If you’re Michael Jordan, the basketball superstar, you can be silent and still be a brand. But every other athlete needs to figure out how to position themselves if they want to move from great player to top recipient of sponsorship dollars and to one day being their own brand.
The “how” is the most challenging part, agreed a group of athletes and sports personalities convened on Dec. 4 as part of The New York Times DealBook Summit panel, “The Other Game: How Athletes Become Brands.”
“It’s starting younger and younger,” said Bomani Jones, host of the podcast “The Right Time With Bomani Jones.” “The safe play is what people think is the Michael Jordan play, which is to not really say anything interesting. That only worked because Michael Jordan is the coolest dude in the world.”
For everyone else — from college athletes reaping the benefits of name, image and likeness (known as N.I.L.) deals to elite athletes in their prime and beyond — the consensus was that becoming a brand is hard and may not be the best career move for many athletes, if it’s even achievable.
For starters, building a brand is different than playing the sport that got someone to the point where that is even an option. Sports grounds you. Brand-building forces you into the public in a way that may be beyond your comfort zone. It’s almost as if you can’t be too public.
Jess Sims, the moderator, who built her personal brand as an early Peloton instructor and is now a host for The Athletic, framed branding challenges as aspirational versus inspirational. In the past, someone might buy a poster of Kobe Bryant and put it on their wall. Now they want to watch the behind-the-scenes footage of that poster shoot to glean tips on how they might one day get there themselves.
“No longer do we look at someone and say, ‘I want to be you,’” Ms. Sims said. “It’s, like, ‘no, I see you crushing it. How do I do what I need to do to crush it in my own lane?’”
For some athletes, trading on your celebrity and access could be the better way to go. Doing so could mean reaping the benefits of lucrative endorsement deals. It could also mean laying the groundwork for a career after professional sports, which is what Justin Tuck did.
Mr. Tuck, who won two Super Bowl rings playing for the New York Giants, said he used his sports fame to learn more about business on his days off. That could be having lunch with a hedge fund manager or meeting with someone who owned 50 Wendy’s franchises. He now works for Goldman Sachs. And what his brand is now is wholly different from what it was when he was a top defensive player in the N.F.L.
“There’s no $100 million client that I have to go see that’s going to care about me posting on Twitter or Facebook or anything else,” he said. “And that’s just, you know, that’s just the nature of the beast as far as the transition that I made.”
He acknowledged for others on the panel the more logical extension from their sports career might be to do something in the media or their sport.
Mr. Jones, an ESPN personality, said athletes might be leaning too heavily into creating a brand, when their celebrity would get them where they wanted to go more easily.
“I hear Justin talking about meeting with the hedge fund managers,” Mr. Jones said. “That’s leveraging the level of celebrity you have, but it’s not because of, like, Justin Tuck Inc. “Fundamentally, a brand has to say something when people see it.”
That’s what McDonald’s has achieved. But it’s hard for individuals to get to that level of brand recognition that corporations pour millions of dollars into creating and continually refining.
The pressure and criticism athletes face in building their brand has to be factored in as well. Having a supportive community is key for athletes. Otherwise, the pressure to build a brand by posting on social media can be exhausting, and the negative comments can be debilitating.
“I think just understanding that the people you have within your circle — your relationships, whether it’s family, friends, cousins, uncles, your own coaches — understanding that those people can uplift you is a little easier for you,” said Jordan Chiles, the gold-medal winning Olympic gymnast.
Jesse Palmer, a former N.F.L. quarterback who is now a television host, agreed, adding that sometimes even teammates who are outwardly supportive can be privately jealous of your success. “I think it’s important too that the people who are in your circle are genuinely behind you and happy for your success, which I think, as athletes, sometimes isn’t always the case.”
Ms. Chiles pointed out the different level of judgment for female athletes on social media. “There’s a difference when it comes to male and female when you have that platform,” she said.
“Because as women, if we go off of social media, they start giving these negative comments,” she added. “Or the biggest thing is she’s pregnant.”
Negotiating the always-on nature of brand building is starting younger. Name, image and likeness deals have allowed college athletes to emerge as brands before they even step on campus. A lot of attention is put on athletes in football and basketball, the big revenue-generating sports for colleges. But female athletes are often at their highest-earning capacity in college, particularly for sports without professional options like gymnastics and softball.
Ms. Chiles, a two-time Olympian, is still a student at the University of California, Los Angeles. The previous generation of gymnasts had to chose between going to college (and not getting paid) and turning pro, she said. She always wanted to be a college athlete and represent her school.
Yet with 1.5 million Instagram followers, Ms. Chiles is not the collegiate gymnast with the most. That goes to Olivia Dunne, at Louisiana State University, who has over 5 million followers and is among the highest paid college athletes through N.I.L. deals.
Hope Solo, who was the goalie on the United States women’s national team, came of age as a soccer player in the early years of social media. To her, it was divisive. “We looked at social media during the World Cup as toxic,” she said. “Players would care more about what was being seen.”
Her concern now is that college players, making significant money through N.I.L. deals will focus more on their own brand to the detriment of the team. She gave the example of the star player showing up in her own cleats, while everyone else wears the ones issued by the school.
“What are the team dynamics like for players who do have N.I.L. deals and then the players who don’t?” she asked.
Mr. Jones said he had another concern: Athletes who become brands can now transfer to schools that can pay them more. This is great for the top programs, but long term it may not be great for those athletes, who won’t have a true connection to the alumni who could one day give them a job.
“Every time I see these guys bounce from school to school, I’m, like, ‘no, stay wherever you are and live on scholarship for life,’” Mr. Jones said. “You’ll always be able to come back. You’ll always be able to get a job. You’ll always be able to do all these things if these things don’t go the way you think they’re going to go down the line. You’re getting upfront payment right now, but if you transfer to three schools, they don’t give a damn about you.”
That comes back to the initial question Ms. Sims asked: What does branding mean to you? The seven panelists gave one-word answers: money, self, authenticity, truth, education, opportunity and exhausting.
It’s up to athletes now to decide which one will guide them.
Takeaways
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Brand Authenticity Matters: Shaquille O’Neal, at 7-foot-1 and 325 pounds, is a big man who can sell comfort. He is not a sneaker pitchman, said Bomani Jones said.
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A chasm exists between being a celebrity with endorsements and a brand that stands for something on its own.
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Brand building is exhausting and you need people you can trust in your corner.
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