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So…what’s after the honeymoon? According to Sportico, 76% of athletes on social media have endorsed at least one brand. But if you ask Google about the ROI from these athlete partnerships, you’ll get brand awareness stats made up of reach, views and comments.
We get it. Brand awareness is good, and attribution is hard. But by bolstering athlete partnerships to owned audiences—independent from social platforms—athletes and their partners can become more data-driven and begin to create their own media franchises.
This shift offers massive opportunities for everyone involved. Let’s look at owned audiences and their importance from three perspectives: the brand, the athlete and the fan.
Brands: Create more effective athlete partnerships
In 1978, Bill Bonner founded Agora Financial, a publishing company focused on helping people grow and protect their wealth. Today, it generates over $1 billion annually, primarily due to brand partnerships. But you’ll never see them on social media—their entire business is based on email.
As primarily a top of funnel channel, organic social media makes for a clunky sales process (“go to my link-in-bio, find the right link, and then use my code for 20% off”) and distribution depends too much on an algorithm where users are becoming tone-deaf to deal culture and a constant onslaught of…everything.
And the benefit of email over social media is about more than just the numbers (40x more conversions than social media according to McKinsey—nothing to sneeze at) and clear sales attribution (UTM links make life a lot easier). They’re also just a better (deeper) way to tell stories.
One of our favorite newsletters is “Go-to-Millions” by Ari Murray. Look at the way she blends in sponsored posts into her writing:
Context. Problem. Connection. Ari is definitely one of the best at this (sign up to her newsletter here), but the power is clear. This is part of what makes email marketing such an attractive alternative (or more accurately, a second level) to social media.
Using email marketing does not mean you can’t still take advantage of the visual, fun nature of social media to bolster it. But as a brand, if there’s more to be had, why not take advantage?
Athletes: Create leverage with a diversified asset
We wrote about the importance of athletes owning their audience six years ago, and the main points hold true: you can’t put 100% of your brand in the hands of a platform that you have no control over. But more than that, you want to put yourself in a position to win.
According to Beehiiv, of the almost 4 billion (!) email users around the world, 90% of them check their email every day. An owned audience (specifically an email list), opens up opportunities that can multiply your potential as an athlete creator.
Kyle Kuzma is one of the first big names to make the transition with his Kuz Kontrol newsletter. In a recent LinkedIn post, he shared examples about why it has been such a powerful channel to connect with his fans.
Not only can you directly speak to your audience through an algorithm-free channel, you instantly create more opportunities for athlete partnerships in terms of sponsorships, products, and more. Especially when it comes to taking your athlete brand global. When you think of your athlete-led media franchise, you want multiple touch points across multiple channels.
Bob Iger, chief executive of the Walt Disney Company, defines the word franchise as "something that creates value across multiple businesses and across multiple territories over a long period of time." If you have a story to tell, you shouldn’t limit yourself to where you can tell it.
Fans: Get real stories without needing to change behavior
Most platforms in the fan engagement space are trying to do some form of the same thing: to help fans connect with athletes. While the sentiment is great, the problem is that these platforms are trying to unnaturally change their behavior.
Sports streaming is already a confusing patchwork of platforms, packages and services. Rather than adding to the madness, athlete partnerships via email newsletters can cut through directly to the fan through the one channel that almost everyone has and uses without question.
Rather than asking for a fan to focus on the app, an owned audience lets them focus on the stories. Email gives athletes a chance to tell stories that social media isn’t built for. It feels more like a 1-to-1 engagement that feels like a personal letter.
Building the future of athlete media franchises
The athlete partnerships space is maturing, with tools like Out2Win and Cache AI making it easier to analyze an athlete’s reach, engagement and sponsorship value. But social media platforms shouldn’t be the last stop for athlete partnerships.
At ProStories, we’re helping athletes build their media franchises through owned audience development. The shift is happening.
Further reading: The Pro Athlete Partnership Guide for Teams and Agencies