There is perhaps no other athlete who can so dictate the rise and fall of his or her sport over the long term than Lance Armstrong. Yes TV ratings rise and fall with Tiger Woods on golf, but the weekly coverage of the sport, along with events and brand activation, do continue. Michael Phelps raised swimming to a new level in Beijing, but even with Phelps in a non-Olympic year the draw to the sport for casual fans is still limited. However with Armstrong, the sport of cycling exists for the casual fan. Without him it does not. Now are there other compelling stories to be told amongst professional cyclists, ones that casual fans and those who train and cycle recreationally would care abou. Yes. Are there lots of brand dollars spent on cycling abroa. Absolutely. But for the eyeballs, and probably for many brands in North America, a race without Armstrong's presence is almost irrelevant. So for an elite athlete to carry the sport on his shoulders is both a great responsibility and a great opportunity. Many will debate the exposure role David Beckham played with MLS in this country, and whether the brands that came in and the exposure was good or bad for MLS. Our feeling is it was good and probably could have been better if he played more and included more of his teammates in the broader scope of exposure. However with Lance Armstrong, the ancillary exposure for the sport, and the ability to drive interest and perhaps create other stars that feed off the Armstrong has great potential. Some recent examples of the power of Lance. First was Live Strong Day earlier this month, a viral and grassroots campaign which was a call to action for service and activation around Armstrong's charity work. The results are hard to measure in the short term, but the global exposure and the ability to do positive philanthropic work through the influence of Lance Armstrong is massive. The second recent piece is Armstrong's just announced deal with Anheuser Busch, a departure from traditional fitness brand partnerships, but one that speaks volumes as to the unusual drawing power of an elite athlete (Barry Janoff took a good look at the deal on his site). So what does it all say about cyclin. Simple. If Lance continues to “Live Strong” as a viable brand that can draw eyes and dollars there remains the chance that brands and fans can be drawn in and then captured by the competitive nature of the sport. After all, who can’t relate to bike ridin. However the sport itself, and the teams and athletes involved, must make a concerted effort now to make that play to a larger audience and feed off the Lance wave. Like in so many sports, the assumption that a positive wave will live on the competitive nature of the sport to a mass audience is a mistake. The NFL has seen other football leagues come and go, and even in a niche sport like MMA, the UFC brand is what carries, not the sport itself. So spending the time to cultivate, nurture and convert those fans for cycling must happen now, before the Armstrong window closes. However if that doesn’t happen, there is one fact that will remain… The impact of one man to move the needle up and down from a brand perspective may never have been stronger than with Lance Armstrong and cycling, whether it is a dollar, television, brand or even philanthropic perspective.
Some other good reads…Octagon's First Call blog has a look at the upside of some athletes for the 2016 Olympic games in Rio…Jason Peck's blog did an interesting q and a with the founder of a new compilation site called Fan Feeder…and the Sports Doing Good blog took a look at some athletes, including NBA player Adonal Foyle, who were selected to the World Sports Humanitarian Hall of Fame.
