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Fashion is getting its game on – and it’s good.
Style and sport have long gone hand in hand, but the Summer Olympics in Paris, starting Friday, will serve as a reminder of just how good the pairing is.
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As the world’s youth gather to compete in the City of Light, fashion is getting an unusually large piece of the spotlight. Luxury powerhouse LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton is acting as premium partner and, as usual, brands around the world are providing country-themed looks for competitors, from Ralph Lauren in the US and Berluti in France to On in Switzerland and Asics in Japan.
Antoine Arnault, head of communication, image and environment at LVMH, told WWD, “Athletes and sports today express values of excellence, passion and high quality, which echo our craftsmen who, every day, make every gesture with precision . produce the most beautiful products in the world.”
Highlighting the excellence of the best athletes and the best brands opens up some very profitable doors. (Witness Nike Inc.’s long-term collaboration with basketball great Michael Jordan, which brought the Jordan brand nearly $7 billion in sales in the past year alone.)
“From a strategic point of view, our collaborations and partnerships in sport or with athletes allow us to reach a wider audience than with more ambassadors or ‘classic’ campaigns,” said Arnault.
Fashion has taken a lot of heat – and much of it well deserved – for focusing too much on surface and not enough on substance. And by associating with sports it brings out some of the best angles in the industry.
While so much of fashion marketing relies heavily on attractiveness, using athletes to make the pitch helps brands reach other notes, following into a certain indomitable spirit, performance, competitiveness and more.
Brandon Brown, president of the Sports Marketing Association, has called sport “that unique medium” that is dreamed up around the world.
“Almost everyone can identify with sport in one way or another, and especially with the Olympics because there is so much diversity in terms of backgrounds, in terms of colour, in terms of sex, in terms of gender ,” said Brown, who is also. director of TIDES, the Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport at the University of Central Florida’s College of Business.
Brown said fashion brands gain at least three things by being tied to the Olympics.
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“Tons of eyeballs. You’re going to get a ton of people to look at a ton of brand exposure that you wouldn’t have otherwise,” he said. According to the International Olympic Committee, more than 3 billion people tuned in on television and logged in digitally to watch last Summer’s Games in Tokyo, with a total of 28 billion video views. Last time, NBCUniversal booked $1.2 billion in advertising commitments over the 17 days of the Games.
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Brands that are cozying up to the Olympics can also benefit from something called “image transition.” “You get this idea that the characteristics are [that] which is about moving one brand on to the related brand,” said Brown. “If the team is matters and they are the scrappy fighting team and a [fashion] The brand wants to connect with them and then they can go after the consumers who feel they are broke.”
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And a piece of history. “This is done once every four years, and because of the Olympic standard, it stands for something more. If a country is winning a gold championship or a gold medal for the first time in the country’s history, that is a historic moment outside of sports. Brands get to associate themselves with that. And that’s great.”
It’s a powerful connection and one that smart brands have understood for years.
Launchmetrics estimated that Ralph Lauren scored $14.8 million in social media influence value from its Olympic sponsorships at the Tokyo Summer Games, when the brand designed the official Team USA uniforms.
And regardless of the current struggles Nike has become a powerhouse by staying close to the sport – and plans to continue to dominate the space.
John Donahoe, Nike’s president and chief executive officer, told investors last month: “The Paris Olympics gives us a great opportunity to communicate our vision of sport to the world. This is driven by cutting-edge innovation and heralded by an unmissable brand campaign….Our brand storytelling will be bold and clear, with sport and athletes at the heart of everything from brand voice to retail activations. “
And he said the opportunity is only growing.
“The definition of sport is expanding,” Donahoe said. “Healthy lifestyles [are] accepted globally.”
And for some stars, including Serena Williams, who has won 23 Grand Slam women’s singles titles, fashion can contribute to success.
When Williams received the CFDA Fashion Icon Award last year, the tennis star said, “Ever since I was a little girl, I used fashion as an outlet to express myself – fashion gave me the confidence to go on the court and own to find who I was, and where I knew I was going.”
The Bottom Line is a business analysis column written by Evan Clark, deputy managing editor, who has covered the fashion industry since 2000. It seems every other Thursday.
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