Hello to all my fans that want to become famous by finding a good agent. The following story is about how sports agents built a career out of men that no one had known outside of their sport. These special agents can make their clients into household names. They can take clients in the same agency in other work (i.e. actresses, models) and create introductions, in front of the camera, dating publicly, or whatever it takes to make them famous. He is looking beyond an athletes playing days, always working on the bigger picture. This is not just about one sport, and this is not just about America. This is global.
Written By: Rob Tencer
The super star agents that highly sought after and are creating careers for their clients are:
Don Yee – Tom Brady’s agent (Yee & Dubin LLP)
Alan Zucker – Peyton Mannings agent.
The agents use a technique that has 3 parts. This technique is usually reserved for a celebrity publicist, but it can be mastered by the right agent.
part 1. Finding a client right out of high school or still in college.
The agent must get the client young, because a college player can go pro at anytime. The ideal time to get sign them, might be high school.
The agent must keep the player out of trouble, and must keep them out of jail, and keep them playing without being thrown off the team and out of school. While it is not legal to get the player paid while in school, there is other incentives. The player must get to the draft, or at least be eligible to play pro. Once the player makes the pro’s, the fun starts.
part 2. dating to be famous.
Just like the book I wrote about becoming famous, “stop waiting to be famous and start dating to be famous”, the agent uses the same concept to try and position the client not for a career in movies or TV, but for a career in endorsements.
part 3. The promised land is in endorsements
The holy grail of a career in sports is not winning a championship, but getting as many endorsement deals as humanly possible. It helps to be playing in a strong media market, or at least to have played college ball in a big market. The agent collects anywhere from 10-25% of whatever he gets his clients, and one head injury or knee injury could end the career of the athlete, so the real money is in endorsements, and this is what the agent has been building up to since the player was a child.
Peyton Mannibg will receive $13 million from endorsements, while Tom Brady will receive $9-$13 million in endorsement deals. Manning has endorsement contracts with MasterCard, DirecTV, PepsiCo, Gatorade, Adidas, Reebok, Sprint Nextel. Brady has endorsement contracts with Visa, Nike, Sirius Satellite, Movado, Burns Entertainment and sports marketing, Smartwater Coca-Cola, Glaceau
Lets now look at a few recent athletes that have been through the process of the three parts.
Tom Brady – while he did not get picked in the draft at a very high level, he settled into his championship role. Tom has very good looks, and was a great fit into so many endorsements. The problem was how to get him popular in middle america, and basically all of america?
Through the use of being in the right place at the right time – arranged and orchestrated by the agent, he was able to be seen with very beautiful women, and more importantly, outside the stadium, outside the field, and in a red carpet celebrity setting. By going out with celebrities, then models, then the biggest and most famous and most beautiful model in the world, it made Tom more desirable by women, and more looked up to by men. Now Tom was ready for endorsements, magazine covers, tabloids and gossip columns, high visibility and maximum exposure and maximum penetration into the minds of America.
Peyton Manning – While his story is not the same as Tom Brady, he appeared to be more down to earth and a family man. He loved his brother and father and was seen with them or talking about them at every opportunity. Where Tom could transcend into all aspects of Americana, Peyton had to rely on his core audience of football fans.
Matt Lienart – Matt went to a Los Angeles College, and was in the celebrity dating rotation of high profile women like Paris Hilton. Being on the star circuit increased his star quota. When he was drafted into a small media market, his endorsement career took a nosedive. Getting a random girl pregnant, did bring his name into the news. So you see its all about off the field actions that define your career. Especially if the star athlete gets injured.
Tony Romo – I was watching Donald Trumps Miss World or Miss Universe beauty paegent and I saw this first year pro quarterback as one of the judges. Who was he? Why was he given the job as a judge, when nobody knew who this guy was? This was purely the agent at work, trying to create high profile appearances where most of the world would be watching. America would be watching this man who seemingly had no connection to pro football. He was not even in America for this competition. Then came carrie underwood, then came Britney spears, then super models. The idea is to build his career before he gets a championship, and it really does not matter if he even gets a championship. What matters is that he is being groomed for lucrative endorsement deals. He does not have the good looks of Tom Brady, so his female and male fan base will need to be a little different. The Carrie underwood dating to be famous worked out because of his TV market in Texas. When that was no longer
needed to elevate himself, the agent moved onto someone with a more high profile. Britney Spears is in the news everyday. Even if Tony Romo hides from photographers, they camp out outside and across the street of the girls house. They follow her every move. They record every person she talks to, including the McDonalds she goes to. This is much better for world wide exposure, and American psyche.
While Tiger Woods is not a football star, he is an athlete with more endorsement deals than both of them combined.
Derek Jeter is also a highly ranked athlete superstar, with massive endorsement deals according to Q scores – which measures consumer awareness of an athlete’s likability.
The owner of the new england patriots whom Tom Brady plays for, says women between the ages of 2 and 80 are crazy for him.
Rob Tencer is the author of “stop waiting to be famous and start dating to be famous” as well as the lead writer of several entertainment blogs in the USA and the UK. Dr. Tencer is also a Sober Companion.
Bob Dorfman – executive vice president of SF based Baker Street Partners.
Doug Shableman – President – Burns Entertainment and sports marketing, Evanston,Ill
Steve Rosner – 16W marketing, Rutherford, NJ
David Carter – Sports Buisness group – LA,CA
Yee & Dubin LLP
725 S. Figueroa Street Suite 3085
Los Angeles, CA 90017-5430
USA
Alan Zucker – IMG
Senior Vice President, Athlete Marketing
Lovell House 616 Chiswick High Road
London W4 5RX
United Kingdom
VANCOUVER
IMG
611 Alexander Street
Suite 401
Vancouver, BC V6A 1E1
Phone: (604) 228-2010
Fax: (604) 215-2003
BUENOS AIRES
IMG
Av. del Libertador 3254
B1637ALO – La Lucila
Buenos Aires
Argentina
Phone: +54 11 4799 8100
Fax: +54 11 4799 4464
HAMBURG
IMG Media
Jarrestr.10
22303 Hamburg, Germany
Phone: (49) 40 41 40 040
Fax:
ss="jajahLink" title="Click to call this number with JAJAH..." jajahtargetnumber=" (49) 40 41 40 04 20" href="javascript:void(0)"> (49) 40 41 40 04 20
VIENNA
International Management Group Austria GmbH
Wallnerstrasse 3 / 28
1010 Wien
Austria
Phone: +43 / 1 / 890 43 16 -0
Fax: +43 /1 / 890 43 16 – 20
ZŰRICH
IMG Schweiz AG
Bürogebäude com.West
Förrlibuckstrasse 72, 6 Stock
CH-8005 Zürich
Switzerland
Phone: (41) 44 274 1212
Fax: (41) 44 274 1213
DUBAI
IMG Middle East
Building 5, Suite 121
Gold and Diamond Park
Sheikh Zayed Road
P.O.Box
282339Dubai, UAE
Phone:
(971) 4-408-8388Fax:
(971) 4-408-8300
JOHANNESBURG
IMG
Fountain Grove
5 2nd Road, Hyde Park
Johannesburg, South Africa 2196
Phone: (27) (11) 880-1141
Fax: (27) (11) 880-
0690
BANGKOK
IMG Services (Thailand) Limited
Unit #1203, 12th Floor, SG Tower
161/1 Soi Mahadlekluang 3, Rajdamri Road
Lumpini, Patumwan Bangkok 10330, Thailand
Phone: (66) 2651-8323
Fax: (66) 2651-8324
TOKYO
IMG
Mitomi Building Shinkan 6F
1-20-18, Ebisu
Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0013 Japan
Phone: (81) (3) 5792-7800
Fax:
ass="jajahWraper"> (81) (3) 5792-7801
SYDNEY
IMG
Level 4, 263 Clarence Street
Sydney NSW 2000 Australia
Phone: (612) 9285 – 8000
Fax: (612) 9285 – 8001
IMG was founded by Mark H. McCormack in the early 1960s. The company is the world’s premier sports management and marketing agency, with an international staff of more than 2,500 in more than 80 offices in 32 countries. Its television division, TWI, is the largest independent distributor of televised sports and annually produces and distributes 6,000 hours of original programming in over 240 sports to more than 200 countries. Every day of the year, IMG is commercially involved in an average of 11 major sports and cultural events around the world, represents the interests of major corporations, is a literary agency and book packager, manager and presenter of world-renowned classical music artists through IMG Artists, and its IMG Models is the world’s leading international modelling agency.
Octagon
www.octagon.com
Norwalk, CT
| Revenue: |
$28.8 Million |
| Employees: |
300 |
Anschutz Entertainment Group
www.aegworldwide.com
Los Angeles, CA
| Revenue: |
$11.4 Million |
| Employees: |
200 |
SFX Sports Group Ltd
www.sfx.com
New York, NY
| Revenue: |
$81.2 Million |
| Employees: |
3,000 |
ANC Sports Enterprises , LLC
www.ancsports.com
Purchase, NY
| Revenue: |
$10 Million |
| Employees: |
45 |
CSMG Inc
www.csmgsports.com
Chicago, IL
More sports agents – click here
More sports amrketing companies – click here
2006 Sports Business Journal Forty Under 40 List:
Randy Bernard, Professional Bull Riders Inc.
John Brody, Major League Baseball
Zak Brown, Just Marketing International
Faust Capobianco IV, Majestic Athletic
Kathy Carter, Soccer United Marketing
Damon Evans, University of Georgia
Jeff Fluhr, StubHub.com
Todd France, France Athlete Management Enterprises Inc.
Frank Gibeau, EA Sports
Wally Hayward, Relay Sponsorship & Event Marketing
Sean Henry, Palace Sports and Entertainment
Paul Johnson, PGA Tour
Dave Katz, Yahoo!
Michael Kelly, South Florida Super Bowl XLI Host Committee
George Kliavkoff, Major League Baseball Advanced Media
Peter Lazarus, NBC Universal
Michael Levine, Van Wagner Sports Group
Ellen Lucey, Coca-Cola Co.
Burke Magnus, ESPNU
Peter Murray, NFL
Jon Niemuth, Ellerbe Becket
Scott ONeil, NBA
Doug Perlman, NHL
Kevin Plank, Under Armour
Ed Policy, Arena Football League
Tom Proebstle, Crawford Architects
Michael Robichaud, Sprint Nextel
Perry Rogers, Premier Integrated Sports Management
Greg Shaheen, NCAA
Mark Shapiro, Cleveland Indians
Adam Shaw, NFL Network
Peter Stern, Strategic Sports Group
Jim Tanner, Williams & Connolly
Mark Tatum, NBA
Shannon Terry, Rivals.com
Dorothy Whitehouse, ESPN ABC Sports Customer Marketing and Sales
Russell Wolff, ESPN International
Brett Yormark, Nets Sports & Entertainment
Michael Yormark, Sunrise Sports and Entertainment
Alan Zucker, IMG
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