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Is the current WDC worryingly unable to attract endorsement deals?

Nah, looks like Lewis is indeed building up a long term mega brand
3
60%
Are you serious? I havent heard this and dont even suspect this at all
No votes
0%
Its no different to Seb for the last 4 years, why make a fuss?
No votes
0%
Alonso, Danica and Rossi are way more in demand and thats a worry
No votes
0%
It makes sense to me, everyone hates Tiger now and they hate Lewis also
No votes
0%
Lewis could never be in demand to sell cars or brands because he is not a top sportsman, I would never buy anything someone like him sells
1
20%
I think we need to boycott F1 right now if he is not hated
1
20%
#432560
There have been a lot of posts around the controversial and highly provocative (to some) subject of the chances of an F1 driver emulating a handful of ""mega mega stars" going on to earn a vast fortune from companies falling over themselves to have him associated with their products in any form. What do the members think?

Lets start with the qualitative stuff we know about this process. The star in question has to build up some type of reputation, notoriety or unique achievements. Its easier if this includes pure sporting genius or sets records or captures hearts and minds at a major tournament. There obviously must be something ""different"" or unique to start the chain reaction. We saw David Beckham go from national villain with great sporting skills to one of these global megas - way ahead of others with vastly superior sporting pedigree.

So some say Lewis could be the next mega, and that indeed he is on his way, carefully orchestrating his brand along the way, sacking major players in the agency field that dont fit his needs. However some say this could never happen as he is just not desired and just doesnt fit in the rarefied world that advertisers and big brands want to sell to. Tiger is often used as an example by a large group with ""traditional values"" - pointing at the shocking business of having an affair and how that restored the status quo and dismantled the false situation when he was the biggest mega. And so it is said that Lewis wont be given the same benefit of doubt as audiences have had enough of the shocking and disgraceful Tiger affair.

Alonso, Danica and Rossi are held up as the ones in demand and the ones acceptable to a corporate world as they are as clean as....well cleaner than Tiger etc. However there are statistics and data and professional analysts who advice the sponsors and big corporates looking to use sports as a chanel to promote their brand.

So lets look at the quantitative opinions form these experts paid to provide this data

Alonso has 2 WDCS, Rossi has several. The titles will increase the value. The only data available is for 2014 when Lewis was a 1x WDC, and before winning a second out of a highly likely 5 by the time his rumoured new Merc ends.

According to the professional advisors the most marketable sportstar in 2014 was Lewis
There is no more exhilarating sight in the sport than Hamilton in a fast car. For sponsors, the package is already in place – the maturing star, the celebrity girlfriend, the seven-figure social media following and the expert management of XIX Entertainment. After a decade endorsing brands this resurgent champion is worth another look. He might just be the best bet in all of sport.


According to the professional advisors the top 20 most Marketed sportstars in 2014 was Lewis

However there is another index for actually measuring CONSUMER PERCEPTION - i.e what those people the brands are ACTUALLY after believe, not rednecks or halfwits, or ""conservatives"" or 'new to sports', or generally the part of the media too lazy to actually do research in the true assumption their readership will lap it up even more if its 'romanticesed'

Repucom’s DBI Index provides a here and now assessment of marketability and awareness.

The Celebrity Davie-Brown Index (DBI) measures consumer perception of more than 5,600 celebrities in 15 markets around the world. This year, for the first time, Repucom, the sports research giant which operates DBI internationally, has produced a score for a selection of the athletes on SportsPro’s 50 Most Marketable Athletes list.


And guess who is top of this list IN 2014?? and where is the 2013 WDC?

hold on lets have a closer look at this list
Dundas believes the broad nature of the index adds to its value. “The greater the diversity of talent we have on the list the better, because you can provide a much more robust comparison,” he points out. “For a brand that generically says, ‘I don’t have a sponsorship in sport, but I want a brand ambassador and I’m targeting 16 to 24-year-old women, who do I go after?’, then we can compare Jess Ennis against [British TV presenter] Holly Willoughby against Lady Gaga, for instance. You can see the difference in what those people do.”

The information has multiple uses across the sponsorship spectrum. As Dundas puts it, DBI “holds nuggets of information that could help position the talent you’re trying to represent as being more engaging, more appealing, better as an endorser than the competition, whether that competition is other sportsmen from within the same genre, other sportsmen in general or maybe other celebrities in general.” For brands and rights holders – particularly those which hold image rights to their athletes – the index can help “either back up decisions they have made or make decisions they are looking to make, or organise their thinking around their current portfolio.”


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Lets have a look at what the boycott section of society fundamentally bring to the party
The numbers don't lie, racers like Rossi, Alonso and even Danica have been more in demand than Hamilton. For whatever reason, who knows?


Lewis earns a small amount (relatively speaking!) in endorsements about $1.5M as compared to his $32M F1 salary. Also he just isn't that much in demand as compared to many racing drivers/athletes etc. In racing popular drivers such as Rossi pulls in $10M in endorsements, Danica $9M (1.5x her salary!), Stewart $6M, Alonso $3M etc.


Oh and another fact, Lewis won a wdc back in 2008! He has had plenty of time away from Mclaren to gather his endorsements if there were any offers that is.


Perhaps he is the most marketable but he just doesn't have the big endorsements (ie selling stuff) that others have. It is a good question though, perhaps someone has an answer.

...He may be marketable but just isn't being marketed. Maybe that is why he parted ways with his celebrity management company?..


That's a very good point, overboost! There is a subtle difference that often eludes people!


But yes it now appears that Lewis is 'marketable' and 'being marketed' but he still doesn't have the big endorsement deals enjoyed by other top sports stars.

With his second championship Lewis could definitely start to do better in the future but with Ricciardo being named best in F1 by the fans and Merc giving due credit to their 'W05ld Champion' car for the 2014 championship wins Lewis may need a hard fought competitive result in 2015 to seal the deal on real endorsement money.



As for present day fyi,Tiger was listed as the leading endorsement disaster in this article.

"Tiger Woods saw $22 million walk out the door after his habit of not being able to stay away from ladies who weren't his wife was exposed."

He lost more endorsement $ in one day than Lewis might earn in his whole racing career. Wow.


Top 10 Wealthiest Athletes: Worldwide Endorsements Edition 2014
1. Tiger Woods, $65 million
Of course, Tiger Woods tops it off. The most marketable athlete in one of the most affluent sports, Woods’s deals with Nike, Rolex, the Upper Deck trading card company, and Fuse Science (a sports nutrition firm) keep him rolling in cash even with his winnings are drying up. After a dismal pair of tournament showings to start of the 2014 season — one 80th place finish and one withdrawal — Woods is in danger of losing his No. 1 spot to the competition.What do you think?

It’s unlikely that Woods will ever regain his form again, but I’m not sure he’s terribly worried about it. Aftercracking $1 billion in career earnings this year, it would be an impressive feat for Tiger to ever be hurting for money again. Actually, we might think it’d be fun to see him try.


^ Please stop cooking you are embarrassing yourself!

Tiger isn't even in golfs Top 10 endorsers in 2014. Not that Tiger Woods has any bearing at all on this discussion anyway as he had suffered a reputation disaster whereas Hamilton has not.


Once again cooking you find yourself at odds with F1 insiders, this time it is Peter Windsor.His info is that an internal Merc Board survey identified that the benefits of a Rosberg championship would outweigh a Hamilton championship by a factor of 10 to 1! Watch at the 3:00 minute mark. And this comes after Windsor spends the first 3 mins berating Rosberg for Spa.
Last edited by CookinFlat6 on 06 Feb 15, 17:51, edited 1 time in total.
#432602
I voted for the last option so Boosty can save his time and not have to vote.
#432608
Dammn, I was wondering which option our 'yardsticks' would go for. Interesting results so far, the Forumla1 community are split 50/50 on Lewis on his way to building a brand vs It could never happen in a month of Sundays because the world is not ready to buy from guys like Tiger and Lewis.

lets hope Tiger makes his money before the big brands notice our poll and start ""boycotting"" F1 to avoid putting off OB and co
#434679
Fernando consolidates his place in F1 as the most marketable!

Massa is second, Vettel is third, Hamilton is fourth and Button rounds out the top five.

It is good to have a definitive up to date (Melbourne, 11 March 2015) and F1 focused report to solve this question.

http://repucom.net/fernando-alonso-most ... f1-driver/

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Last edited by overboost on 11 Mar 15, 19:49, edited 1 time in total.
#434681
Here's some interesting information, coming from a Repucom exec quoted in that article:

 wrote:">F1 in 2015: Alonso still ‘Most Marketable’

...Nigel Geach on driver marketability and team sponsorship

Nigel Geach, Senior Vice President of Motorsport, Repucom, said: “There have been big changes in terms of team personnel during the F1 season break and whilst there are some shifts in the top 10 most marketable rankings, it is important to see how brands are reacting to 2015’s new grid line up.

“We are seeing a heightened level of consumer brands becoming involved in F1 in 2015, some which are changing allegiances. Ultimately it is them who will benefit most from the marketability of drivers. New consumer focussed partnerships include CNN’s sponsorship of McLaren Honda, Hugo Boss’s deal with Mercedes AMG and Williams Martini partnerships with Hackett, Unilever and Rexona.

“Consumer brands will gravitate naturally to where the leading drivers are and with the dominance of Alonso’s profile off the track, a strong first season at McLaren could well see him pull even further from the pack. However, this season, the one to watch is Lewis Hamilton. With a host of personal endorsements to his name already and being a part of a team everyone was chasing last year, Hamilton has an opportunity to grow his reputation internationally as potentially one of F1’s finest. He has a high profile domestically brands will be watching the performance of this driver in 2015 very closely.”

#434682
I didn't vote because this is so far off my radar screen.
I don't like celebrity endorsements, so it's all meaningless to me.
I guess some people do? What's the attraction? So you can say, "I use the same
deodorant as Felipe Massa!" or something like that?
<shaking head> I don't get it?
#434688
[quote="CookinFlat6"]It could never happen in a month of Sundays because the world is not ready to buy from guys like Tiger and Lewis. [\quote]

What the hell does that mean?
#434699
Fernando consolidates his place in F1 as the most marketable!

Massa is second, Vettel is third, Hamilton is fourth and Button rounds out the top five.

It is good to have a definitive up to date (Melbourne, 11 March 2015) and F1 focused report to solve this question.

http://repucom.net/fernando-alonso-most ... f1-driver/

Image

Where's the magnum-eating iceman on this list???

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