How Coca-Cola Hijacked Sports
Plus Mbappé is mad with PSG and Adidas replaces Beyonce with 85-year old grandmother
Welcome to Athletic Interest.
People drink more Coke during a World Cup. During last year’s edition, Coca-Cola’s sales increased by a massive $600m. A similar bump is experienced during the Olympics.
Coca-Cola’s sports marketing strategy is fascinating - because it is so different from other big players in the game like Nike or Red Bull.
So we decided to make a video breaking down how this fizzy brown liquid has become a major player in the world of sports.
🍎 Sports Business Bites
⚾️ Major MLB rule changes lead to record audience engagement.
The new season of Major League Baseball includes a number of radical rule changes designed to increase the pace of the game. The highlight is a new pitch clock that gives pitchers just a 15-second window to toss the ball. This is part of a wider campaign by the league to engage a younger audience and shrug off its image as slow and boring. While that will take more than a fancy new clock, these new rules do appear to be starting to have the desired effect.
Opening day set a record for viewers on MLB TV (172 million minutes watched, a 42% increase from the previous year). ESPN and FOX also saw their total audience figures increase by around 10%.
MLB is not the first sports league to change the rules in the hopes of increasing the audience. The NBA introduced the 3-point line in 1979 with the intention of increasing scoring and making basketball more entertaining for the fans.
💰 The richest owners in sport revealed
As the amount of money flowing into sports continues to rise, it’s no wonder that some of the world’s richest people have decided to purchase sports teams.
But who is the richest of them all? Forbes has the answer:
1. 🇮🇳 Mukesh Ambani - Mumbai Indians ($83.4 Billion)
2. 🇺🇸 Steve Ballmer - Los Angeles Clippers ($80.7 Billion)
3. 🇺🇸 Rob Walton - Denver Broncos ($57.6 Billion)
4. 🇫🇷 François Pinault & family - Stade Rennais F.C .($40.1 Billion)
5. 🇦🇹 Mark Mateschitz - New York Red Bulls, Red Bull Racing, RB Leipzig ($34.7 Billion)
6. 🇬🇧 James Ratcliffe - OGC Nice ($22.9 Billion)
7. 🇯🇵 Masayoshi Son - Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks ($22.4 Billion)
8. 🇺🇸 David Tepper - Carolina Panthers, Charlotte FC (Net Worth: $18.5 Billion)
9. 🇺🇸 Daniel Gilbert - Cleveland Cavaliers ($18 Billion)
10. 🇺🇸 Steve Cohen - New York Mets ($17.5 Billion)
The full list can be seen here
Key takeaways include:
Eight of the twenty people listed have ownership stakes in football clubs, a further signal that football is seen as one of the most promising growth sectors within sports.
This is the first appearance on the list for Mark Mateschitz, the heir to 49% of the Red Bull empire after the death of his father, and Red Bull founder, Dietrich Mateschitz. The 30-year-old is now one of the most powerful people in sport, with stakes in New York Red Bulls, RB Leipzig, and two Formula 1 teams (Red Bull Racing and Alpha Tauri.)
Manchester United fans will also be pleased to see that potential new owner Sir Jim Ratcliffe has such a high place on this list. His chemical company INEOS controls the French side OGC Nice, but will probably need to divest if Ratcliffe is successful at taking over United.
👟 The Boot Room
Here is the latest from the biggest sports apparel brands.
🤖 Nike scored a big win recently after signing Erling Haaland ahead of rivals Adidas and Puma. Haaland will earn a reported €22 million per year and will become one of Nike’s biggest names alongside Kylian Mbappé. The fact that Nike now has the two biggest emerging talents in football under contract could be significant for the future of the sportswear industry. For years, a delicate balance was held between Nike and Adidas, with Cristiano Ronaldo representing Nike and Lionel Messi representing Adidas.
To learn more about why Haaland chose Nike, and the long-term implications of that decision, watch our recent video:
Nike has already started activating its partnership with Haaland. The Norweigan has been posting a number of Nike-related images on his Instagram, including a recent visit to the Nike store in London.
👵🏻 Adidas has had a difficult few months, with poor financial results dominating many of the headlines. The company is also looking to move on from previous relationships it had with big-name celebrities like Kanye West and Beyonce.
So what exactly is the future of Adidas?
Meet Barbara Thackray, an 85-year-old grandmother from Manchester.
Barbara is actually one of the new faces of Adidas…and for good reason.
The 85-year-old runs the 10k twice a week after taking up running eight years ago to raise money for charity. Barbara appears in the ‘Impossible is Nothing’ campaign which also features big-name Adidas athletes like Mo Salah.
When asked about her opinion on her new sponsorship Barbara simply responded: "So long as they were prepared to make a significant donation to St Ann's Hospice I felt ok about it."
📈 Overall, it has been a tough 12 months for the sports apparel industry. Ongoing supply chain issues coupled with inflation and the lasting effects of Covid-19 have sent costs spiraling and sales falling.
Nike, Adidas, and Puma lost a combined total of $50bn in stock value over the last year, with Adidas contributing $32bn to this total.
The second biggest loser was Puma. In March 2022, Puma’s market cap stood at $12.8bn. By March this year, the stock was worth just $8.9bn, that’s a 30% decrease.
Nike fared better overall but still saw a drop of around 10% from $133.7bn in March 2022 to $119.9bn this year.
The three brands will be hoping that relative easing in supply issues and inflation, as well as renewed efforts to grow direct-to-consumer sales, will make the next 12 months far more positive.
📱 Social Media Madness
🤬 We made a video recently explaining how Kylian Mbappé takes his image very seriously and maintains firm control over how he is portrayed. This ranges from refusing hundreds of sponsorship agreements to boycotting team photoshoots that promote betting or fast food companies.
Now Mbappé has taken things a step further and called out his own club on social media for using his image incorrectly.
Recently, PSG released a new video trying to encourage fans to sign up for new season tickets for the 23/24 campaign. Mbappé features prominently in the video, with Messi and Neymar both notably absent.
While there is nothing especially strange about the video, Mbappé was not impressed.
In a statement on social media, Mbappé accused the club of tricking him, and claimed they were trying to make PSG look like ‘Kylian Saint-Germain.’
For those of you that don’t speak French, here is a translation:
“I just took part in the viewing of the club’s re-subscription campaign for the 23-24 season. At no time was I informed of the content of the interview. It looked like a basic interview during a club marketing day. I don’t agree with this published video. That’s why I’m fighting for the right to the individual image. PSG is a great club and a great family but it is certainly not Kylian Saint-Germain.”