Advertisers court tennis stars
23 June 2008
The British Summer is officially here, Wimbledon has started and the world’s top tennis players are doing battle on the hallowed turfs of SW19.
But off the court, a different battle is taking place – advertising space.
In the women’s corner we have Russian starlet Maria Sharapova and her Serbian counterpart Ana Ivanovic. Nike, Canon and TAG Heuer have all been quick to snap up Sharapova to advertise their products, while adidas and Rolex have put their brands in the hands of current world number one Ivanovic.
The same is happening, albeit to a lesser extent, in the men’s game with Roger Federer (Gillette) and Andy Roddick (American Express) appearing in homes around the globe.
And this is before we get onto on-court endorsements. Last year Britain’s own Andy Murray signed a £1m deal with Highland Spring to display the bottled water firm’s logo on his shirt sleeve and, when possible, drink its water. When signed, it was believed to be the most lucrative pounds-per-inch advertising deal in tennis history.
More and more sports personalities are appearing in adverts supporting some product or brand and influencing what sports fans purchase. But what happens if these superstars, in the eyes of the public, disgrace themselves in such a manner that an advertising agency is left with a substantial bill for the withdrawal of a campaign?
Robin Walsh, Production Insurance Manager for the Global Errors and Omissions division at Hiscox, says this is where a death & disgrace insurance policy would come into play. These policies are bought by advertising agencies on the back of TV campaigns fronted by a client, rather than the client buying the cover themselves.
“Essentially death and disgrace policies are conducted on a risk by risk, person by person basis. As such, and unlike other lines of business, market conditions would not necessarily increase or decrease for a loss occurrence. From a disgrace perspective, it is a very subjective underwriting process. What one person may consider a disgrace, another may not,” explains Walsh.
He continues: “There are certainly more cover holders than ten years ago as there is a vogue for using actors, TV personalities and sports stars to advertise products. The take up rate is rising, although not every agency buys the cover.”
And like in most business sectors, technology advances have helped death & disgrace underwriters.
“The Internet has made things easier for us in terms of researching peoples’ backgrounds. If we find something during research, we would bring it to the broker and the insured’s attention. If that particular personality has a history of drug use, for example, that would be factored into the policy wordings for what they are and are not covered for,” says Walsh.
“But if there’s something already out there in the public domain, this will fall outside of the scope of the cover provided.”
Last updated on 23 Jun 2008
