Today, ProVentures sits down with sportsagentblog.com’s Darren Heitner to get his take on the current economy of sport, blogs as business tools and the sexy side of marketing.
Under Heitner’s leadership, the blog he created in 2005 has grown into a premier destination for those in the sports industry looking to stay informed and those wanting to gain access to the business. In 2007, Heitner’s entrepreneurial savvy led him to form Dynasty Athlete Representation, which represents a number of prominent professional bowlers, college coaches, baseball players, models and actresses and soon football and basketball players. He currently serves as Dynasty Athlete Representation’s CEO and is attending the University of Florida’s Levin School of Law.
1. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says the recession is “very likely over”. What evidence have you seen within the athlete representation industry and through your work on sportsagentblog.com that suggests this statement is true or not?
The sports industry has not yet realized the end of the recession, but I do not believe that any industry has either. It may very well be true that the recession is coming to a close, but that only means that we will eventually feel the effects of a turn in the economy. When oil prices fall, we do not immediately see a change in the price of gas. It takes time. Similarly, while the recession may be ending, it will take time for sports sponsorships to return to what they once were before the downturn of the economy. It will also be some time before we see the number of casual fans return to stadiums and arenas to cheer on their favorite teams. On the SportsAgentBlog.com front, we have been relatively unaffected by the recession. We get emails every week from companies looking to partner with our site. However, one of our ad networks has expressed that some advertisers are looking to pay based on a lower CPM. People need to get over CPM as an ROI standard, but I digress.
2. How are athlete endorsements for your clients changing in the current economic climate?
A benefit of the rough economy has been that it forced companies to start getting creative about how they spend their money. The downfall is that there is a lot less money to spend. And the companies with smaller budgets are mostly focused on spending their limited resources on the absolute best of their trades. While we have tremendously talented baseball clients, they are all at various levels of their respective organizations’ farm systems. Eventually they will command large figures in endorsements, but for now, we are playing the waiting game. However, we have found that with our bowling clients, who are the absolute best in the sport, endorsements dollars still exist. For instance, we receive many requests for our newest bowling client, Jason Belmonte. He is 25-years-old, very good looking, and displays a fantastic personality. Good or bad economy, someone like that is still going to get plenty of offers.
3. In what ways can other sports marketing companies turn their blogs into business opportunities?
Many aspects of the sports industry are closed off to a large segment of the worldwide population. And unsurprisingly, there are a lot of people hungry for more knowledge about what goes on behind the scenes in the business of sports. People do not only reserve an interest about sports agents, sports law, and sports business, which are the three areas we cover the most at SportsAgentBlog.com. Unfortunately, no matter how many Sports Management classes you take in school, you will leave unsatisfied and with a desire to learn more.
Sports marketing companies can benefit from adopting a model based on openness and transparency. It will allow them greater access to potential innovative interns, spur additional relationships with members of other companies who come across the blog, strengthen the company’s image as a knowledgeable source within its niche, and bounce ideas off of its readers, who end up being the consumers of the produced marketing material.
4. How can athletes and their representation best utilize social media?
By embracing it completely. That said, agents should never force or coerce their clients into jumping on a platform they do not want to be on. Some of my clients just say no to Twitter. I will tell them the negatives of avoiding openness, but in the end, it’s their decision. Only involve your clients on a particular network if they are going to be passionate about providing insights and connecting with the audience on that network. Social media can open up many new endorsement doors, but it can also take an exciting personality and make that person seem dull.
5. Go Daddy CEO Bob Parsons says marketing has “got to be edgy” and “a little tasteless.” From a sports marketing perspective, what is your view on brands exploiting the sex appeal of athletes (i.e. ESPN’s upcoming “Body Issue”)?
It is something that must be decided on a case-by-case basis. It is a high-risk/high-reward tactic. I don’t think that tasteless is ever a good tactic, and I do not believe that exploiting the sex appeal of athletes has to be done in a tasteless manner. If I represented an athlete in ESPN’s upcoming Body Issue, I would make it a point to be at the shoot and make sure that the photos used in the issue do not threaten my client’s brand/image/endorsement potential 1,2,5,10,20 years down the line. We must always think long-term, even if the quick buck is enticing.
