The Morbid History of ‘Just Do It’ 🔪
Plus Real Madrid beats Man City in the Money League and Ferrari takes to the water to defeat Red Bull.
Welcome to Athletic Interest.
'Just Do It', the most popular marketing slogan in history, was invented by a serial killer.
It sounds like ridiculous clickbait, but it's true.
Learn the incredible and slightly morbid story of Just Do It, and how it transformed Nike and with it the whole advertising industry in our latest video:
🏆 In the football world, there is only one competition that every club wants to win… the UEFA Champions League Deloitte football Money League.
Each year, Deloitte estimates how much money each club has earned from ticket sales, commercial deals and broadcasting (the big three income sources).
Last year, Man City topped the league. This year it’s Real Madrid.
Some interesting things to note from this year’s results:
The top 20 clubs earned a record €10.5 Billion. That’s 14% higher than the previous record.
13 of the 20 clubs had record ticket sales. Demand for live sports seems to have finally recovered from the pandemic.
Broadcasting revenue stayed relatively flat (thanks to long term contracts) but commercial revenue increased 16%. This is mainly down to increased retail sales and more clubs hosting non-football events in their stadiums.
Real Madrid topped the table thanks to an increase in stadium income. But this figure came before they moved into their new improved stadium. Real Madrid estimate that the new stadium will bring more than 100 million euros extra per season. At this rate, Real Madrid could soon break the 1 billion euro income barrier.
🏎 Ferrari has just started a sailing team!
No, the company isn’t having a midlife crisis. This move actually has more to do with trying to beat Red Bull.
Ferrari has been struggling to keep up with Red Bull in Formula 1 recently, and believes that competing in sailing will force the company to think differently and ultimately help evolve and innovate its race cars.
Ferrari is not the first manufacturer to look to the waves for inspiration. Mercedes has been developing racing boats for years. This cross discipline approach has been credited with the brand's wider success inside and outside of motorsport.
If this fails, Ferrari could also try hitting Red Bull where it really hurts by starting a mountain biking team!
🎥 Netflix is finally wrestling with live sports.
We mean that literally. Netflix has just announced a $5 Billion 10-year partnership to stream WWE Raw.
This is the first time that Netflix has agreed to stream an entire sports series (yes, we know it’s not really a ‘proper’ sport) instead of just one-off events like the Netflix Cup.
Netflix had previously stated that they saw no value in the traditional weekly offering. But WWE Raw seems to have changed their mind.
There is a good reason for this. All that Netflix wants from sport is guaranteed drama and an engaged audience. The scripted nature of WWE ensures the drama, and the weekly format keeps the subscribers.
Netflix has also announced new documentaries and original series based on WWE, that will accompany the live events.
This reveals Netflix’s real strategy with live sport. It wants highly entertaining sports that allow it to create a wider ecosystem through documentaries and spin offs that help trap fans in their subscription.
Netflix is finally in the live sports arena. This could get interesting.
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