armour brand, and nothing speaks to that underdog spirit better than a generation of up and coming athletes.

“We go after younger athletes [because] we love that next positioning: the one that we think could be next,” says Mirchin, who has worked at Under Armour under a variety of titles since 2005. “They are the athletes that you’ve referenced in your top 50.”

Four of Under Armour’s key endorsers have made it onto this year’s list of the world’s 50 most marketable athletes and all are making waves in their respective sports. “Jordan Spieth: we think he is the next great golfer in the world,” Mirchin continues. “He’s certainly represented

himself exceptionally well since his rookie year on the PGA Tour and had a great showing at his first Masters, coming tied for second. Sloane Stephens: we think she’s the up and coming next great American tennis player and tennis player in the world. She beat Serena in a Major last year so she’s got a bright future ahead of her at 20 years old. ‘Canelo’ Alvarez was the undefeated light middleweight champion prior to fighting Mayweather last September. We think his best years are ahead of him as well. Stephen Curry made his first All-Star team this year in the NBA and he led the Golden State Warriors in the play-offs.”

Like Spieth, rising tennis star Sloane Stephens – a second-time entry in this year’s top ten – embarked on her professional career decked out in Under Armour gear. Having signed a five-year deal with the brand in 2010, the mediafriendly Floridian has become one of

the WTA Tour’s leading lights since defeating her fellow American Serena Williams at last year’s Australian Open.

That changing-of-the-guard victory instantly cast Stephens as the next golden girl of American tennis, and with public and media interest back on home shores intensifying, Under Armour soon had her splashed on billboards across America as the only woman to feature in its ‘I Will’ global marketing campaign.

“We try to find athletes that associate with our brand and characteristics that we believe in: competitive, passion, winning,” says Mirchin. “Performance; the ability to lead a team or, in an individual sport, take control; presence – these are all things that we look at. You need to make sure that when you associate with an athlete and you logo them heavily and use them in marketing that they are portraying the right message to the consumer because they’re an extension of who and what you are.”

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FEATURE | 50 MOST MARKETABLE

Mirchin admits that marketing athletes, especially unknown quantities, has its risks.

It is, he says, “more of an art than a science” – the exact opposite, he points out, to his previous role in Under Armour’s sales division – but the American nevertheless acknowledges the business case for taking a calculated gamble on talent at a young age. “There is a little bit of risk to it when you sign somebody who is not as established, but we think it’s a very good business practice and strategy for us,” he adds. “We take a lot of time and expend a lot of effort looking at these athletes while they’re competing at an amateur level or prior to turning pro, and try to get to know them professionally and personally before we make an investment in them.”

When it comes to pinning a brand to an individual, a key consideration is how that individual can be used to target specific business objectives. While many of Under Armour’s endorsers, around 100 NFL players among them, fall into what Mirchin describes as a “boots on the ground” strategy aimed at garnering mass exposure on the playing field, others – the most marketable quartet included – serve as the face of the brand in altogether more tailored ways.

Stephen Curry, who ranks 26th on this year’s list, is a case in point. With Under Armour looking to up its share of the US basketball shoe market currently monopolised by Nike and its Jordan brand – between them, the pair control over 90 per cent – the promising Golden State Warriors guard was

First-time NBA All-Star Stephen Curry is the face of Under Armour’s basketball campaigns

brought on board last September and positioned as the company’s main spokesman among 11 NBA endorsers.

Likewise Saul Alvarez, the young Mexican boxer who moves up to 22 on this year’s list, was signed to a multiyear contract in 2012 with a view to fronting Under Armour’s recent push into Latin America – which in itself is part of the company’s aim of increasing international sales from eight to 12 per cent of its business by 2016.

“Those are athletes that, when we signed them, we planned to actually use them in some kind of marketing

Saul ‘Canelo’ Alvarez (right) retains a huge fanbase despite a 2013 defeat to Floyd Mayweather

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campaign to bring the association of Under Armour and that particular athlete to the consumer,” says Mirchin. “Jordan Spieth was in a commercial this past year in December with one of our retail partners Dick’s Sporting Goods. Sloane Stephens and Canelo Alvarez were in a TV commercial about a year ago, and we currently have plans now to do something with Stephen Curry into the next basketball season.”

Those individual initiatives are all part of a much wider storytelling effort at Under Armour, an effort which, as Mirchin explains, is funded by a wholesale marketing budget split into “three buckets of money”.

“We have brand marketing, which is actually telling the story,” he explains. “We have retail marketing, which is what you would call trade marketing at the account level where, if a consumer walks into a store, is the Under Armour product in an environment that we’re proud to have it showing in? And the third bucket is sports marketing, whether that be teams, leagues, athletes, colleges.

“We split the money accordingly and we need to have the right amount of assets in a sport to authenticate us and give us the ability to tell stories. Once we have the right athletes, then we invest more money in brand marketing to tell the story of those athletes.”

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