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Betting big on one athlete is risky, so companies have learned to diversify their superstar portfolios "like any good financial planner," says Paul Swangard, managing director of the Warsaw Sports Marketing Center at the University of Oregon. "Nobody wants to be left hanging with the next Dan and Dave," he says of Reebok's infamous $25 million ad campaign for Barcelona in 1992, which played up the rivalry between decathletes Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson. After six months of hype, Reebok yanked the ads within minutes of O'Brien's failing to qualify for the Olympic team.
But the worst kind of publicity failure comes from drug tests. So far, Nike is standing by track star Marion Jones, whose "Drive for Five" gold medals in 2000 made her the It girl in Sydney but who heads to Athens amid allegations of abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. "She has been steadfast in stating her innocence," says Nike spokesman Scott Reames, "and we support her in her goal to return to the Olympic stage." That support this summer includes six-page Marion-only ads in several glossies, plus a new TV commercial.
One increasingly popular, risk-free endorsement strategy is to trot out old goldies like Retton, who appears for a nanosecond in a Sprint PCS commercial that started airing last month, or Spitz, who will spend the Olympics in Athens blogging for panasonic.com They are among the rarest of gold-medal winners because they have such staying power. Most Olympic moments have notoriously short shelf lives, which means athletes with breakout performances this summer will have literally only a couple of weeks to capitalize on the momentum. Some past Olympic surprises, like gymnast Kerri Strug and sprinter Flo-Jo, had agents who either waited too long to respond or held out for bigger deals that never materialized. "Six months after the Olympics, advertisers aren't even thinking about it anymore," says veteran talent broker Nova Lanktree. So forget about savoring the moment: now is the time to get out there and start selling it.