David Beckham has only been playing professional soccer for the Los Angeles Galaxy since July 21st, and he only played his first full game this week. That doesn't make him any less buzzworthy or any less capable of bringing in the money for advertisers.
Brandweek provided a good list of the many advertisers who are cashing in on Beckham gold. First, Herbalife who scored a multi-million dollar deal with AEG who owns the Los Angeles Galaxy. That deal gave Herbalife the ability to put their logo on all Los Angeles Galaxy players' team jerseys. With Beckham's popularity higher than ever, Herbalife estimates they had 900 million media impressions during just two weeks when the new jerseys were introduced in July. Herbalife also states that Adidas produced 600,000 jerseys for fans to purchase, and purchase they did despite the high $90 pricetag. Stadiums are filled primarily with David Beckham jerseys meaning more advertising for Herbalife.
Major Leagus Soccer has said that professional soccer merchandise sales are up 700% for the Los Angeles Galaxy and 300% across the league, which they attribute entirely to David Beckham. In addition, stadiums are seeing crowds averaging over 40,000 people for each game where Beckham will appear (even if he doesn't actually play). Marketers like Sierra Mist, Budweiser, Geico, Toyota, Hess, Ritz Bitz (in soccer shapes) and more are lining up to buy ad space at games where Beckham will play. Looks like their ads won't go unnoticed.
In the meantime, David Beckham is seeing plenty of his own cash roll in through celebrity endorsements. Companies like Pepsi, Adidas, Motorola and more are lining up to attach the popular Beckham name to their products.
What do you think? Will the David Beckham mania fizzle out anytime soon?
Read more about David Beckham on MarketingBlurb here.
It seems that most of the international soccer players have jerseys that are "plastered" with adverts, so it must work fairly well for them. As to whether interest in Beckham will fizzle; I'm not, and never will be much of an MLS fan, but I can't deny that the sport has gained a great deal of popularity. I would hate to see players decked out like NASCAR drivers where every inch of their bodysuits is used though.
Posted by: Scott | August 27, 2007 10:06 AM | Permalink to Comment