Gold Medals May Not Spark Marketing Deals

Athletes who win Olympic gold in Beijing might not parlay their triumphs into lucrative marketing payoffs after the cheering stops.

Marketing mavens maintain that the golden afterglow of the summer games is relatively short-lived for all, but the most exceptional athletes in an era of media overkill.

“People have a short attention span,” said Bob Dorfman, vice president of Baker Street Partners, which tracks sports star endorsements. “A lot of it is based on finding an athlete with staying power who may comeback for the 2012 games in London.”

Corporate sponsors make their biggest plays around athletes in the run-up to the Olympics, according to Dorfman, who suggests that the front of the Wheaties box is the best most U.S. athletes can hope to achieve after Beijing.

Super-swimmer Michael Phelps is, of course the remarkable exception to that rule. Visa is already running a congratulatory TV spot in praise of Phelps, who already makes approximately $7 million in endorsements from Visa, Speedo and other sponsors.

Corporate sponsorships for potential Olympic medal winners, or those who already have a high performance profile, are more common these days. U.S. gymnast Shawn Johnson already has sponsorship deals in place with Coca-Cola, Adidas, McDonald’s and Hy-Vee. Her teammate Nastia Liukin has deals with Adidas, American Athletic, AT&T, Cover Girl, GK Elite Sportswear, Visa, Longines and Sega.

Along with the prolific Phelps, they are widely seen as the athletes most likely to realize further riches if they win individual gold medals in Beijing.

“They have that kind of Mary Lou Retton potential,” Dorfman said.

But making Olympic performances pay is more than a matter of medals and the youthful appeal that Retton exuded. It also depends on getting primetime exposure, which NCB is providing for the USA swimmers and gymnasts.

“When you look at the marketability of Olympics athletes, it’s based on visibility,” Scott Stanford, senior client director for Davie Brown Talent, said. “Where you’re going to see marketability is with those athletes featured in primetime.”

Stanford sees 41-year-old swimmer Dara Torres as a potentially compelling candidate for corporate marketers, along with U.S. softball players Jenny Finch and Kate Osterman. He also thinks sprinter Tyson Gay could see a post-Olympics payday if he takes home the title of world’s fastest man.

Some observers think the International Olympics Committee’s drug testing efforts have removed the cloud that hovered over track and field competition. But the spectra of sprinter Marianne Jones lingers for Nike and other sponsors who were burned in the wake of her admitted blood-doping.

But being the world’s fastest human just may not have the same cache it once did.

“Being the world’s fastest man is just not that exciting,” Richard Laermer, a sports marketing consultant, said. “Today, you have to do something pretty outrageous in the Olympics to get attention and there’s only one person doing it right now.”

Gay will still be smiling when he leaves Beijing: he scored $2 million in sponsorships from Adidas, Omega and Sega before the summer games began.

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