Alex Morgan is the most marketable member of the USWNT because of the mix of youth, talent, and looks that she possesses. She busted into the public spotlight at last summer's Women's World Cup and her fame continues to grow. At 22, Morgan was the youngest member of the Women's World Cup squad. Now 23, she is no longer the youngest on the team, but is still called "Baby Horse" for her age and gallop-like running style. Morgan was the super-sub in 2011, coming into the game with 10 to 15 minutes left and making an impact. She impacted the game with her speed and finishing abilities: scoring clutch goals for the team in qualing and during the Women's World Cup. In 2012, Morgan earned a starting position and has had an unprecedented scoring run.
To top everything off, Morgan is attractive. Girls want to look like her and guys want to marry her. Many young soccer players have copied Morgan's signature look on the pitch: a pink per-wrap headband. She received hundreds of proposals on Twitter and approval of her photo shoot for Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue in which she posed in body paint. With this combination of attributes, not to mention her personality and ease in front of camera, it is unsurprising that companies have taken notice.
Morgan's list sponsors includes: Nike, Bank of America, GNC, Mueller, AT&T, GE, Panasonic, and Coca Cola. Morgan was a Nike athlete before the Women's World Cup and the athletic apparel company outfitted the striker in cleats throughout the competition. She had also done one photo shoot prior to the Women's World Cup. After the tournament, Nike used Morgan much more to promote Nike Soccer and she was even featured in a online video game. In the build up to the Olympics, Nike has released a video and more images of Morgan for Nike Women. Nike is always at the forefront of sports. They are represented by some of the best athletes and they handle their marketing superbly. Nike has made a big push of late to market Nike Women and female athletes. They showcase in their marketing the perfect mix of envious, sexy bodies with hard-core athletic ability and this is the brand that Morgan should project.
Bank of America enlisted Morgan, Abby Wambach, and Hope Solo to promote the Chicago Marathon in July of 2011. They attended the Marathon and ran small portions of it with thirteen selected runners for charity. Morgan is known for her amazing speed on the pitch, so the running aspect of this sponsorship makes sense. Also, it is good for her brand to be associated with charitable efforts. This was the first major sponsorship signing after the Women's World Cup.
GNC, the nutrition product retailer, signed Morgan and USWNT teammate, Heather Mitts, in January of 2012. Fitness and nutrition are important to Morgan's career. It is fitting that she represents nutritional products. GNC is a well-known company and have the capabilities to extend Morgan's reach with the public. They have begun to do so, with a large billboard in NYC with Morgan's image.
In June of 2012, Morgan became an ambassador for Mueller Sports Medicine, which sells pre-wrap. Morgan is known for wearing a pink pre-wrap headband during every training and every game. This partnership fits perfectly because a lot of young girls have since copied her pink styling. Morgan is certainly not the first athlete to wear pre-wrap headbands, but she is the first to make it famous. Female athletes of all ages- youth, high school, college, and professional-have been wearing pre-wrap for years, but Mueller is looking for those athletes to buy their products because of its connection with Morgan. An official campaign featuring Morgan has not yet been released, but Mueller gave a sneak-peak through twitter of the upcoming ads.
AT&T is listed as a sponsor of Morgan on her official website and in Sports Business Daily. There are no advertisements available featuring Morgan, but expect ones to be released during the Olympics.
GE, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola have two things in common: they have a sponsorship deal with Alex Morgan and they are Top Olympic Partners. This commonality is good news for Morgan. To be a Top Olympic Partner, companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars to tie their brand directly with the Olympics. There are only 11 Top sponsors, so Morgan representing three of these companies is a big deal. For women's soccer, there are only two major tournaments-Women's World Cup and Olympics-to make an impact. These tournaments are in successive years, so there is a two-year lull when women's soccer does not have the opportunity to gain the publics attention. Morgan needs to take advantage of the limited time she has to build her brand and public recognition. It is harder for women's soccer to gain attention during the Olympics because of the amount of other sports competing at the same time. Gymnastics, track and field, and swimming, usually are the big events and the winning athletes become stars. Morgan's partnership with three TOP sponsors will aid her tremendously in raising her profile during the Olympics. These sponsorship deals ensure Morgan will not be lost in the thousands of athletes at the London Games, but will be in the forefront of advertising efforts. It was an extremely smart move by her representatives to team her up with GE, Panasonic, and Coca-Cola because of the amount of advertising these companies do around the Olympics. GE is promoting a health care record keeping system that Morgan has been called on to do numerous interviews about. Panasonic features her in a commercial that started running on NBC during the NHL playoffs. Morgan is one of Coca-Cola's 8-pack of athletes. Her silhouette is on a Coke can and they have released multiple videos online that allow viewers to get to know her better. Advertising will reach its peak during the two and a half week span of the London Games and it will be interesting to see how Morgan is used.
Morgan certainly is capitalizing on her rise since the Women's World Cup and a gold medal at the Olympics will elevate her status even higher, which will make her even more marketable.
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