Vinesh Phogat talent mgmt agency head speaks out

Ramakrishnan R, co-founder at Baseline Ventures speaks about the lack of support of brands for athletes in the absence of victories.

With several near-misses and heartbreaks across various sports like Vinesh Phogat's disqualification and weightlifter Mirabai Chanu narrowly missing out on a medal in the women's 49 kg event, India's overall performance at the Paris Olympics 2024 has overall been underwhelming. However, we can't deny the fact that our athletes do make us proud.

Have we as a nation only allowed ourselves to celebrate their hits and not boost morale at the misses? This might also be true for brands. Remember last year when Neeraj Chopra became the first Asian athlete to win an Olympic gold medal in javelin? Every brand celebrated his victory by putting up celebratory posts even though most were unauthorised.

The same trend was noticed this year when several brands put out celebratory posts congratulating Phogat before her heartbreaking disqualification. However, practically no brand supported her after the incident.

Ramakrishnan R, co-founder at Baseline Ventures- a sports marketing firm and the agency that handles Vinesh Phogat feels that this is a worrying trend.

Brand custodians, who play a pivotal role in shaping the public perception of athletes, often display a troubling pattern of behaviour: they rush to associate themselves with athletes on the cusp of victory, only to distance themselves when those athletes fall short of securing a medal. This transactional approach to sports marketing is not only disheartening but also undermines the very spirit of competitive sports. In a world where moment marketing often takes precedence over meaningful partnerships, it is time for brand custodians to reevaluate their approach.

The co-founder took to LinkedIn to elaborate his sentiments and said, "The more disturbing trend( more disturbing than moment marketing) is brand custodians purely focusing on the success or impending success of an athlete/athletes just before a medal round and then retracting/ going cold when athletes fall short." 

He further raises questions about the integrity of brand partnerships and the true essence of a sporting nation. "This certainly is not a sign of a sporting nation or a credible partnership. Falling short doesn’t make an atlete bad , they still possess skills which common folks can only dream about. A credible association should be to celebrate competitiveness which ever level an athlete competes," he adds.