Audience vs. Performance, Which Is Better For Endorsements?

Over the years, the world of sports has seen many talented and incredibly skilled athletes, which is why we love sports. Sport is a highly competitive industry, and without good performance, you will find it tough to stand out and advance both professionally and financially.

Unlike in the past, when scouts chose which athletes to sign with teams, data and advanced performance metrics have taken over. This means that if you don't perform well, you may never make it through these selection processes.

Also, during negotiations, offers are mostly made based on past and predicted future performance, and when your performance has been good, you have a lot of negotiating power. With good performance, wyou may be able to earn a decent salary without the need for an endorsement. According to Sportico, Michael Jordan was earning $2.62 billion in inflation-adjusted earnings, making him the highest-paid athlete of all time.

Global recognition comes from awards and trophies, which can only be obtained through exceptional performance. These trophies also have monetary value attached to them. The Woodlawn Vase is a trophy awarded to the winner of the Preakness Stakes each year, and it is worth £2.5 million.

Having said that, is having a fan base most important in helping athletes make money?

Would Conor McGregory and LeBron James continue to earn millions in endorsements if fans stopped watching them? Would Nike be paying Cristiano Ronaldo $120 million per year if he had only a quarter of his fans prior to the agreement?

The answer is No!

This is precisely why athletes are incentivized in acquiring a large fan base. There are numerous reasons for this, but the most important is to increase their income during the average short window for their prime playing career. Most athletes in all sports do not rely solely on their salary and instead seek endorsements and venture into business (a great reason to join JRZY). Now, if you decide to become an entrepreneur and venture into other businesses, having a large fan base will help you sell out whatever you're selling faster—consider how well the Jordan brand under Nike was sold. Having a large fan base makes you a big name in the industry, and because your fans trust you and want to identify with you, they will invest in your business.

A large audience is very important in helping to get these fans, and thanks to social media, athletes now have an audience and with great performance and skills you can gather a lot of fans. Additionally, playing in front of large audiences and in internationally televised events has a direct correlation to individual athletes accumulating larger individual fan bases.

Fortunately, social media is not only a place to get the audience you need, but is a way for athletes to directly monetize their audiences. C Ronaldo earns $750,000 per Instagram post, also Neymar and Messi respectively earns $600,000 and $500,000 per post.

These are just three examples out of many, and it was only possible because of their fan base, not their performance.

Why do you think that big brands do not seek out small talents in the industry? It's because of the fan base. They would rather go with a less talented athlete who has a large fan base because it will give them more exposure. It's business for them, not talent hunting, so if you don't have a large fan base, you'll struggle to get endorsements from major brands.

Money is spent on endorsements primarily because athletes have a large fan base and brands want more exposure.

The introduction of web 3 has increased the need for a large fan base exponentially because one of the effects of decentralization in sports is that it removes the middle man. While this is fantastic news for athletes, it may not be so great if you don't have a large enough fan base. Consider how easy it would be for an athlete with over 100 million fans to sell 100,000 NFTs versus how difficult it would be for an athlete with only 100k fans to do the same.

Don't just focus on getting better; make sure you're known for your skills, make use of social media, and treat your fans like the gold they are.

It is obvious that a larger fan base has greater potential to generate revenue for you as an athlete, but without good performance, you have very little chance of becoming known. All of today's well-known athletes are there because of their outstanding performance among their peers. So, if you want to advance in your career, improve your performance and expand your fan base.

This implies that good performance leads to recognition, which leads to a large fan base which is true and helps to answer our question. And for those who want to point to "influencers" this standard still applies. Even when athletics are the theme, influencers have also had to perform and be interesting on an outstanding basis just in a different realm.