Athlete Branding — Leveraging Identity To Build Equity
As a creative deeply passionate about brand and identity design as well an eager student of brand leverage, this project channeled these interests of mine towards an issue often mentioned here in New Zealand — Tall Poppy Syndrome. As a big sports fan, I began to notice a particular difference between the athletes I followed internationally (specifically in the US) and our sporting heroes back home. As a brand specialist, my eye would naturally be drawn to how these athletes packaged themselves — their clothes, shoes, social media, brand partnerships, commercials etc. The stark differences between those playing in major leagues abroad and our Kiwi equivalents were extremely evident. In the US and Europe you'd be hard pressed to find a professional athlete that didn't, at the very least, have their own logo printed on all their gear and watermarked on their social media content. In comparison, very few of even our highest-rated athletes are on the same level when it comes to brand identity design. Could our cultural history of Tall Poppy Syndrome be to blame? The below is an exploration of what it could look like if some of our biggest names faced up to this question and took a step into the Personal Brand Identity world.
Branding, Identity Design, Brand Guide, Design Research
