White Sox players hawking Chevys or Fords, promoting banks or lauding their favorite fast-food restaurant–expect to see all that and more in the coming months.
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Along with the World Series trophy, endorsement opportunities are coming to the South Side.
The Sox have built an identity that some businesses will want to associate themselves with, according to marketing experts. They have a “a certain lunch pail-fireman-policeman gestalt about them that makes them irresistible,” said Steffan Postaer, chief creative officer at Euro RSCG.
“It’s the South Side of Chicago, blue collar, roll up your sleeves, Horatio Alger–all that’s good stuff,” he said. “And it’s stuff you don’t get a lot of in sports because sports is represented by these gagillion-dollar superstars.”
The Sox aren’t the Yankees or Lakers, according to Postaer.
“This is classic, bootstrapped, sepia-toned nostalgia that is really, really good stuff for certain kinds of clients,” he said.
Unlike the ’85 Bears of Mike Ditka and Walter Payton or the Bulls championships of the 1990s, when Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen were household names, the White Sox don’t have any clear break-out stars. The relatively soft ratings for the games nationally mean many people still don’t know who the White Sox are.
“It’s baseball fans who know who Paul Konerko is right now, not the general public,” said Mark Ganis, of sports marketers Sportscorp Ltd. “You have to cross over to really capture large endorsement deals. It’s why Visa wants (New York Yankee) Derek Jeter in their commercial–not because Derek Jeter is a baseball player, but because Derek Jeter is a celebrity.”
Reaching that next plateau involves reaching beyond the sport, making appearances on Letterman, Leno and Good Morning America for exposure to non-baseball fans.
The most likely candidates to become stars are manager Ozzie Guillen and first baseman Konerko, Ganis said.
“It’s somewhat unusual to have the manager be a star, but that’s the case,” Ganis said. Guillen also has potential appeal in mainstream media and in the Hispanic markets, he said: “The largest untapped market for the White Sox is the Latin market. The White Sox are primed to be the most successful team to market to Latin Americans in all of sports. Guillen and other players, but Guillen in particular.”
“They play in a market where Latins are the largest minority and the fastest-growing population. That’s the market to try and capture now,” he said. “They’re not Bears fans and they’re not Bulls fans. They’re available and they’re growing in numbers and assets.”
Ganis said Konerko can write his own ticket because he had such a great series and is self-effacing, and he deflected compliments to his teammates.
“And he’s a free agent this season”–he can decide “where he wants to play, how much he wants to make and the level of endorsements he wants to participate in,” Ganis said.
But Konerko’s free agency–his contract with the Sox expired after this season and he’s said he will entertain other offers–could hurt him with some potential endorsement partners, said David Brenner, president of Paragon Marketing.
“It’s risky to tie in with him,” said Brenner. “His main opportunities are in the Chicago market. If somebody said to me they want to tie in with the White Sox, I can’t recommend Konerko because I don’t know if he’s going to be there.”
Brenner sees opportunities for players like pitcher Mark Buehrle–who has already landed a spot on the Wheaties box.
Jermaine Dye, voted the World Series’ most valuable player, should also have opportunities, and some players, such as Joe Crede and Aaron Rowand, could appeal to younger consumers, he said.
While the White Sox organization and players consider endorsement deals, those that have already associated themselves with the team got extra exposure during the playoff run and World Series games, Brenner said.
Team sponsors such as LaSalle Bank, Rush University Medical Center and U.S. Cellular–which has naming rights to the ballpark–are among the businesses that got extra exposure because of the Sox’s run.
Success will help the White Sox attract even more such sponsors, Brenner said:
“And those sponsorship deals typically bring with them tickets, which was something very valuable to sponsors during playoff time.”
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