Fact or Cap: The Loophole in Athlete Marketing

Have you ever noticed over the years that World Triathlon Championship Series medallists step up onto the podium within minutes of finishing their race?

There is certainly no time to change into any other attire and so the athletes step up in their race suit. Some have barely caught their breath. That itself is similar to road cycling, where it is customary in the Tour de France, for example, for athletes to take to the podium in the same kit as that in which they have just raced. Other sports, like swimming and athletics, tend to allow for more time between the race and the presentation for athletes to change into their team attire.

One of the key reasons behind this approach to medal ceremonies is to avoid Ambush Marketing.

Ambush Marketing is the term World Triathlon uses to describe any attempt by an athlete to insert their own sponsors into the public eye for extended periods, such as on a podium, and it comes up in just about every World Triathlon pre-race briefing.

World Triathlon also have fairly stringent set of rules for what can and cannot be on a tri-suit. Sponsors are allowed to be on the tri-suit in certain places as long as they conform to the rules.

As a result, if athletes take to the podium in their tri-suit, the window for unauthorised product placement or sponsorship is limited, leaving space and attention to the actual sponsors of the event.

There is, however, one small loophole: the cap.

Athletes can wear whatever cap or visor they wish when they step up onto the podium, even if they haven’t raced in it. This is why it has been a common occurrence over the years, such as with Red Bull athletes (as was in the case as on the above WTCS Hamburg 2018 podium), for athletes to receive their medals wearing branded headwear.

Red Bull are certainly not the only brand to use this minor marketing strategy but as one of the most recognised brands in the world make a good case study.

Whereas the tri-suit and the rules around promoting brands are tightly regulated, headwear is relatively untouched. It is therefore a smart way around the rules and one that World Triathlon have accepted in their race briefings as fair game.

Why wear a cap on the podium?

The benefit of the cap loophole on the podium is that any brands that exploit it ensure that their product or name is associated, at least subliminally, with winners and medallists. In turn, this reinforces self-fulfilling prophecies in the minds of the audience. Examples of this can be as simple as “if X athlete is good and they are connected to Y brand, Y brand must also be good“.

In some instances, this benefit is also reflected back onto the athletes themselves. Take Red Bull again: when an athlete wins a WTCS medal and does so in Red Bull kit, Red Bull looks good. However, such is the strength of the Red Bull brand (built in part by such podium strategies across sports over the last decade) that when the athletes are themselves associated with Red Bull, there is a brand recognition of sporting excellence which rubs off onto them.

The audience does not simply think the athlete is good because of their medal but rather their perception is reinforced by the association with the sponsor. After all, a global brand like Red Bull would normally only associate themselves with the very best athletes.

The net result of this is that the sponsor can maintain a connection to sporting excellence, while the athlete is not simply viewed as an isolated medallist on that day but as part of a much larger whole of success.

To both athlete and sponsor, then, something as minor as headwear on a podium can have major implications in how their audience thinks about them. One Red Bull athlete confirmed to us that if they appear with a Red Bull can in hand or cap on head when their are on national television they receive bonuses. “That’s why all the Red Bull athletes try and have the cap and can because we get really good bonuses.”

So, to any brands that have sponsorship deals with athletes, it might be worth looking into providing some branded headwear for your athlete in the event they make the podium.