Sports Business Digest » Usain Bolt

“Beats by Usain Bolt” with Soul Electronics

Emmett Jones — Wed, 16 May 2012 17:10:37 +0000

The world of celebrity-branded headphones just became a little bit larger...and a whole lot faster. SOUL Electronics and Jamaican sprinter/World's fastest man, Usain Bolt have entered in to a branding agreement. Under the agreement Bolt will represent the SOUL brand in various events and marketing campaigns throughout the year and he will also partner with SOUL to bring out his own special edition headphones. SOUL is most notably known for their SOUL by Ludacris headphone series, which features the rapper, Ludacris. The headphones are expected to debut this summer...just in time for the Olympics.

Usain Bolt noted, "I work hard at attaining my goals and in addition, I always try to inspire others to work hard and attain their dreams. I am looking forward to working with SOUL to deliver this message." (via Press Release)

Besides his new role as a "Brand Ambassador" for SOUL, Bolt will also be featured in SOUL's "SOUL of Greatness" video series, which is a series of inspirational videos which encourage people to strive for their goals. With the Olympics only happening once every four years, this is certainly the time to capitalize off of the marketability of the participants, because they will be on display during the 16-day event (see: Hope Solo). Especially, with the expanded coverage that NBC is providing, you could easily argue that the popular figures that come out of these Olympic games may be the most visible, and most marketable Olympic stars to date.

Athletes and the continuing rise of the sports drink

admin — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 17:14:36 +0000

Anyone that has a product knows the importance of advertising. Advertising gives you a chance to explain what your product is, what it does, and hopefully embeds it in the public’s conscience. Show a famous person using your product and discussing all of its wonderful benefits? Then you potentially have a very stable long-term revenue source. But, there are certain obstacles that not even an athlete can overcome, to sell your product. Firstly, it has to be a product that is actually useful. If Michael Jordan endorsed a bologna origami machine, not many people would take the time to buy it, because it is a product that has no usefulness or value (I’m lying. some die-hard Jordan fans would buy this, but for the sake of not having to deal with insanity, I’m going to continue). Secondly, the product has to be something that is at least on a neutral or positive ground with the American public at large (read as: can’t be stigmatized by the public at large at the moment). Have these two criteria going for you? Along with a high profile athlete to smile and talk about how great your product is? You’re golden. Missing one of these two? then even Michael Jordan can’t save your product.

And what product seems to be experiencing a golden-age as far as advertising and market share? Sports drinks and Enhanced Water. From Ad Age,

Many beverage segments saw volume declines in 2008, though there were a few notable exceptions. Flavored and enhanced water gained 8.3% volume and energy drinks gained 9% volume. Those two categories, along with bottled water, also gained market share. The beverage category as a whole saw volume decline 2%.

To what do sports drinks owe their rise? The decline of soft-drinks (due in small part to the economy, but in larger part to price points and a lean towards more health conscious beverages) and catchy promotions (featuring athletes with nation-wide popularity) by sports drink makers. As far as a quick return to the status quo? It may not be as fast as one would think

In 2008, category volume, as defined by cases sold, declined by 3%, according to data released today by Beverage Digest, and declines over the past four years have now eliminated gains made in the eight years prior to that, bringing the category back to 1997 volume levels.

Mr. Sicher [John Sicher, editor and publisher of Beverage Digest --Ed.] acknowledged that the economy had a modest impact on carbonated soft drinks. High gas prices last summer, for example, caused sales at convenience stores to slow. Still, volume declines in 2008 were more a symptom of ongoing issues within the category, rather than a one-time decline related to economic woes. “We’re not going to see carbonated soft drinks turn around anytime soon,” Mr. Sicher said. “The big challenge for Coke, Pepsi and [Dr Pepper Snapple] is to get their soda business back at least to flat, so it doesn’t drag down the overall industry.”

Lebron James. Attorney. Basketball Player. Vitamin Water spokesperson

And as far as “catchy” sports drink promotions go, sports drink producers seem to be breaking their piggy banks and blowing their budgets. Huge national ads by SOBE and Gatorade scored big with consumers (with that horrendous SOBE dancing football player ad pulling in more than 1.4 million online views right after the Super Bowl) while Vitamin Water had already thrown its Lebron James led Vitamin Water campaign into the fray with much success not to long before. Sports drink/Enhanced water makers know that this golden age will not last forever, so it is impressive to see them trying to not only capitalize on the craze, but be willing to put forth significant advertising dollars to do so, even in the face of a recession. And for those who think that sports drinks aren’t in a golden age? Please remember that SOBE had a successful commercial where Ray Lewis transformed into a cartoon lizard. Can it get more “golden age” than that?

Ad Age — Carbonated Soft-Drink Sales Volume Continues to Decline

NBC’s Olympic coverage…or lack thereof.

admin — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 19:59:26 +0000

How can you have 1 million hours of Olympic coverage, and still manage to piss people off? NBC shows us how.

As some of you may have heard, there is this thing called the 2008 Olympics going on over in Beijing right now. As some of you may have also heard, there is this Jamaican sprinter, Usain Bolt…he’s pretty fast. He ran in the 200 Meter finals today at 10:20 am (10:20 pm Beijing time). Viewers that wanted to watch tuned into NBC for their psuedo-live coverage. Only problem? It wasn’t on. From The Big Lead,

The race was at 10:20 am, and despite checking USA, MSNBC and NBC, we couldn’t find it anywhere. Why? Because the greedy suits at NBC wanted to ’save’ the race for tonight. What a fucking joke. This is an absolute abomination. (Watch the race here, thanks to a reader.) Ten minutes after the race, ESPN, Fox, SI, CBS Sports and Yahoo all blared the headline. So now everyone in America has to wait 11 hours and 50 minutes to watch it? Our Canadian readers were able to watch it online!

You know, all of these hundreds of hours of Olympic coverage on television and the internet are pretty pointless if you can’t watch the events you want to watch when they’re live. Contrary to what NBC thinks, I could handle Bob Costas’ toupee before 11 am (not everyday though). As we’ve already seen, NBC has found the Olympics to be a ratings bonanza, but still, at some point, don’t they run the risk of alienating viewers who can inadvertently find out the results of an event on CNN or Yahoo, 12 hours before NBC shows live coverage? (something I’ve already done a couple of times). Of course, NBC is probably thinking, and rightly so, that they’ll still have enough viewers to alienate those who are surprised online, or those that view the games live on the web. Or, maybe they just don’t care? After all, they did pay $894 million dollars for the rights to these games…and they’re obviously trying to make sure they come away with a few coins in their pocket before its all over.

…yes. I really did just insert a Bob Costas picture into this post.

The Big Lead: NBC Blows: Give ESPN the Olympics in 2014

Sports Business Digest: The Cultural Significance of Michael Phelps