Sports Business Journal Olympics writer, Tripp Mickle, recently chatted with Peter Carlisle, head of Octagon’s Olympic division at the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics. Carlisle — most well-known for representing 18-time Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps — represents a number of athletes at Sochi, including women’s snowboarder Jamie Anderson and men’s snowboarder Alex Deibold.
Below are some of Carlisle’s quotes from the discussion with Mickle. Check out the full 10-minute chat here.
On Olympic sponsorship activation…
“If you think of the campaign leading into the Games and then what you do at the Games where you have to react to some of the stories, I think P&G has had some success early on with the ‘Thanks Mom’ campaign.
The 24 hours after an athlete wins and the agent’s role…
“The (first) 24 hours, the focus is on media. The window is so small generally because that story could be replaced the next day. … So you want to take advantage of the moment and make sure you get that story and that personality out there to as many people as you can. Media takes the priority. You try and pick the ones that are most significant. Pick some diversity so you hit different markets. I think it’s a mistake to focus on commercializing that too quickly. I wouldn’t focus on that in the first 24 hours.”
On the cut-off for a post-Olympic deal for an athlete…
“I don’t think we’ve done a typical post-Olympic deal where there is a company waiting to see what story they want and jump on it and do a quick campaign. …I think what you used to have is one story and one big campaign. Now, it doesn’t happen that way as often. I would say the athletes don’t expect that at all, but I think if you do well and we do this properly, then you’ll hopefully end up not with a campaign that punctuates the Games, but hopefully with a partnership that will bridge into the next Games. Part of that is due to the fact that some of these athletes are competing in multiple Games now.”