Sports as a business enjoys a long and storied tradition. It is clear the current center of sports culture is undeniably keyed to the twin businesses of advertising and education, regardless of the sport itself or what part of the world it calls home.
Managing a worldwide collection of industries with an estimated worth north of a half trillion dollars is no game. Between endorsements, professional contracts, broadcast rights, merchandising, stadium concessions and the careers of athletes and coaches beyond their years in uniform or on the sidelines, agents and managers are rarely without something important to do.
All Markets
Sports agents and business experts are catching on to the fact their clients are celebrities in every sense of the word. As such, they have wide-ranging possibilities for generating both marketing momentum and new streams of revenue. From publishing to promotions, athletes, coaches and even the occasional sports journalist can find many opportunities both in and out of their respective teams and competitions.
Connected Competition
With the advent of 24 hour news and the concurrent interest in large-scale events like the Olympics, major championship series and brand new venues like Blizzard Entertainment’s construction of a dedicated eSports facility in Southern California, the world of sports entertainment is rapidly gaining ground in a media landscape that by all rights should have left it behind by now.
Although the sports themselves haven’t changed much, the methods by which they are marketed and promoted have. The results bring audiences that are less concerned with team identity and more interested in the personalities themselves. This presents nothing but opportunity for success-minded agents who know how to blend accessibility, social media, and a larger than life image.
Good Stories
Like any marketing expert will tell you, everything starts out as a story and ends up as a story. When that fact is combined with the provable assertion that perception is reality, the contest boils down to one thing: Who can tell the best story? Which image and which personality is going to make an emotional connection with the largest audience? On the championship platform, that’s really the only question that matters.
This is the challenge that faces the sports marketer. It really isn’t all that different from turning a character into a hero. The only true distinction is the man or woman on the field is a real human being doing what others might consider the impossible.
