Brian Feener

Good post about the difference between getting a pitchman and making an advertisement.

Not to play Capt. Obvious but Tiger is drinking the Kool-Aid Gatorade. He has just finalized a deal to license his name and likeness for a brand of sports drinks. [Sidebar - how does this product stack up against the low-cal G2?) The deal is reportedly worth up to $100 million and Darren Rovell does a way better job of explaining it than I’m about to do. In short, Gatorade can use Tiger’s image/likeness/etc. for a base compensation, plus addtional compensation for positive sales figures. The partnership is going to last for a five years (realistically - for as long as both groups are making lot$ of money) and Tiger could see upwards of $100 mm. Rovell does a fine job of explaining why the deal is unique and how Pepsi-Cola is trying to leverage athletes/endorsers away from Coke’s VitaminWater.

I’m interested to see how this impacts other athletes and their deals. If I am an athlete, would I rather work with a deal that says that I get $3 mm up front from Company X, or 10% of profits from the sales of the widget I’m pushing? For further reading on this topic, see this article from Brandweek regarding the Dave & Barry’s Starbury line.

Note: If you do something spectacular, people will notice. Quality basketball shoes for $14.99 is spectacular.

Steve & Barry’s spent no money on media in 2004, about $525,000 in 2005 and just about $25,000 through the first quarter of 2006, per TNS.

Now… check out the amount of buzz they got. (It’s even been referred to as a “movement!”) As a comparison, Nike has a $1.9 billion advertising budget. Billion. With a”b.”

I wonder who has a better ROI…