Welcome to the blog of Dr. Lisa Burns' Media Studies senior capstone class (Section B) at Quinnipiac University. If you're looking for the latest on media industry trends and insightful media analysis, you've come to the right place.
Friday, April 7, 2017
Sports & Celebrity Blog 7, Question 2 (April 11th)
Why is branding so important in
sports? How is it similar to, and different from, celebrity branding? What are some of the ways that successful athletes
and franchises leverage their brands in the marketplace? Limit:
7 responses
Branding is so important in sports, both for athletes and franchises, because connections with fans are what give them social currency. Branding in sports is very similar to that of celebrity branding, with only a few small differences. Athletes are “using social media to build and monetize their personal brands by curating content and organically integrating sponsorship and endorsement messages” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). In some cases, the lines between celebrities and athletes can be blurred. Many top-earning athletes are considered celebrities because of their popularity and success. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, and Roger Federer all made Forbes’ 2016 Celebrity top-25 earners list. Although they are professional athletes, they also maintain celebrity status (Greenburg). Making connections over social media is important for athletes because they get a considerable amount of their money from sponsorships and endorsements. Similar to celebrities, if an athlete can prove strong followership on social media, it makes them more of an asset, and more valuable to sponsors and endorsers. The world’s top earning athletes receive a considerable amount of their earnings from endorsements. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo, the top paid athlete in 2016, made $32 million out of his total $88 million from endorsements (Forbes Staff). In some cases, athletes make more in a year from endorsements than their salary. This holds true for athletes like LeBron James, Roger Federer, Kevin Durant, Novak Djokovic, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth, to name a few (Forbes Staff). LeBron James made $54 million in endorsements, and $23.2 million from his salary. The importance of endorsements to athletes explains why they are so active about their social media presence. This holds true with teams and leagues as well. They are strategically using their “large social media followings to deepen their partnerships with brands” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). Athletes, teams, and leagues are doing this over a number of platforms. However, “Instagram proves to be the most efficient platform in driving sponsorship value” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). Athletes and teams can form deeper relationships with their fans over social media because of their exclusivity. They can show athletes warming up, hanging out in the locker room among many other ordinary events to give a “behind-the-scenes” look to devoted fans.
One league that has maintained exceptional success in terms of branding is the NBA. The NBA, including the athletes, teams, coaches, franchises and commissioner have branded themselves over social media and television networks to stay relevant to younger audiences. Other leagues, like the MLB and NFL “suffer from aging fan-bases and disinterest from younger sports fans, one sports league has stayed ahead of the curve—the NBA” (Hadley). It seems as if the NBA is hyperaware of the changes in fan bases and social media. The NBA and “its stars are wildly popular on social media, and its fans’ average age has stayed steady over time, suggesting that as older fans move on, younger ones are filling the ranks” (Hadley). The NBA is aware of the potential of sponsorships and endorsements, and the popularity of their players, making sure they maintain that popularity. NBA commissioner Adam Silver is even looking into changing the game (timeouts, length of game, etc.) in order to cater to its audience. The NBA serves as a successful model for branding that other leagues might want to take a look at.
Works Cited Forbes Staff. “Forbes Releases the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes List 2016.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 08 June 2016. Web. 09 April 2017. Greenburg, Zack O’Malley. “Full List: The World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities of 2016.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 13 July 2016. Web. 09 April 2017. Hadley, Greg. “Millennials and Their Short Attention Spans Have the NBA considering Rule Changes.” Sacbee. The Sacramento Bee, 15 January 2017. Web. 09 April 2017. “The Year in Sports Media Report: 2016.” Nielsen. 15 February 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
Branding is important in sports as well as in celebrity culture because like celebrities, athletes reach out to their fanbases as well and market themselves as public figures. It also begs the question when it comes to athletic brands, who is more effective when choosing sponsorships or brand ambassadors, celebrities or athletes? On footwearnews.com Margaret Sutherlin writes that “athletic brands know that athleisure is a hot trend right now, and being able to shift some product and messaging to fit lifestyle audience is key. The similarities between athletes and celebrities is that they cannot just rely on the revenue they get from performances or games, they also have to look outside for sponsorships or advertising opportunities in order to get their name out there or to get extra money. Social media has played a huge factor in the advertisement game, being that it is the main way to keep in touch with one’s fan base and audience. Greg Hadley writes that “The pro basketball league and its stars are wildly popular on social media, and its fans’ average age has stayed steady over time, suggesting that as older fans move on, younger ones are filling the ranks”(Hadley). This could also be the reason why the NBA has managed to stay ahead of other sports leagues. A good example of a partnership between sports brand and athlete is the relationship between Nike and Tiger Woods. However, it was the incredibility of Tiger Woods due to his recent scandal that made the partnership sizzle out with audiences. Martinroll.com states that the essentials to a good athlete endorsement relationship is 1) Attractiveness of the celebrity, 2) Credibility of the celebrity and 3) Meaning transfer between the celebrity and the brand, meaning that the “success of the compatibility between the brand and celebrity in terms of identity, personality, positioning in the market, and lifestyle. By using social media or making an athlete a brand marketer, both the athlete and the company are able to not only appeal to the brands audience, but the athletes as well.
Works Cited "Branding and Celebrity Endorsements." Martin Roll. N.p., 11 June 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2017. Forbes Staff. “Forbes Releases the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes List 2016.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 08 June 2016. Web. 09 April 2017. Greenburg, Zack O’Malley. “Full List: The World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities of 2016.” Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 13 July 2016. Web. 09 April 2017. Hadley, Greg. “Millennials and Their Short Attention Spans Have the NBA considering Rule" Sutherlin, Margaret. "The Athlete & the Celebrity: Who Is More Valuable for Athletic Brands?" Footwear News. N.p., 22 Sept. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
Both sports and celebrity branding are extremely important in today’s society. The brands of athletes are very influential on sports themselves. There are many athletes such as Christiano Ronaldo and Michael Phelps who leverage their brands in the market place. With these brands, athletes are placed on the same scale as celebrities in terms of their influence.
In Forbes’ World’s Highest Paid Celebrities of 2016, there are several athletes that make the list such as Christiano Ronaldo and LeBron James. It is interesting to consider these athletes falling under the celebrity category and I believe their strong branding has a lot to do with this.
Sports owe a lot to their athlete’s brands because they ultimately bring in revenue for their team and oftentimes the entire organization. Branding a successful athlete is beneficial because people see someone they look up to and are familiar with through sports and want to follow their endorsements. This is how celebrities and athletes can go hand in hand, because they can both have similar branding purposes and goals.
Not only is athlete branding very popular, but also services can be branded to attract more consumers. For example, “Content in the forthcoming ESPN-branded OTT service will include college sports, including football and basketball, as well as tennis, rugby and cricket, Iger said on Disney’s earnings call” (Spangler 2016). Since ESPN is a very widely known and branded network, it can come in handy in promoting the new OTT service. In closing, branding celebrities and athletes has proven to be very tricky in the past and will continue to be this way in the future. These individuals need to be very conscious and strategic in promoting certain brands because they have the ability to make or break a product or an endorsement. For example, Selena Gomez is said to take on fewer brand endorsements so that her content will still be relevant to her actual audiences. Whereas the Kardashians sometimes bite off more than they can chew which can be a setback for them for certain business ventures. Celebrities and athletes will continue to have a very influential hold on society as long as social media stays relevant for many years to come.
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. "The World's Highest-Paid Celebrities Of 2016." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 13 July 2016. Web.
Heine, Chris. "Selena Gomez's Social Media Posts Are Evidently Worth $550,000 Apiece." Adweek. Adweek, 19 July 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
Hines, Alice. "The Kardashians Will Be Here Forever." The Outline. The Outline, 27 Dec. 2016. Web.
Spangler, Todd. "ESPN to Launch Over-the-Top Sports Service After Disney’s $1 Billion Investment in MLB’s BAMTech." Variety. Variety, 09 Aug. 2016. Web.
How a person or group of people brand themselves is incredibly important. Whether it be a celebrity, a sports team, an athlete, or even just an everyday person, branding is a way for someone or something to show what they stand for and what kind of image they want to portray. Focusing in on sports and celebrities, their types of brandings have a lot of similarities along with their differences. Celebrities depend on branding in order to appeal to their fans and try to essentially make endorsement deals in order to make more money. The greatest known example of a celebrity who has succeed (term used loosely) based on branding is Kim Kardashian. Kim Kardashian is almost all branding, with so many different products and a reality television show that allows her to show only the sides of her that she wants people to see, Kim is able to brand herself very specifically to her audience. With new products, scandals and stunts, Kim manages to keep her audience entertained and wanting to keep following her in order to see what happens next. Sports are very similar to celebrities, especially when it comes to branding. I can see why it could be confusing to hear that The Dallas Cowboy’s and Kim Kardashian have a lot in common, however, when it comes to publicity, it is really not that far fetched. The Dallas Cowboys are the highest paid team in the NFL regardless of them not being even in the Super Bowl since 1993. Although the team clearly isn’t the best in the league, they are still “the poster child for the NFL’s ability to make bank, with a sports-team record $270 million in operating profit during the 2014 season, $75 million more than any other franchise” (Badenhausen). Like the Kardashians, who many believe “are famous for being famous” (Hines), regardless of talent, the Cowboys are good at branding themselves therefore are still able to be the highest paid team of their field. An example of a successful athlete that has leveraged their brand in the marketplace is Jordan Spieth. As a golfer, I am well aware of the talent this man possess, however, has only won no more than four tournaments in the past year anda half, jumped on the Forbes World’s 100 Highest-Paid Athletes list from No. 85 to No. 9 in 2016. Yes, he won the FedEx Cup giving him $10 million, as well as “new endorsements, rich appearance fees and sponsor bonuses from winning two major tournaments” (Forbes). This all seems impressive, however, there are other golfers out there such as Dustin Johnson who is currently the world number one, who are performing a lot better. Yet, due to this image he has portrayed as being strong and reliable, Spieth consistently agrees to new sponsorship opportunities and endorsement deals, causing him to leverage the market. This is not just seen in golf, but many other sports (such as the previous example with the Cowboys), a product’s branding determines how they get treated. Why is Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the Forbes list and not Messi? Is Messi not the agreeable better, more talented athlete? It’s all about branding. Who everyone is talking about and constantly seeing is what determines their impact on the marketplace.
Hadley, Greg. “Millennials and Their Short Attention Spans Have the NBA considering Rule”
Forbes Staff. “Forbes Releases the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes List 2016.” Forbes. Forbes
Badenhausen, Kurt. “Dallas Cowboys Head the World's 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams Of 2016.” Forbes.
Angie King
ReplyDeleteBranding is so important in sports, both for athletes and franchises, because connections with fans are what give them social currency. Branding in sports is very similar to that of celebrity branding, with only a few small differences. Athletes are “using social media to build and monetize their personal brands by curating content and organically integrating sponsorship and endorsement messages” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). In some cases, the lines between celebrities and athletes can be blurred. Many top-earning athletes are considered celebrities because of their popularity and success. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, LeBron James, and Roger Federer all made Forbes’ 2016 Celebrity top-25 earners list. Although they are professional athletes, they also maintain celebrity status (Greenburg). Making connections over social media is important for athletes because they get a considerable amount of their money from sponsorships and endorsements. Similar to celebrities, if an athlete can prove strong followership on social media, it makes them more of an asset, and more valuable to sponsors and endorsers. The world’s top earning athletes receive a considerable amount of their earnings from endorsements. For example, Cristiano Ronaldo, the top paid athlete in 2016, made $32 million out of his total $88 million from endorsements (Forbes Staff). In some cases, athletes make more in a year from endorsements than their salary. This holds true for athletes like LeBron James, Roger Federer, Kevin Durant, Novak Djokovic, Phil Mickelson and Jordan Spieth, to name a few (Forbes Staff). LeBron James made $54 million in endorsements, and $23.2 million from his salary. The importance of endorsements to athletes explains why they are so active about their social media presence. This holds true with teams and leagues as well. They are strategically using their “large social media followings to deepen their partnerships with brands” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). Athletes, teams, and leagues are doing this over a number of platforms. However, “Instagram proves to be the most efficient platform in driving sponsorship value” (“Year in Sports Media Report”). Athletes and teams can form deeper relationships with their fans over social media because of their exclusivity. They can show athletes warming up, hanging out in the locker room among many other ordinary events to give a “behind-the-scenes” look to devoted fans.
One league that has maintained exceptional success in terms of branding is the NBA. The NBA, including the athletes, teams, coaches, franchises and commissioner have branded themselves over social media and television networks to stay relevant to younger audiences. Other leagues, like the MLB and NFL “suffer from aging fan-bases and disinterest from younger sports fans, one sports league has stayed ahead of the curve—the NBA” (Hadley). It seems as if the NBA is hyperaware of the changes in fan bases and social media. The NBA and “its stars are wildly popular on social media, and its fans’ average age has stayed steady over time, suggesting that as older fans move on, younger ones are filling the ranks” (Hadley). The NBA is aware of the potential of sponsorships and endorsements, and the popularity of their players, making sure they maintain that popularity. NBA commissioner Adam Silver is even looking into changing the game (timeouts, length of game, etc.) in order to cater to its audience. The NBA serves as a successful model for branding that other leagues might want to take a look at.
DeleteWorks Cited
Forbes Staff. “Forbes Releases the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes List 2016.” Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, 08 June 2016. Web. 09 April 2017.
Greenburg, Zack O’Malley. “Full List: The World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities of 2016.” Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 13 July 2016. Web. 09 April 2017.
Hadley, Greg. “Millennials and Their Short Attention Spans Have the NBA considering Rule
Changes.” Sacbee. The Sacramento Bee, 15 January 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
“The Year in Sports Media Report: 2016.” Nielsen. 15 February 2017. Web. 09 April 2017.
Branding is important in sports as well as in celebrity culture because like celebrities, athletes reach out to their fanbases as well and market themselves as public figures. It also begs the question when it comes to athletic brands, who is more effective when choosing sponsorships or brand ambassadors, celebrities or athletes? On footwearnews.com Margaret Sutherlin writes that “athletic brands know that athleisure is a hot trend right now, and being able to shift some product and messaging to fit lifestyle audience is key. The similarities between athletes and celebrities is that they cannot just rely on the revenue they get from performances or games, they also have to look outside for sponsorships or advertising opportunities in order to get their name out there or to get extra money. Social media has played a huge factor in the advertisement game, being that it is the main way to keep in touch with one’s fan base and audience. Greg Hadley writes that “The pro basketball league and its stars are wildly popular on social media, and its fans’ average age has stayed steady over time, suggesting that as older fans move on, younger ones are filling the ranks”(Hadley). This could also be the reason why the NBA has managed to stay ahead of other sports leagues.
ReplyDeleteA good example of a partnership between sports brand and athlete is the relationship between Nike and Tiger Woods. However, it was the incredibility of Tiger Woods due to his recent scandal that made the partnership sizzle out with audiences. Martinroll.com states that the essentials to a good athlete endorsement relationship is 1) Attractiveness of the celebrity, 2) Credibility of the celebrity and 3) Meaning transfer between the celebrity and the brand, meaning that the “success of the compatibility between the brand and celebrity in terms of identity, personality, positioning in the market, and lifestyle. By using social media or making an athlete a brand marketer, both the athlete and the company are able to not only appeal to the brands audience, but the athletes as well.
Works Cited
ReplyDelete"Branding and Celebrity Endorsements." Martin Roll. N.p., 11 June 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
Forbes Staff. “Forbes Releases the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes List 2016.” Forbes. Forbes
Magazine, 08 June 2016. Web. 09 April 2017.
Greenburg, Zack O’Malley. “Full List: The World’s Highest-Paid Celebrities of 2016.” Forbes.
Forbes Magazine, 13 July 2016. Web. 09 April 2017.
Hadley, Greg. “Millennials and Their Short Attention Spans Have the NBA considering Rule"
Sutherlin, Margaret. "The Athlete & the Celebrity: Who Is More Valuable for Athletic Brands?" Footwear News. N.p., 22 Sept. 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
Both sports and celebrity branding are extremely important in today’s society. The brands of athletes are very influential on sports themselves. There are many athletes such as Christiano Ronaldo and Michael Phelps who leverage their brands in the market place. With these brands, athletes are placed on the same scale as celebrities in terms of their influence.
ReplyDeleteIn Forbes’ World’s Highest Paid Celebrities of 2016, there are several athletes that make the list such as Christiano Ronaldo and LeBron James. It is interesting to consider these athletes falling under the celebrity category and I believe their strong branding has a lot to do with this.
Sports owe a lot to their athlete’s brands because they ultimately bring in revenue for their team and oftentimes the entire organization. Branding a successful athlete is beneficial because people see someone they look up to and are familiar with through sports and want to follow their endorsements. This is how celebrities and athletes can go hand in hand, because they can both have similar branding purposes and goals.
Not only is athlete branding very popular, but also services can be branded to attract more consumers. For example, “Content in the forthcoming ESPN-branded OTT service will include college sports, including football and basketball, as well as tennis, rugby and cricket, Iger said on Disney’s earnings call” (Spangler 2016). Since ESPN is a very widely known and branded network, it can come in handy in promoting the new OTT service.
DeleteIn closing, branding celebrities and athletes has proven to be very tricky in the past and will continue to be this way in the future. These individuals need to be very conscious and strategic in promoting certain brands because they have the ability to make or break a product or an endorsement. For example, Selena Gomez is said to take on fewer brand endorsements so that her content will still be relevant to her actual audiences. Whereas the Kardashians sometimes bite off more than they can chew which can be a setback for them for certain business ventures. Celebrities and athletes will continue to have a very influential hold on society as long as social media stays relevant for many years to come.
Greenburg, Zack O'Malley. "The World's Highest-Paid Celebrities Of 2016." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 13 July 2016. Web.
Heine, Chris. "Selena Gomez's Social Media Posts Are Evidently Worth $550,000 Apiece." Adweek. Adweek, 19 July 2016. Web. 11 Apr. 2017.
Hines, Alice. "The Kardashians Will Be Here Forever." The Outline. The Outline, 27 Dec. 2016. Web.
Spangler, Todd. "ESPN to Launch Over-the-Top Sports Service After Disney’s $1 Billion Investment in MLB’s BAMTech." Variety. Variety, 09 Aug. 2016. Web.
How a person or group of people brand themselves is incredibly important. Whether it be a celebrity, a sports team, an athlete, or even just an everyday person, branding is a way for someone or something to show what they stand for and what kind of image they want to portray. Focusing in on sports and celebrities, their types of brandings have a lot of similarities along with their differences. Celebrities depend on branding in order to appeal to their fans and try to essentially make endorsement deals in order to make more money. The greatest known example of a celebrity who has succeed (term used loosely) based on branding is Kim Kardashian. Kim Kardashian is almost all branding, with so many different products and a reality television show that allows her to show only the sides of her that she wants people to see, Kim is able to brand herself very specifically to her audience. With new products, scandals and stunts, Kim manages to keep her audience entertained and wanting to keep following her in order to see what happens next. Sports are very similar to celebrities, especially when it comes to branding. I can see why it could be confusing to hear that The Dallas Cowboy’s and Kim Kardashian have a lot in common, however, when it comes to publicity, it is really not that far fetched. The Dallas Cowboys are the highest paid team in the NFL regardless of them not being even in the Super Bowl since 1993. Although the team clearly isn’t the best in the league, they are still “the poster child for the NFL’s ability to make bank, with a sports-team record $270 million in operating profit during the 2014 season, $75 million more than any other franchise” (Badenhausen). Like the Kardashians, who many believe “are famous for being famous” (Hines), regardless of talent, the Cowboys are good at branding themselves therefore are still able to be the highest paid team of their field.
ReplyDeleteAn example of a successful athlete that has leveraged their brand in the marketplace is Jordan Spieth. As a golfer, I am well aware of the talent this man possess, however, has only won no more than four tournaments in the past year anda half, jumped on the Forbes World’s 100 Highest-Paid Athletes list from No. 85 to No. 9 in 2016. Yes, he won the FedEx Cup giving him $10 million, as well as “new endorsements, rich appearance fees and sponsor bonuses from winning two major tournaments” (Forbes). This all seems impressive, however, there are other golfers out there such as Dustin Johnson who is currently the world number one, who are performing a lot better. Yet, due to this image he has portrayed as being strong and reliable, Spieth consistently agrees to new sponsorship opportunities and endorsement deals, causing him to leverage the market. This is not just seen in golf, but many other sports (such as the previous example with the Cowboys), a product’s branding determines how they get treated. Why is Cristiano Ronaldo at the top of the Forbes list and not Messi? Is Messi not the agreeable better, more talented athlete? It’s all about branding. Who everyone is talking about and constantly seeing is what determines their impact on the marketplace.
Hadley, Greg. “Millennials and Their Short Attention Spans Have the NBA considering Rule”
Forbes Staff. “Forbes Releases the World’s Highest-Paid Athletes List 2016.” Forbes. Forbes
Badenhausen, Kurt. “Dallas Cowboys Head the World's 50 Most Valuable Sports Teams Of 2016.” Forbes.
Hines, Alice. “The Kardashian Empire is Bigger and Weirder than You Think.” The Outline. 2016.
Delete