The session included talks from Australian diver, Olympian Melissa Wu and AOC Partners. The discussion focused on how brands can find the right athlete for their brand, best practice examples and learnings from within the Olympic Partner Family about one another’s experiences working with Olympians and other athletes.

One of the Partners that presented on the day was Krystyna Frassetto, Managing Director of M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment, who has shared the key takeaways from the day below.

Athletes as influencers

Sport continues to be Australia’s most popular passion, but according to our annual M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment Passion Pulse report, the way in which fans are engaging with their love of the game is changing.

One in two fans want to go deeper than the live game, searching for additional content and engaging directly with their favourite sporting heroes.

Many athletes now enjoy direct-to-fan relationships on their own social platforms which have amassed greater reach and relevance than some sports publications.

As a result, trust in the opinions and recommendations of athlete influencers is at an all-time high.

Medals over Oscars

The meteoric rise of athletes as influencers is not without its hurdles. With increased attention and fame, comes increased expectations from sponsors and fans.

It’s important to remember that many Olympians work regular day jobs alongside rigorous training regimes to help fund their sporting dreams.

They basically train, eat, work, sleep, repeat - leaving limited availability to participate in appearances and interviews and create content.

Equally important, is creating a role for the talent in marketing activity that will play to their strength as inspiring athletes, and doesn’t rely on them to be critically acclaimed actors, comedians or content producers.

High-performing purpose

“What happens if they don’t go on to compete?,” was one of the questions that came up during the Think Tank. The answer is that it shouldn’t matter.

Our counsel to clients when identifying and evaluating potential athletes to partner with is to focus less on their performance, accomplishments and medal count, and more on their values.

Explore what athletes are passionate about outside of sport, what they stand for, and the causes they care about.

In line with macro trends we’re seeing on TikTok and Instagram, today’s fans connect best with authentic, relatable and interesting characters, so brands should lean into this and align with spokespeople that share its values.

This approach also insulates a brand endorsement partnership from the natural highs and lows of professional competition.

Flip the script

When activating celebrities, the default for many marketers is to get them in front of a camera but there are so many other, interesting ways to leverage your partnership with an Olympian.

This helps not only to circumvent limited access and availability due to their schedules but also to stand out from the crowd of other brands. During the creative process, consider how you can flip the script and rely less on what the athlete can do for you, and instead, what your organisation can do for them.

Maybe you have a workforce of 10,000 Aussies that can create and share messages of support on social. Or perhaps you have a shopfront in the hometown of the athlete that you could activate to bring joy to the local community.

Finding new and novel ways to signal your partnership with an Olympian that doesn’t necessarily rely on a heavy lift from them will not only deepen the relationship, it might even deliver you greater commercial returns in terms of reach and engagement.

Life after sport

Athletes are high achieving individuals whether on the court, in the pool, at a desk or on a construction site. The career they had as a professional athlete is not lost, in fact, it is full of depth and experience.

Using athletes after their sporting careers enables brands to have more flexibility with capturing content, including what an athlete represents outside of sport that may be common with a brand.

Milk the message

One final recommendation for brands working with athletes is a challenge to think laterally about how you can maximise the stories of your partnership across your entire organisation.

Once you’ve identified talent that is aligned with your organisational values and crafted a campaign that relies less on their entertainment value and more on their backstory and purpose, you’ll want as many people to see it as possible.

For us, that’s about milking the message across owned, earned and paid, and getting clever about capturing stories for multiple formats.

Learning from one another

The AOC is compiling a Working with Athletes Tool Kit to ensure information is passed on within the Partner family enabling effective and happy partnerships whilst getting the most out of the arrangements for both the athlete and the brand.

This will be an ongoing document which will be added to regularly to continue to compile lessons and experiences.