Sponsorship Roundup: Alex Morgan

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.    

Olympic Boots

The USWNT debuted their Olympic boots at their send-off match in Sandy, Utah. Most of the team is represented by Nike and will wear the Nike Clash Collection. The Clash Collection features the Mercurial, the CTR360, the Tempo, and the T90. These four cleats are not new models, but are in a different color and style. The collection is called Clash because the back of each boot is a color and the front is white. The back of the Mercurial is a vibrant red and Tobin Heath, Megan Rapinoe, Carli Lloyd, and Sydney Leroux will wear them during the Olympics. The CTR360 is in a bright blue color. Abby Wambach and Amy LePeilbet will wear them. Alex Morgan and Kelley O'Hara will sport the neon green T90 boots, while Hope Solo, Shannon Boxx, and Rachel Buehler are in the more subdued black Tempo cleats. Nicole Barnhart is in all black cleats with a white Nike swoosh. She is the only Nike athlete who is not wearing the Clash Collection.

Lauren Cheney, Heather Mitts, and Becky Sauerbrunn are Under Armour athletes and they are also outfitted in new cleats. Cheney and Mitts tweeted pictures of their Olympic boots before the send-off match. Under Armour has given each player cleats in two colors, presumably a home and an away pair.   Cheney's are turquoise and Mitts' are blue. Sauerbrunn did not tweet a photo of her cleats, but she was wearing white and red versions of Cheney's cleats in the last match against Canada.

Heather O'Reilly and Christie Rampone wear Adidas cleats. O'Reilly will wear pairs that are red, white, and blue and it is unclear what cleats Rampone will wear.

Amy Rodriguez is the only player who is sponsored by Puma. Along with O'Reilly, she will wear red, white, and blue cleats. This is surprising since the Olympics stir such nationalistic pride. I would have thought a majority of the players would be in red, white, and blue cleats.

Whichever company or color cleats the players will wear, they will be taking the field at the Olympics in brand new boots.    

Photo Credit: Nike, Lauren Cheney Twitter, Heather Mitts Twitter. 

Hope Solo Failed Drug Test

Hope Solo failed a drug test and receives a public warning as punishment, which will have no affect over her eligibility for the Olympics. Solo tested positive for Canrenone on June 15, the day before the USWNT played Sweden in a friendly in the Volvo Winners Cup. Canrenone is a diuretic and is banned by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency because it can be used to flush the system.

The USADA and U.S. Soccer believe Solo's explanation for why the substance was in her body. Solo said Canrenone was contained in a medication she was legitimately prescribed by a doctor for pre-menstrual purposes.  


Solo's statement:
"I took a medication prescribed by my personal doctor for pre-menstrual purposes that I did not know contained a diuretic. Once informed of this fact, I immediately cooperated with USADA and shared with them everything they needed to properly conclude that I made an honest mistake, and that the medication did not enhance my performance in any way. As someone who believes in clean sport, I am glad to have worked with USADA to resolve this matter and I look forward to representing my country at the 2012 Olympic Games in London."



U.S. Soccer's statement:
"U.S. Soccer received notification from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that Hope Solo tested positive for a banned substance from an out-of competition urine sample she provided on June 15. After discussions with Hope, we fully support her clarification that the positive test for Canrenone was due to the use of a prescribed medication from a personal doctor for pre-menstrual purposes and not related to performance enhancement in any way."



The headline is shocking, but the result of this situation is far from disastrous. This is a public relations problem for Solo, but her representatives have handled it properly thus far by releasing a well-constructed statement. Solo did not try to deny the test, but explained why Canrenone was in her system. She admitted she made a mistake and is firm that the drug did not enhance her performance. The statement ends on a positive note by referencing the Olympics. U.S. Soccer dealt with Solo's positive test in the right manner. They showed their support for one of their most recognizable athletes.

This should be the last we hear about the drug test from Solo and U.S. Soccer. Their PR teams want to control what is being said, so any set up interviews or press conferences will compromise that. She should keep her regular media routine, which will be amped up because of the Olympics, but not do any additional media engagements specifically about the drug test. She will be asked about it and she should stick to the message in her statement. U.S. Soccer and Solo have yet to tweet anything since the story broke, so it seems the PR teams are keeping a tight lid on communications. Solo is known for her twitter outburst and having one at this time would be detrimental. They want to move on from the situation, so continuing to bring it up would be a mistake.

It is yet to be determined how much this will hurt Solo. She may be acquitted by the USADA, but public opinion is still open. The fact that Solo is still able to play in the Olympics helps this from being a public relations nightmare. Once the Olympics start, other story lines will emerge and this indecent will be old news. The public will be more concerned with winning gold.      

Photo Credit: Nike

Unified Jersey

I like the idea of the men's and women's kit being the same because I think it is a positive for the U.S. Soccer brand and more specifically the USWNT brand. Nike does an amazing job supporting the USWNT through outfitting the team and sponsorship. Nike's sponsorship has been extremely beneficial for the USWNT and this was noted in Jere Longman's book about the 1999 Women's World Cup titled "The Girls of Summer." Longman points out that Nike endorsing the USWNT and using their resources to promote it made U.S. Soccer invest more money in the team. Historically, there was been an imbalance of resources provided to each team with the women being short-handed. I am unsure whether is was Nike's or U.S. Soccer's idea to unify the jersey, but if it was Nike than this may have the same effect as the original endorsement had on U.S. Soccer's mentality toward the USWNT. This is at least a visual representation of parity between the men's and women's side and hopefully the next step in real unification.          

I hope this new kit will establish a tradition of unity between the teams and also establish a unified image of the team. A sports team's jersey is a great way to create and maintain a specific brand and U.S. Soccer and Nike have failed to utilize this. The USWNT jersey has changed drastically throughout its history and there has not been a continued design theme. The shield has stayed and the stars have stayed, but mostly everything else has changed. Of course there needs to be updates because the style of the early 90s is much different from that of now, but the changes have been too frequently and too drastically different. I would be happy to see a legacy of stripes or even the sash be established in this design. This will help create a more solid brand. 

New Jerseys Coming Out to Play

U.S. Soccer posted a behind-the-scenes video of the USWNT trying on their new home kit for the first time today. The USWNT will debut their new kit in an international friendly on May 27, 2012 against China PR at PPL Park in Chester, Pa. The new Nike jersey design was unveiled on April 16, 2012 by U.S. Soccer in a press release on their website. Notably, the men's and women's national team will share the same jersey for the first time in the programs history. This unifying act is underlined by the slogan "Two Teams. One Jersey." which Nike has been using to promote the new kit. The only difference between the men's and women's jersey is the two stars above the U.S. Soccer shield on the women's jersey, which symbolizes their Women's World Cup wins in 1991 and 1999.

The design of the new home kit has faced heavy criticism on social media platforms. Fans have compared the jersey to Where's Waldo and have even photo shopped Waldo's stripped hat and glasses on promotional images of the kit. The fans certainly have a point on this one. I was disappointed by the design when I first saw it, but I was also not too keen on the old women's kit. Honestly, I thought they were ugly and the large white and red stripes were overkill.

The jersey has grown on me in the past month and I predict by the time the Olympics kick off, I will be able to say that I actually like it. The release of the behind-the-scenes video was a good move on U.S. Soccer's part to reach out to fans and gain momentum for the debut of the kit. Nothing will sway fan opinion of the jersey more than seeing their beloved players in them and having the players talk about how much they like them. This video did just that.

The video is also important because the upcoming friendly is not televised or live streamed. Seeing the players in action in the jersey will probably be the tipping point for approval by the fans. At the end of the day, the fans care a whole lot more about the soccer than the jersey, so if they view something in which they enjoy (the USWNT playing) then those positive feelings could transfer over to the jersey. Due to this, I am surprised U.S. Soccer would not hold off debuting the kit until the Olympic send-off match on June 30, 2012 because that game will be televised.