Hiring an athlete has come a long way since I entered into this industry. In the beginning, companies would pay a large amount of money for an athlete to attend a company event. This could be either a signing at your store or an appearance at the local mall. Whichever it is, it is not as effective anymore. It is so important when running a business to keep asking yourself: what else?
I have been booking athletes for around 30 years now and as business changes, you have to make sure you change. The days of bringing an athlete to your store are somewhat over. Athletes now want to be involved and have a partnership. Athletes want to own businesses. Kobe Bryant owns his own line of sneakers, Michael Jordan owns his own restaurant, and Venus Williams has her own interior design company.
A huge part of life today is social media, and athletes now have social media accounts that they own. The question now is what can you get an athlete to do on social media that incorporates your company and your products? Social media is way more successful than bringing an athlete to the mall. Odell Beckham Jr. pretended to be a Lyft driver and surprised fans on video. This went viral and had an impact that cannot be matched by athlete bookings.
Every company today is a content company. Porzingis comes in to sign @steinersports, they produce this https://t.co/CQLlcK4AcQ
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) January 23, 2016
Athletes want partnerships. This has disrupted the system we used for 25 years. At Steiner Sports, we come up with a partnership percentage and use our brand and expertise to engage the athletes. You can’t be afraid of change. You have to tackle it head on. Overcoming change in a business can be difficult, are there any struggles in your company due to change? What can you do to prevent change from causing conflicts in your business?
