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There are influncers in sports paid more than athletes with great performance.
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Beyond skills and achievements, an athlete’s economic success is now also linked to his or her influence on social media.
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Being on social media now seems to be inescapable even for pro athletes.
Tigist Assefa is the athlete holding the women’s marathon record we most likely have imprinted in our memory as he kisses his ADIZERO Adios Pro Evo 1, the brand-new adidas super shoe that once she crossed the finish line she slipped off and proudly displayed, as if to say that that incredible achievement they had achieved together. An instinctive gesture or a studied move?
Even in races held on the trails we see scenes of athletes performing seemingly unspontaneous actions. As was the case at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Innsbruck, Austria, when American Grayson Murphy once she crossed the finish line dropped to the ground, sitting in a position where the Saucony logo was clearly visible on her shoes.
Athletes and influencers compared
There is a fine line that is increasingly being crossed, sometimes to the detriment of athletes. Nowadays it is important for a brand to work with content creators and have an influencer marketing strategy. It is equally important to be able to boast of having professional athletes on your team with the potential to take the brand to the top step of the podium in competitions of international interest.
It is a sometimes precarious balancing act if the treatment toward athlete and influencer is not well balanced. An athlete for example might resent learning that his sponsor invests more tokens on a content creator than on his potential.
Grayson Murphy, a two-time professional trail runner and trail running world champion herself, said in an interview that “sometimes when I hear how much running influencers make compared to top runners, I just want to be an influencer.”
The three -P
Brands are increasingly interested in athletes who meet the three -p’s: performance, personality, and social media content production. An athlete’s message has tremendous potential in terms of impact and credibility to the passionate audience. Performance cannot be disregarded, but if a brand is undecided between two athletes, the choice will almost certainly fall on the one with the greatest communication skills. It is important to be able to effectively convey a message, and there is no better spokesperson for a brand than one of its athletes.
To each his own value
There are some content creators who feel almost mortified to have a following and sometimes paychecks far in excess of so many level athletes. As stated by Laura Green, a runner by passion who has gained more than 150k followers on Instagram thanks to the joking and funny tones of her videos in which she makes fun of the most unusual behaviors and clichés of the running world.
Some people try to make content that is both useful and entertaining, as in Laura’s case. And then there are those who share their running routines by showing the shoes they use from time to time and the apparel they wear to then get paid for creating sponsored content made in collaboration with this or that brand.
To each his audience
Every audience has an ideal interlocutor. An athlete will appeal to a more discerning and demanding audience that will expect technical information and precise details about training rather than the products used. An influencer generally targets a broader, general audience looking for simple, easy-to-implement advice.
Both are able to influence the masses, each in their own way and with the tools at their disposal. Some for one reason and some for another, they are able to draw attention to this or that event, create a trend andwow effect around a product or brand.
Influence is not a dirty word!
The verb “to influence” is increasingly perceived with a negative meaning, but there is a way and a way in which you can influence people, and it does not always have to be just to get them to open their wallets.
There is an intention to spur communities to move, play sports and be outdoors. There is an exchange of knowledge and experience, because we have all in turn been newbies: we help each other, support each other, and are kind and understanding to those who are new.
We are moving more and more toward the dimension of a narrative of a story that can be taken as a cue and inspiration by others. A point of view is being told, and this is what the individual brand does and should increasingly leverage. In the middle of this narrative, the sponsor’s footwear and apparel are worn, which will be the backdrop for the message being conveyed.
So what is the added value of running fast?
From the perspective of a capitalist society, brands must be able to identify and invest in people and ideas that will produce maximum profit. In light of the facts, should elite athletes also start striving for a large social media following in order to increase their earning potential? Reconciling life as a professional athlete and content creator could be a challenge that is not easy at all.
If before an athlete was chosen almost exclusively for his or her athletic merit today, his or her level of engagement on social media and audience data could decide his or her fate. It is an added value that the athlete can bring to the table and can grow his or her negotiating power.