Olympic athletes up their social media game
“Social media shifts athlete marketing from rare, brand-controlled visibility to continuous, athlete-controlled storytelling,” said Amy Pei, assistant professor of marketing at Northeastern.
Freestyle skiing is not a lucrative career for Eileen Gu.
Being a freestyle skier, however, is.
The five-time Olympic medalist earned $100,000 from her sport last year, but she also raked in $23 million through endorsements and as a social media influencer, according to Forbes magazine.
Northeastern marketing and sports media experts say that the endorsement game has changed significantly, and social media is the cause.
“Social media shifts athlete marketing from rare, brand-controlled visibility to continuous, athlete-controlled storytelling,” said Amy Pei, assistant professor of marketing at Northeastern. “In the past, brands decided who was visible by hiring them as endorsers. Now, athletes can build audiences first and attract partnership deals later.”
Stephen Warren, an assistant teaching professor at Northeastern who studies sports and media, said that this has expanded the idea of who can represent a brand.
“It has gone a little bit further than you need to medal in order to be successful,” Warren said. “People are getting really savvy at using social media and that sort of influencer space.”
Athletes have long endorsed brands as a way to earn free gear and/or extra income, and since 1935, appearing with a gold medal on the Wheaties cereal box has been the pinnacle of marketing for an Olympian.
Traditional endorsements are still major money-makers for elite athletes.
“If you look at the lists of the top athletes in terms of how much money they’re making, it’s still all the athletes who are at the top of their game,” Warren said.
But social media and the rise of influencers has introduced more faces and more money into marketing athletes.
This expansion is particularly true during the Olympics, when suddenly athletes from less well-known sports, for instance, “Pommel Horse Guy,” or women’s rugby superstar Ilona Maher, have won the internet.
“The Olympics provide unmatched global visibility, prestige and emotional storytelling,” Pei said. “Social media lets athletes document training, setbacks, personality, and daily life, creating a deeper parasocial bond with fans.”
But endorsement deals for Olympic influencers still differ from those for household names from the sports world.
Pei compares a National Basketball Association superstar with a young Olympic biathlete.
The former has a global audience and large endorsement contracts, Pei explains, while the biathlete may reach a smaller but highly targeted and “authenticity-driven audience” through smaller endorsement deals.
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The brands that superstars and influencer athletes represent differ.
“With global superstars, brands are often buying broad visibility and recognition, so precise brand fit and content involvement matter less,” Pei said. “In influencer partnerships, brands prioritize audience engagement, niche relevance, and alignment with the athlete’s personal content.”
The measures of success also differ.
Athlete influencers are evaluated and compensated differently based on social media engagement metrics and content fit more than their athletic accomplishments like their medal count, Pei said. Moreover, athlete influencers provide continuous content promotion rather than seasonal ads – in effect, becoming “media channels themselves,” Pei said.
“The partnership is no longer just ‘appearing in an ad,’” Pei said. “Instead, it is integrating a brand into the athlete’s personal storytelling.”
But the Olympic exposure also comes with risks.
“For most athletes, attention fades once the Games end,” Pei said. “Olympic visibility is best understood as a launch moment rather than a permanent income stream.”
So, are we likely to see Eileen Gu still dominating the endorsement game long after she is replaced on the Olympic podium?
“With the way things are going now, if an athlete can continue to be a personality online, maybe that can be enough,” Warren said.
