What makes a great sports brand ambassador?
During Advertising Week Europe the one session that really stood out was ‘What makes a brand ambassador?’ It was chaired by David Dinsmore, editor of the Sun, who was joined by Rio Ferdinand, Rebecca Adlington, Lawrence Dallaglio and David Beckham’s key strategist Simon Oliveira.
The conversation was focused around the relationship between sportspeople and brands and also how they viewed themselves. Adlington kicked things off by saying that she did not consider herself to be a brand and said humbly: “I’m a person and I’m a human being and I always represent me being me”. She added: “You don’t get into swimming to be in the spotlight or to be famous or for money or for any other reason other than you just love what you do and you want to get to the top of that level.”
It’s clear that in years gone by there was never that much preparation or media training for sports stars, whereas today this kind of tuition is being given to kids even as young as 12-years-old.
All the panelists felt strongly that in order to work effectively with a brand it had to understand them as a person and the advice was to not always follow the money – as seductive as it may seem. Integrity and synergy were considered more important and certainly would hold you in better stead in the long run.
It was interesting to hear about one instance when Ferdinand agreed to work with a brand and during the creative team meeting it was evident that they hadn’t actually cared to find out much about him beforehand. And he felt strongly that this kind of ignorance would be reflected in the outcome of the campaign with the commercial not having as much energy as it could have had if he was fully behind it and more so, if it had a closer fit with him personally.
And this was echoed by Dallaglio who said: “Good creativity and good strategy unlocks great ideas and that makes a good campaign." For him that was the basis of a really good relationship. He felt that too many brands get involved in sports because someone senior at the business has a passion for that particular field but that it didn’t necessarily fit the brand values and purpose.
Receiving loads of praise were brands like Nike and Speedo. Adlington said of Speedo: “They understood every single element of what I needed.” She loved the fact that it was a quality product, genuinely benefiting her performance and the relationship became even stronger especially when she had the opportunity to adapt elements to suit herself.
Amusingly the panel were asked about times when they felt that the partnership between a personality and a brand didn’t quite work out. Dallaglio recalled the time he worked with McDonald's after the World Cup and he admitted: “In terms of integrity it wasn’t a great fit.” For him it was a contradiction in terms for a sports ambassador to be seen munching into a McDonald's.
And Oliveira spoke about Cristiano Ronaldo, the football icon, who worked with Japanese brand ‘Facial Fitness’ – arguably not the best fit for the pin-up’s image as the item left him looking like he had "a propeller in his mouth”. He also raised a few eyebrows by saying “Cristiano Ronaldo could be the next Rupert Murdoch”, in reference to the Real Madrid star's combined audience of 100 million people, which currently beats the engagement of many major media brands.
It went without saying that the panel guests agreed, for the most part, that brands were most keen to work with those who were at the top of their game. “I’ve never seen a brand follow people that aren’t successful,” said Dallaglio and this was supported by Oliveira who advised that people like Federer, Messi or Ronaldo would always be commercially viable.
Lynn Lester is managing director of Awards at The Drum