Handling The All Too Human Factor

In a world where sponsorship dollars mean big business, a player's image on and off the field is vital. But what happens when something unforeseen happens? You've invested hundreds of thousands, even millions of dollars marrying a specific athlete's winning image and standout performance to your organization, campaign or event. You can't afford for (nor do you expect) anything to go wrong, but just in case... there is a plan you can adopt to help ease the sting. Are you being paranoid? Will your peers or boss perceive you as an alarmist? Do you really care? The star performer you've just signed a contract with has become a potentially valuable asset which needs protecting. But to what degree? The following questions can be helpful in determining what kind, if any protection plan you need to put in place.

• Are you spending significant dollars?
• Are you putting the corporate reputation or brand name at risk?
• How closely will the personality be aligned with your brand?
• Will the association be relatively low key, like smoozing a few times a year at a corporate outing or a highly public affiliation?
• Will the affiliation be short-lived or a multi-year package?

While corporations and large organizations regularly anticipate and prepare for potential physical threats like bombings, industrial accidents or natural disasters, they rarely plan for the most difficult "issue crises." A crisis rooted in an issue like sexual harassment or discrimination rather than a single event, is generally more difficult to get the corporate arms around and almost always simmers for a while before surfacing.

"What if" white papers exploring crisis scenarios and Crisis Plans laying out strategies, tactics and levels of responsibility have become prudent business practice in an age when anything is possible and things totally out of your control can send a well-designed advertising or promotional campaign plummeting and your company or brand image with it. The range of severity varies as does the damage that may be caused but, to whatever degree, how you respond to the crisis can turn tragedy into success and ruination into a blip on a screen. When it comes to developing your crisis communication approach, remember the golden rule; follow your well orchestrated crisis plan and always go for the quick hemorrhage, not the slow bleed!

Like any investment, sound choices prior to signing the contract can save significantly on the other end. There may be no indication of any character problems but, it is still imperative to focus on identifying problems, their potential crisis impact and probability. An athlete's performance can vary from day to day, event to event.

Though rarely within your realm of control, there is potentially more damage to be done when star performers are linked with criminal charges or indiscretions. In recent years, an increasing number of sports personalities have had their images threatened or ruined by scandals ranging from murder to domestic abuse, drug use to controversial lifestyle choices. Practically speaking, good crisis management begins with prevention. Remember that the best crisis plan alerts people when they need alerted and calms people when they need calmed. Prevention begins with thorough researching of the personality prior to investing significant time, money, sweat and exposure on them. Sexual harassment or abuse ranks high on any list of public crisis today in sports and the corporate world. Murder charges like those leveled against football legend, OJ Simpson aren't anything that long time sponsor, Hertz, could have anticipated, but they were drawn into a media melee that has already lasted for years.

Undoubtedly, crisis planning is a necessity for any organization seriously considering partnering with a star performer in an endorsement arrangement. A company's risk for investing in an athletic spokesperson can be rewarded with higher sales, greater visibility, and brand recognition but unfortunately there are cases where this backfires tremendously. In the days of outrageous antics, multi-colored hair styles, cross dressing, and in-your-face advertising it is vital that your spokesperson matches your product. It's prudent business practice to develop a crisis plan that protects you against all the things that MIGHT go wrong.

Kathleen Hessert

President

Sports Media Challenge