Players’
Personal Branding

Player branding: from football players to world-class brands

For a few years now, the world of football has experienced a commercial boom. More and more brands are aware of the visibility that players have and, at the same time, players know that they must rely on their personal brand to leverage their careers.

Since its inception, sports in general and football in particular have been an ideal tool and platform for marketing. The large number of fans that has loved football for decades has led brands around the world to spend a significant part of their marketing budget on this sport. If historically the clubs have been the great beneficiaries of these commercial agreements, it is now the players who increasingly focus the attention of the fans and, therefore, of the brands. The athlete who changed everything at a branding level was the NBA superstar Michael Jordan. He made professional athletes realize that they were more than that: they can become powerful brands through Player Branding.

An athlete or a brand? Both! 

Basically, Player Branding consists of creating an image of an athlete beyond their performance on the grass. This process primarily seeks to distinguish and differentiate one player from others. Each football player can become his own brand depending on a series of personal attributes that remain in the minds of consumers, creating fan awareness and loyalty.

Reinforcing these attributes is usually an arduous path, but quite effective when it comes to being etched in the collective imagination of fans from all around the globe. A good Player Branding strategy will allow fans to automatically list adjectives and attributes about a football player. The process is practically identical to the one that brands develop in their markets.

Player Branding is mainly based on three types of attributes. On the one hand, the athletic ability of the player, as well as his achievements on the court, and his capabilities, including the team he plays for. On the other hand, the personal style and appearance. Lastly, to lead a marketable lifestyle. When these three aspects merge together, it is when it can be considered that a player has also become a brand.

The perks of being your own brand

Once a player has developed their personal brand, the list of benefits is pretty long. The most obvious benefit is financial: a player who has worked on his personal brand tends to sign more lucrative contracts both with his club and with his sponsors. On the other hand, he will also build longer lasting relationships with fans and brands once his performance as an athlete declines as a result of ageing.

Two players with similar football careers in terms of personal performance and results their club can have very different brand values, which translates into the number of business opportunities that both will have at their fingertips during and after their football career.

Digital: the ideal environment for Player Branding

With the possibilities of the Internet, especially during the last two decades, a fertile environment has been created for players to create their own brand and exploit it in an exponential way. The new digital channels, especially Social Media, have multiplied the exposure of players outside the field, giving them more control over the brand image they wish to project.

Nowadays, the impact of a player can be even greater than the club he plays for, which usually has decades of history. They have millions of followers on social networks and generate more attention than clubs, leagues or international competitions. And attention, in the digital world, is considered a currency.

Superstars such as Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar Jr or Leo Messi have way more followers on Social Media platforms than Juventus, PSG or FC Barcelona and those fans usually will follow their new clubs if they sign a new contract. Player Branding allows a new way of loyalty, focused on players rather than teams, hardly seen before.

Getting the attention of the fans by the footballer is a rising value, a concept known as Athlete Brand Equity, which ends up turning into sources of income for the player. In some cases, players can earn a lot of money for a single post on their personal Social Media profiles.

In fact, for the great football stars, the salaries paid by their clubs are no longer their main source of income. It is their commercial agreements that bring them great benefits, and all thanks to working on their image as a brand.

David Beckham, the trail blazer for the new generation of players

If there is a paradigmatic case in the world of men's football, that is David Beckham. At the level of performance and professional career, he has been one of the best players of his generation, but at a branding level he has surpassed all those colleagues with whom he coexisted and has been an example for the next generation of players.

Beckham knew how to unite very well his facet as one of the best players in the world with measured media expositions and a calculated lifestyle projection, which increased once he married pop singer Victoria Adams (former member of the Spice Girls). He was also able to play for two of the clubs with the biggest fan bases: Manchester United and Real Madrid. His easily marketable image kept eyes on him and even TV shows talked more about his style changes rather than his professional performance. He became of of the most powerful brands in the history of football and sport.

His athlete brand equity was massive and that reflected also on all the clubs and leagues in which he played. He came to account for 20% of Manchester United merchandising sales in 2002. In his last professional stage, he managed to fill the 80,000 seats at the Sydney Olympic Stadium to watch a game between LA Galaxy and Sydney FC. Both the club and the MLS greatly benefited from the presence of Beckham. 

Today, Beckham remains on the list of athletes who generates the most money, even years after his retirement. His latest adventure has been to participate in the creation of Inter Miami, of the MLS, in addition to continuing to be the image of brands such as H&M or Tudor, generating close to 30 million pounds a year.

Marta, the great icon of women's football

Marta Vieira da Silva is considered one of the best female football players in history. Her achievements with the ball are practically countless, but she has also managed to build her brand image. But she has used it for purposes beyond marketing.

Throughout her career, Marta managed to sign contracts with major international brands, such as Coca-Cola, although her income could never be compared to her male counterparts. Her image was forged on her performance on the field, causing many fans to only be able to name her if asked for the names of female football players. But also thanks to a story of self-improvement that led a poor girl from Brazil to the top of football. That was the base of her brand image.

All the teams she has played for throughout her career have seen how, after her arrival, the number of spectators who attended the games increased, which shows that player branding can be very beneficial for all parties.

Besides the commercial aspect, Marta was named Ambassador of the UN; the organization took advantage of Marta's strong brand image as a self-made athlete to bring attention to development and women’s issues.

As the cases of David Beckham and Marta Vieira demonstrate, Player Branding is a component that all players must care for and develop professionally. Only then can they benefit from it: to increase income or to fight for causes they believe worthwhile. Nowadays, world's attention is valuable, because it can turn into whatever the player wants.