Why Having Big Name Professional Athletes to Endorse You is Huge Business for Companies
Posted in Fly Fishing Gear on the March 8, 2010
Not all professional athletes make a lot of money such as those that participate in smaller non revenue accumulating sports. In order to be able to be a professional athlete full time, a lot of these athletes have to rely on the products and paychecks they receive from their sponsors and advertisers. Other athletes, that are constantly in the press however, make a lot of money playing their sport and sometimes more from their sponsorship contracts. One of the earliest athletes to really do this was NBA player, Michael Jordan who used his basketball skills to promote several products in addition to apparel, toys, items and even basketball videos with his likeness on them.
Wherever there is room to promote a sponsor, they will find a way to do it whether it is on the helmet of a professional NASCAR racer or in the form of a temporary tattoo to professional beach volleyball player Gabrielle Reece. Athletes are offered great package deals to promote a certain brand as a sort of spokesperson and in exchange they get monetary and product compensation. For the lesser known athletes, this is very helpful to offer them the needed income to be able to train full time. For other highly compensated athletes in sports as professional baseball, basketball and football players it is just icing on the cake.
Michael Jordan was one of the first professional athletes to really be endorsed by various sponsors and he ended up bringing in more from those endorsements than he did playing basketball. Certain businesses saw the complete star power in Michael Jordan and knew he could make their product be noticed with him promoting it. One example was Gatorade which was a sports drink that had been around for quite a while but when they got Michael Jordan to endorse Gatorade, sales rose quickly and it became the best selling sports drink.
Now younger professional athletes that are coming into the game see product endorsements as part of the entire deal when they sign professionally. Many new athletes that are confident in themselves and their ability to represent a product even hold out for multi million dollars endorsement these days. One example of that youthful professional player is Le Bron James. He made it into the headlines for his basketball abilities and noted to be the next Jordan when he was in high school playing in Akron, Ohio. Now he is one the largest paid athletes with multiple endorsements.
The biggest grossing professional athlete to receive the largest amount of endorsement deals ever is PGA professional, Tiger Woods. As an individual athlete, he is not paid by salary but rather by performance and the number of large golf tournaments he wins. Because he has been such a high profile, successful and marketable player, his endorsements deals are earning him several million each year on top of his golf earnings. He also has recently lost many of these sponsors with the recent scandals of his many infidelities.