Building an athlete’s personal brand

Athletes are at the heart of everything that happens in professional sport. The best players deliver the biggest moments which in turn drive the audiences, the media rights and the highlight views on YouTube. The fans want to know everything about their lives, what they do and what they think. Many players now have bigger followings than the teams they play for. 

Technology, and social media in particular, is enabling the athletes to by-pass the traditional media and engage directly with their fans. This provides a huge opportunity to get their point of view across and to define themselves beyond what happens on the pitch, but it also comes with risks. What they choose to share, and how they manage what they post, has become hugely important.

In the latest of the Sports Loft podcasts, we are joined by KIN Partners MD and Founder, Simon Oliveira who manages a roster of talent including David Beckham and Neymar Jnr, and Greenfly’s co-founder and CEO Daniel Kirschner whose clients include NBA, MLB, Real Madrid and PSG. They discuss how athletes can build their brands and whether it is reasonable to expect the athletes to be role models, how both teams and players can benefit from an athlete’s increased profile and what David Beckham’s Instagram numbers would have been if he was playing today.