Why have an athlete manager?
they need to be 100% focused on the job at hand whilst training and competing. This is where OneMovement Management assists athletes to ensure they are achieving in all avenues of their career off the field with services such as brand development, marketing, proposal presentations, contract negotiations and planning for after sport. We also source professional services for training and conditioning, financial and legal advice.
An athlete manager can remove emotion out of the equation and look at situations objectively, especially when handling uncomfortable conversations about terms of agreements, negotiating payment or declining opportunities. It is the athlete managers job to know the athlete, their brand and their strategy as they will be looking out for the athlete and finding them the most suitable brands to work with with the best possible mutually beneficial terms.
Here is a rough outline what an athlete manger does:
Builds the athletes brand to be unique and attractive
Managers online presence and sponsor obligations
Planning who the athlete would like to approach for sponsorship and why
Assisting with a tailored proposal to the brand to accompany the athletes resume detailing opportunities and ROI
Discussing how the athlete can offer better value to sponsors in order to maintain relationship and improve incentives
Monitor the expectations and incentives are being met by all parties
Every athlete is unique, we focus on the individuals brand and how best to market their brand as well as find potential partners best suited to the athlete in order for them to be comfortable in representing the brand in an authentic manner. Not every athlete is or should be the same, it would make sports personalities boring – there is a market for all personalities even a “bad boy”(obviously within reason) image but then you must own it so that a brand knows what they are buying into. As an athlete manager, we create the strategy and a step-by-step plan to reach the long-term goals of the athlete.
If it wasn’t obvious before, the year 2020 definitely highlighted the significance of having a strong online presence. If utilised correctly, social media can be a very power marketing tool to further justify an athletes worth to a brand. There is so much more to social media than just number of “Likes” and “Followers”. How engaged is the audience with the athlete and the messaging they are sharing and more importantly what is the athlete doing with their following to promote their sponsors and create sales(after all, without sales there is no marketing budget for sponsorship). Content is king – an athlete manager assists athletes with strategies to commercialise their brand online, guiding them with content creation, digital growth strategies, and online reputation management.
The reality is, the general lifespan of a professional athlete is relatively short. An athlete manager wants to ensure the athlete and brands they partner with reap the rewards at the peak of the athletes career whilst also considering financial security for the athlete after sport.
If the services we offer is something that you feel would be of benefit to you, please get in contact: info@onemovement.co.za