If you're an athlete at the top of your sport endorsements are a given, over time athletes have been used to endorse all sorts of products - everything from running shoes to credit cards. Following recent events with various athletes including Lance Armstrong, Tiger Woods and Oscar Pistorius questions have been asked regarding the risk/value to brands.
Athlete endorsements are certainly not a new run thing, Honus Wagner (baseball hall of fame) is cited as the first ever athlete endorsement deal in 1905, his deal with Hillerich & Bradsby Co. called for them to supply Wagner with bats to his specifications - a deal most manufacturers would snap your hand off for these days, when you consider that David Beckham receives around £28m in endorsements per annum (that's a lot of boxer shorts). Here are the 5 biggest athlete endorsements as of now:
- Tiger Woods, Nike - £68m
- George Foreman, The George Foreman Grill - £90m
- David Beckham, Multiple including Adidas - £105m
- Rory McIlroy, Nike - £165m
- Derrick Rose, Adidas - £171m
These deals have varying contract lengths, Rory McIlroy's deal with Nike spans ten years.
Endorsements aren't rocket science, in essence an athlete is paid to represent a brand. In return for payment athletes may take part in commercials or product launches, they may put their name to a product range I.e. Jordan basketball shoes. Probably goes without saying but the athletes also use/wear the products themselves. Brands may select athletes for a variety of reasons, but ultimately brands like Nike or Adidas gain from creating the impression that their products play a role in the success of the athlete.
As I mentioned previously the times when athlete endorsements go wrong are well documented. Lance Armstrong was dropped by Nike amongst other brands following the doping scandal spanning at least nine years, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Tiger Woods adultery on a huge scale saw him dropped by many brands, however Nike decided against dropping the golf star. Most recently Oscar Pistorius was dropped by Nike, of course when the loss of someones life is involved this put things into perspective.
Having done some research around this topic I began to wonder just how damaging actually is this for brands. There were plenty of so called 'endorsements gone wrong' that I couldn't even remember, see if you can:
- O.J Simpson, Hertz Cars 1992 - Dropped for domestic abuse.
- John Terry, Umbro 2012 - Dropped for racist allegations.
- Michael Phelps, Kellogg's 2009 - Dropped for smoking cannabis.
- Kobe Bryant, Nutella & McDonald's 2003/04 - Dropped for sexual assault allegations.
- Marion Jones, Nike early 2000's - Dropped for use of performance enhancing drugs.
The list could go on, but my point is that sports fans have short term memories and ultimately the negative effect on the brand is short lived - this can be seen by the brands used in these examples, it's not like they have a tainted image after dropping each of these athletes.
In the future I think we will see a shift in how athlete endorsements are run, with a less risk strategy being implemented. A clever, yet simple way to do this is to spread the risk across more than one athlete. For example Gillette used Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry to great effect in their commercials - perhaps they are ahead of their time?
Here are the top 10 highest paid football managers and my brief thoughts on each...
10) Jose Antonio Camacho, China National Team - £5.2m
- The former Real Madrid manager now finds himself managing the Chinese national team. Following huge investment and growth in the sport, Jose is 'cashing in' much in the same way we saw with Didier Drogba.
- Win 37.81%
- Draw 24.88%
- Loss 37.31%
9) Sir Alex Ferguson, Manchester United - £6.4m
- The Man Utd legend in my view is the biggest bargain (if you can call £6.4m a bargain) in the top 10. On course for a record 20th Premier League title - seen it all, done it all, I'm not sure they make managers like Sir Alex anymore.
- Win 63.19%
- Draw 20.68%
- Loss 16.13%
8) Roberto Mancini, Manchester City - £6.5m
- Interesting that the blue side of Manchester decided to slightly pip the reds for manager wages, seems quite a coincidence. Mancini had great success last season with winning the Premier League, but struggled this year after marking no marquee signings. Europe remains a question mark.
- Win 54.85%
- Draw 25.15%
- Loss 20.00%
7) Fabio Capello, Russia - £7.9m
- This is what you get for being a failed England manager, hard to imagine how his Russian compares to his grasp of the English language. Credit where it's due, this is good work if you can get it!
- Win 57.09%
- Draw 29.23%
- Loss 13.68%
6) Arsene Wenger, Arsenal - £8m
- The arsenal great comes in at six, this salary could have been justified during the 'invincibles' when Arsene brought together a superb Arsenal team. Much credit can also be given to his development of the French great Thierry Henry. With eight years without a trophy, I think Wenger is batting above his average with his salary!
- Win 55.86%
- Draw 23.87%
- Loss 20.27%
5) Kenny Dalglish, Liverpool - £8.5m (pay-off)
- The still Liverpool legend, but ex-Liverpool boss received a huge pay-off after seeing him sacked from the managers position.
- Win 48.86%
- Draw 24.24%
- Loss 26.89%
4) Guus Hiddink, Anzhi Makhachkala - £9.2m
- The former Real Madrid, Chelsea and Russia National Team manager (used to big salaries then) is currently sat second in the Russian domestic league. The Dutchman in my view is one of the top managers in the world and wasted in what is considered one of the more minor European leagues. After this year surely he has enough cash to come back to top level football?!
- Win 60.75%
- Draw 19.00%
- Loss 20.25%
3) Marcello Lippi, Guangzhou Evergrande - £9.4m
- Italian World Cup winning hero, now in charge of the Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande. Much the same to Hiddink I can't help but feel this mans talents are only surpassed by his greed. Should be involved in top flight European/International football.
- Win 50.66%
- Draw 27.75%
- Loss 21.59%
2) Carlo Ancelotti, PSG - £10.25m
- Another former Chelsea manager, currently in charge of French football heavyweights PSG. Currently enjoying Champions League success, Qatari funding and his new best friend David Beckham.
- Win 57.94%
- Draw 23.57%
- Loss 18.49%
1) Jose Mourinho, Real Madrid - £12m
- 'The special one' is of course another ex-Chelsea boss and currently manager of Real Madrid. Much speculation surrounding his next move, and he is making no secret of his admiration of Sir Alex Ferguson and Manchester United. The Reds may have to double their current managers wage to see Mourinho join. Jose has a simple formula to get to the top, win everywhere you go - and do it with charisma and charm. A fascinating man.
- Win 67.21%
- Draw 19.88%
- Loss 12.91%
So there you have it the top 10 highest paid managers in the World. Interestingly the manager with the highest win % is No.1 and the manager with the lowest win % is No.10. Stats do count for something I guess.
Michael Owen has today announced that he will be retiring from football at the age of 33. I have taken a look over the career of a man who was one of the most promising and talented English players ever.
Born 14th December 1979 in Chester, Michael was the son of Terry Owen (formerly of Everton FC). Owen was destined for great things from a young age when he was reported to have scored 97 goals in a season (yes that says 97) at the age of 10. At 12 Owen signed a contract with Liverpool FC and his goal scoring record continued - he played for England U15's/16's which included a record breaking 28 goals in 20 games. During the 1995-96 season Owen played for Liverpool in the FA Youth Cup in which he scored eleven times in five games guiding Liverpool to their first ever victory in the competition. At this early age Owen was making even the most experienced scouts stand up and take notice, so it was of little surprise when he signed a professional contract with Liverpool aged 17.
6 May 1997 saw Michael Owen's debut for Liverpool against Wimbledon, and true to form, he scored. 1997-98 season saw Owen become the first choice striker for Liverpool, replacing none less than Robbie Fowler, the decision was justified with a PL Golden Boot, PFA Young Player of the Year and third place in the PFA Player of the Year awards. Owen was also pipped by Zinedine Zidane to the World Player of the Year. The young striker, 18 at the time, was hailed Liverpool's saviour.
England vs Argentina 1998 World Cup produced one of Owen's most magical moments with a spine tingling run past an Argentine defense (making them look like they were standing still) and a perfect finish. It was this moment when many watching realised, 'this bloke is something special'.
Owen continued his goalscoring form in 1998-99 retaining his golden boot award, this was despite a telling hamstring injury which brought his season to an end on 12th April. An injury which was not surprising for many experts due to his blistering acceleration. Little did he know at the time but this injury would impact on his career forever.
The 1999-00 season was frustratingly hampered with injury, with Owen only completing the full 90 minutes on three occasions. This was a stark contrast to the 2000-01 season which saw Owen help Liverpool to a treble winning season and Owen was rewarded with both the World Player of the Year and European Player of the Year - the latter he was the first English winner since his birth year 1979, when Kevin Keegan took the award.
In 2004 Owen made the move to Real Madrid for £8million, where his transfer wasn't viewed as a huge success scoring 14 goals in 40 games - having said that he had the best goals for minutes played ratio in La Liga. However following Spanish press criticism and two big Real signings, Owen transferred to Newcastle United for £16million (healthy profit!) this move saw 30 goals from 79 games and critics pointed out his lack of sharpness, which was ultimately hindered from his hamstring problems.
Manchester United took a risk free approach to Michael Owen with a pay as you play two year contract initiated in 2009 and Owen was mainly used as a substitute. Manager Alex Ferguson looked like a genius when Owen scored on his (non competitive) debut. The move involved a 'nice touch' with Owen been given the number 7 shirt - previously worn by Cristiano Ronaldo, David Beckham, Eric Cantona and George Best.
Owen played a total of 475 games for his five professional clubs, scoring a combined 220 goals. His international career boasts 40 goals from 89 caps.
For me (I'm 25) Michael Owen is the first great player I have seen from the start of his career to the end, and I would like to say what a privilege it was. God only knows how good this bloke could have been with two good hamstrings on him!
We have all seen LEDs used in sporting venues around the globe, but now a revolutionary technology is going to change the industry forever.
Guy Hollis - Supponor
In an exclusive interview with Guy Hollis, Head of Production at Supponor, I learned a little bit more about this innovative company.
Let's get the most important stuff out of the way first:
Favourite colour? Green Favourite Car? DB9 Favourite Food? Steak Who's your Football team? Leeds Utd (although I use the word Football loosely)
- When and how did Supponor start out?
The man who founded Supponor was Erkki
Rantalainen. He was inspired to produce virtual advertising for sports
while watching the Millennium celebrations in New York’s Times Square.
He saw adverts projected onto a blue wall and reasoned
that it must therefore be possible to project virtual advertising onto
any background and it all stemmed from there.
- Can you explain how the technology works? In basic terms.
I’ll try. The
technology is based on marking the billboards with surfaces whose
radiation differs from the surrounding radiation. This is done through a
special film or by special LED
light sources that emit a light that is not visible to the human eye.
The fans inside the stadium will see billboards that appear to be
perfectly natural - only the fans at home will get a different view.
We add
additional hardware on the broadcaster’s camera that recognise the
marking radiation and based on this information the system knows the
location, position and size of the billboard.
If there are obstructions between the camera and the billboard, such as
players, the system recognises this and manages the inclusion of the
obstruction in the overall image. This makes the replacement billboards
appear real to viewers.
Once the billboard location is identified the
insertion of replacement billboards is straight forward. We load up
brands artwork onto the system and let them play throughout the game.
We can manage this across multiple feeds, with each
feed showing different brands specific to the region the TV output is
being shown. It allows Brands to tailor their messages accordingly and
opens the opportunity to target particular markets while ignoring
markets and have no value. Unlike existing perimeter
advertising you're seen where you want and need to be.
- What are the advantages to i) Sponsors? ii) Rights holders?
i) Global brands with regional variations in
their products have traditionally been unable to use in-stadium
perimeter billboards to tailor their message to specific markets. Our
technology has transformed that position so all brands can
match the requirements of their regional marketing teams when planning
their marketing campaigns around major sports broadcasts. Brand managers
can use local language or variations in their own brand to maximum
effect. They can take completely different approaches
to suit specific audiences and use any form of digital media including
animation and video to get their message across.
Brands eager to be seen by millions at home but
unable to afford a global advertising spend can now get a foothold in
advertising via sports and leagues previously inaccessible to them.
Advertisers can invest in platforms on a regional basis and deliver back real value in terms of a targeted message.
ii) Billboard rights holders’ potential revenue
is multiplied by the technology which offers unprecedented flexibility
in terms of market reach.
Sports federations, leagues, competitions and
clubs are seeking to maximise the value of their commercial assets when
negotiating with broadcasters, sponsors and brands. The value of
in-stadium perimeter billboards is integral to this as
advertisers and sponsors recognise the increasing importance of
in-event advertising over traditional commercial breaks.
Our technologies ability to digitally insert
replacement billboard images to the live feed of a match or event
revolutionises the revenue model by allowing tailored advertising in
different territories.
Sports rights holders can:
Offer high-value advertising to global brands who wish to regionalise their message by language or brand name.
Segment the market by region and license the same billboard rights in multiple broadcast territories.
Such is the revenue potential of the technology
for the sports rights holder that it is destined to be an essential part
of their commercial proposal.
- As Head of Production what day to day challenges do you face?
Every day is different at Supponor
which is equally frustrating and very rewarding. We are working with a
technology that no one has been able to do before so there is a real
excitement to be leading the way
with something that we believe will revolutionise advertising at live
sporting events. We not only create the software to run this system but
we have with our partner’s developed new hardware without which none of
it would be possible. I guess the single
most challenging aspect right now is, dealing with all the people who
want to use the system.
- How successful was your recent game at Wembley for Brazil vs Eng?
This was a very good game for Supponor. We produced feeds for Brazilian TV and a separate feed for the international viewers.
- Is it fair to say that your focus is mainly in football? Is it likely that this will expand to other sports?
Football is the biggest sport in world
and has massive global TV audiences. We do focus on opportunities in
football and have deployed the system at many games throughout Europe,
but we have also used our technology
at other events. For example in 2012 we were present at the European
Water polo Championships and placed virtual advertising for over 60
hours of live coverage from the event. We have also completed
basketball events with the NBA and undergone offline showcases
with major motor sports.
- You received 13.7mil investment, how did this change the organisation?
From a day-to-day point of view it
didn’t really, it added a few new faces to the board. It hasn’t changed
our plan significantly but it has given us the funding to deliver that
plan and has added expertise
and high-level contacts in the sports industry which is always
welcome. All our investors are very supportive and continue to back
the strategy set out by the management team.by the management team.
- What does the future hold for Supponor? American market?
We will continue to explore
opportunities in the sports and events that command a global audience or
massive local audiences. US sports fit both categories. The likes of
the NBA has a global reach on par with
the Premier League and obviously has vast support within the US, which
in itself has regional opportunities.
No doubt the technology will continue to develop and hopefully you’ll see more of our work on Live sport around the world.
Guy, thank you for your time and a very interesting insight - I will be watching Supponor's development with a keen eye, as I am sure much of the sports world will be!
Since it's creation in 1992 The Premier League has been an extraordinary success, the league can now be viewed in 212 territories and is shown in 643 million homes. I have had a look at various details about the league to give an overview.
First let's take a look at the product itself, much debate has been held recently comparing the Premier League to La Liga and whether our Spanish rivals have over taken us in recent years. In comparison the Premier League has more shots, more goals, more goals from outside the box (including more free kicks) and a higher average attendance than La Liga. Though the Premier League does marginally lose out to The Bundesliga in terms of attendances.
The Premier League has enormous commercial value to clubs, estimates are that promotion to the league is worth around £90 million. This is largely due to the distribution of broadcasting revenue, with 50% being shared equally, 25% through facility fees (live games) and 25% based on the finishing place. To compare ratios for revenue distribution across Europe the Premier League comes in at 1.54:1 which is vastly different to La Liga at 12:1 and Serie A at 10:1. Perhaps this smaller difference in distribution accounts for the increased competitiveness of the Premier League.
With a significant amount of viewers for the league, this has meant sponsorship is a very attractive proposition. The league has seen title sponsors of Carling, 1993-2001 - Barclaycard, 2001-2004 - Barclays, 2004-Present. The current sponsor Barclays has just agreed to a contract extension until 2016, increasing the fee from £27.5 million to £40 million per season. The league is the 4th highest in terms of revenue behind NFL, Major League Baseball and The NBA.
If you weren't already impressed with the league, this is where it gets good. With 600+ million viewers the broadcasting rights for The Premier League are huge. The TV rights have increased in value with every contract:
1) £304 million - BskyB, 5 year term.
2) £670 million - BskyB, 4 year term.
3) £1.024 billion - BskyB, 3 year term.
4) £1.7 billion - BskyB and Setanta, 3 year term.
5) £3.018 billion - BskyB and BT, 3 year term.
In total The Premier League has 36 different broadcasting deals, resulting in a total revenue from this area in excess of £5 billion. To put that into context that is more than the TV rights are sold for a Football World Cup or The Olympic Games.
The continued success is largely dependent on the ever growing Asian market, which currently contributes around 300 million viewers. However one can't help but think that the glass ceiling isn't far away.
Athlete endorsements are certainly not a new run thing, Honus Wagner (baseball hall of fame) is cited as the first ever athlete endorsement deal in 1905, his deal with Hillerich & Bradsby Co. called for them to supply Wagner with bats to his specifications - a deal most manufacturers would snap your hand off for these days, when you consider that David Beckham receives around £28m in endorsements per annum (that's a lot of boxer shorts). Here are the 5 biggest athlete endorsements as of now:
As I mentioned previously the times when athlete endorsements go wrong are well documented. Lance Armstrong was dropped by Nike amongst other brands following the doping scandal spanning at least nine years, Armstrong was stripped of his seven Tour de France titles. Tiger Woods adultery on a huge scale saw him dropped by many brands, however Nike decided against dropping the golf star. Most recently Oscar Pistorius was dropped by Nike, of course when the loss of someones life is involved this put things into perspective.
