23/01/16
On Friday morning, the crew headed to Nike’s UK offices to talk with Lewis Maddison and Charlie Moone, two marketing specialists. The two representatives took us through a presentation on football endorsements throughout the English Premier League, and gave us insider’s insight into how the process works. At Nike, the endorsement team works to expand their brand name and prestige through two means; signing star footballers, and gaining high percentages of SOP (share of pitch). A lot of times, this means that Nike ends up signing kids from the age of 12 in order to secure their loyalty to the brand for years to come.
For each of their clients, Nike will supply new boots, training wear, and leisure clothes, as well as a sort of VIP trip to the Nike Town store in downtown London. It was hard to image the lifestyle of a young teenager who signed their first endorsement contract, who receives new boots and clothes free of cost. As the players progress in age and popularity, their contracts with Nike will change accordingly, including larger amounts of money to spend on Nike apparel, more allowances for boots, and even pay for representation. It is said that when a player is searching for a new contract or new sponsor, they wear black boots, which is meant to signal a response from said sponsor, which I found to be interesting.
In terms of endorsement success, Nike currently has contracts with 60% of EPL players, followed by Adidas’ 30%, and the other 10% shared amongst the smaller brands. In a short 21 years, Nike has expanded its empire into the British football realm, and now holds deals with players such as Wayne Rooney, Alex “the Ox” Oxlade-Chaimberlain, Raheem Sterling, Kevin De Bruyne, and other star players. Although the marketing team has the challenging job of keeping many of the football world’s biggest divas happy, they did mention that much of their job is made easy due to their continued innovation of their production lines, and the overall prestige that comes with the brand name. In all, the visit was great and it gave us all a different insight into the money behind football.
-Stephen, Acer, Maggie, Ethan & Nick
