Building Brand Authenticity Through Athletes
Enabling vs. Selling: Why the best athlete partnerships feel additive, not transactional
A lot of brands talk about authenticity, but I think they approach athlete partnerships backwards.
The standard model is usually the same: sign an athlete with a following, put them in campaigns, and ask them to amplify the brand message.
That can work for large brand campaigns, but it often feels transactional for everyday posts. The athlete starts to feel more like media inventory than an actual person with their own perspective, interests, and community.
The better brands flip the thinking.
Instead of asking: “How can this athlete help our brand?”
They ask: “How can our brand help this athlete?”
That’s a very different relationship.
When brands help athletes do things they already care deeply about, the content feels more real because it is real. The brand becomes part of the story instead of trying to control it.
Copyright: Tomasz Ustupski / Red Bull Content Pool
Red Bull is probably the clearest example of this currently. Much of their marketing works because they are constantly enabling athletes to do interesting things meaningful to them. As a result, brands feels additive to athletes lives rather than promotional.
And that’s probably the bigger point.
Authentic brands often feel like they are helping enable athletes to become better.
Inauthentic brands make people feel like they are just trying to just sell you something.