I love sport and I love communications/social media. I’m very lucky to be able to combine the two in my working life. It also means I get a great deal of insight into how brands work with their athletes, particularly in the trail running world and using them to help promote the brand.
What I’ve found however is that there is a fair deal of misunderstanding as to how to do the whole social media thing very well. So I thought I’d chip in with some observations I’m seeing and where things need shaping up a little. It doesn’t just apply to running, but all walks of life and brand ambassadors.
Why do we have sponsored athletes?
It’s simply so that brands can communicate with you, hopefully getting you to buy more gear. It’s as simple as that. Of course, it rewards those runners that succeed and helps them further their running ambitions, but let’s be very clear about this. It’s to help sell more gear.That is fine, we’re all consumers of products, but there’s a right way and a wrong way to do this.
To the credit of the brands, using the athletes as a conduit to people is a fairly clever and highly cost-effective way to shift more gear. But there are brands out there that are getting it quite wrong. Similarly there are brands that are doing it very well, and they’re the ones winning and connecting. Let’s delve deeper and look at four areas that need a bit of attention right now.
#1: Lack of transparency
On a personal level this drives me insane. Every time a sponsored athlete makes a post about the brand that ‘flings’ them free gear on Facebook or Twitter, there is a sense of moral duty to make it known to the people they’re posting to that they are sponsored. Failure to do so is not only misleading, but in some countries is becoming a regulatory issue. It’s essentially advertising by stealth. Many of us know that certain athletes are sponsored by certain brands, but it’s essential to make your followers aware of the fact that you are financially or in any other way supported by a brand and in return you are making a post on behalf of them. A simple (*sponsored) at the end of each post suffices.
Good brands and athletes are open and honest. Brands need to invest in the athlete to guide them through proper social media guidelines, while the athlete makes their interests clear and known.
Being sponsored is a privilege that brands and athletes must respect in view of the people they are trying to reach, us, the consumer of their products. Not declaring an interest is misleading and ultimately leads to trust being broken.
#2: Push Product, Push product, Push product
Companies are very keen to push their product. It’s what they know best and it’s ultimately how they are measured. There’s a time and a place for this, but for the most part, it’s not on social media through a sponsored athlete Facebook feed.
Athlete fan pages aren’t designed for blatant advertising. It’s tempting to do it through athletes because it’s ultimately free. But we use social media to be social. The clue is in the naming of the platform.
The best example of a brand that uses social media properly in trail running right now is Salomon. There’s not a product push in sight in their videos. Instead they tell us a story related to heritage, trends and topics related to our sport. This is the language that we as consumers of products understand because we all love to tell stories.
#3: Over-zealousness
We all know them, the athletes that are a little over-enthusiastic about the brand them gives them free gear and race entries. It might be a bit of guilt factor. “You’ve helped me, so I must help you in return.” Hence why we see shots of athletes in gear proclaiming how wonderful it is. But is it really that wonderful when you’re getting the product for free?
Athletes have a requirement to make a certain amount of pictures and posts as part of their contracts with brands. Athletes need to work with their brand to find interesting and inventive ways of communicating their message and product without the gratuitous and self-congratulatory shots of them running along the trail in brand new gear. Tell us a story and invite us to ‘talk’ with you. some companies and athletes do this very well. The lazy ones simply post product shots and expect us to be sponges – if anything it will turn people off. Add some value and stop being lazy.
#4: Fair compensation
We mentioned above how cost-effective it is to use sponsored athletes. Purely because of the network they have. When a brand looks for an athlete to sponsor, of course they look at talent and ability, but they also look at the reach an athlete may have too. For them it’s about spreading their message far and wide. This is why you see sponsored athletes with thousands of Facebook friends and Twitter followers. Some athletes aren’t stupid in their quest for sponsorship, they know this is a factor.
You as the athlete should be aware of your ‘stock’ and what you can offer. Most brands will simply offer their athletes a certain amount of free gear and then a race entry or two. If you’re really lucky, you might get a flight to a training camp in the mountains or a flight and entry into a race somewhere around the world. In short we’re talking about a few thousand dollars’ worth of swag for the athlete. But what are you doing in return?
What’s the benefit you’re providing to the brand through the constant drive to push their message to your followers? How many people end up buying the brands product as a result of what you’re doing? It’s pretty hard to measure to be honest, but make sure you understand what your value is and how you’re helping a brand. It’s a two-way relationship.