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Well, it’s not just cricketers who can continue to lay claim over sponsorships and brand recall that they endorse. A new India is learning to embrace it’s new heroes — Indian Olympics stars, for instance — and so are the brands.
India’s boy with a golden arm and javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra, according to a report in Economic Times, has signed his first set of endorsement deals after the Tokyo games, which include India’s biggest online education firm Byju’s, Tata AIA Life Insurance and a top pharmaceutical brand.
JSW Sports, the agency that represents the 23-year-old javelin thrower along with several other Olympic medalists, is in advanced talks to finalise about half a dozen endorsement deals with luxury auto and apparel brands in the next few weeks and a series of digital-only pacts, at fees 10 times higher than what he charged before the games.
Existing brand deals with Nike, sports drink Gatorade, ExxonMobil and MuscleBlaze sports supplements are expected to be renewed at the higher rates, ETreported.
“These are multi-year deals, which will run up to the Paris Olympics,” said Mustafa Ghouse, chief executive of JSW Sports.
Chopra, who has set some high-level of sportsmanship on and off the field, clearly steering away from sectarian politics, will desist from endorsing alcohol or tobacco brands.
The javelin thrower is only the second Indian to win an individual gold at the Olympics after shooter Abhinav Bindra in 2008.
“While we have requests from close to 80 brands, Neeraj has a limited number of free days between training camps in India and abroad over the next 12-14 months; so we have to be selective about signing on brands,” Ghouse said.
Apart from the mainstream endorsements, multiple digital-only deals are also being lined up, following interest from brands, Ghouse said.
Interestingly, the ETreport also dwelt on the IPR issues in branding and quoted Ghouse as saying that brands that leveraged Chopra’s win with ads on social and digital media without having contracts with the athlete have been told by JSW Sports to take them down.
