THE USAIN BOLT EFFECT
Usain Bolt has been dubbed ‘the man who saved athletics.’
And while there are those who might try to argue the point, there is no doubt that the brilliant Jamaican has reignited public interest in a sport which had slipped into the doldrums, largely bereft of personalities and operating under an ever-present haze of suspicion of cheating through doping.
Bolt changed all that……
His world record breaking performances at the Beijing Olympic Games and IAAF World Championships in Berlin ushered track and field into a new era. Its totem was a man who was not simply a stupendous athlete but undeniably cool as well. Here at last was an athlete the kids could identify with, a man who delivered a DJ set in Berlin after securing his Gold haul. Bolt’s brilliance makes him a magnet for media attention and his personality and youth appeal make him pure marketing gold. On the back of it he signed a world record personal endorsement deal with Puma and has since developed a portfolio of work including that for Virgin Media in the UK where he appears on TV spots, online and in print alongside the company’s high profile boss Richard Branson extolling the speed of its broadband service. So far, so good, but it is worth looking beyond the immediate and obvious at the impact which Bolt is having on the world of sport and sports marketing. Bolt is a cult figure and has become a massive brand in his own right. He has also arrived on the scene at exactly the right time for his brand to be developed through social as well as traditional media, making him an extremely attractive vehicle for sponsors. This is where the difficulty creeps in. Bolt as an individual is probably a more valuable asset for brands than the sport he graces, potentially putting him in commercial competition with the IAAF. Of course brands are well aware of some dangers of focusing their strategies and spending on individual athletes. The dangers of a the athlete being blighted by personal scandal ( a la Tiger Woods) or suffering a massive and unexplained loss of form each carry dangers for the sponsor brand. But in a changed media environment where the power of communications lies in the hands of the talent, personality deals are becoming more prevalent and valuable. So just imagine a situation where Bolt is not the only superstar in track and field. Say there are 10 athletes whose personalities and talent enable them to become established as major brands in their own right. Each would have the capability to hoover up commercial deals making life ever more complicated for the governing body which sets out to sell deals around its own events. The question is why a brand would want to become a partner of an event when high profile competitors are bringing their own sponsors into the picture, cluttering the environment and almost inevitably cutting across event sponsors’ category exclusivity. While a governing body has the ability to control these clashes and this confusion when it comes to individual event promoters of host cities / Organising Committees, this is not the case with individual athletes who, because of social media, have the power and are in the ascendancy. This is not a situation which is going to change any time soon and it is one which all governing bodies would do well to consider. It is certainly something which is being addressed by some major soccer clubs which are buying individual players’ commercial rights in order to add power to their own offerings and avoid potential conflict of interest down the line. This is a reality check for governing bodies who must understand the impact which the growing commercial power of superstar athletes will have on the marketplace, their own ability to do partnership deals and the willingness of agencies to put up significant advances for rights whose value is dwindling.
The 1st IAAF World Championship was staged in 1981.