Spencer on UA-GSP Deal, Frankie Edgar, MMA Business

MMAPayout.com had the pleasure of sitting down with Shari Spencer, President of GSP Enterprises, earlier today to talk about George St-Pierre’s latest endorsement with apparel maker Under Armour.

KP: Looking at this deal between UA and GSP – there are so many sides to it: the GSP side, the Under Armour side, and the sport side – but I’d like to start with Georges. What does this deal mean for Georges in terms of his commitment, responsibilities, and the affect it will have on his lifestyle?

SS: Georges will be featured in Under Armour’s upcoming marketing campaigns representing their underwear and other specific products.  His responsibilities are typical for this type of endorsement, i.e. service days for photo shoots, personal appearances, etc.  As far as the effect on his lifestyle, I think you’ll see him sporting the UA logo a lot more during training.

KP: The Under Armour image fits perfectly with MMA in terms of being that aggressive, “we must protect this house” type of apparel maker, and for the longest time there has been this under-served, clean-cut and professional clothing market within the MMA industry. How might that affect the rest of the MMA clothing business?

SS: I personally think there’s room for both. We still have a deal with Affliction, and that is our fashion apparel brand. Under Armour is our performance or athletic apparel brand. To some degree, UA is already in the space through its athletic apparel for wrestlers – fighters are wearing their apparel as rash guards – even if UA is not calling them rash guards.  Initially, they will be using Georges as the face of their underwear brand – I’m crossing my fingers that he’ll sell more underwear for them than David Beckham did for Emporio Armani.  

KP: Are you managing any other fighters right now, and what sort of impact might this deal have on their future?

SS: I just signed a second fighter, Frankie Edgar. He’s been flying under the radar, so to speak, but people started to take notice of him when he beat Sean Sherk.  He’s an exciting fighter who shows a lot of heart when he fights, but more importantly, he’s just a great kid.  I went out and met with him and his father-in-law, who has been advising him business-wise, and getting to know him as a person was what convinced me to respond to his request for help. 

Under Armour has a roster of athletes that it endorses, and it’s my understanding that they are starting with Georges in MMA and then going to evaluate from there where they sign other fighters.

KP: GSP is a pretty unique entity in terms of being French-Canadian, a P4P type fighter, and he’s got that GQ look. How does Frankie compare, and how will you go about marketing him?

SS:  I’ve always recognized Georges’ potential to reach an audience outside the sport or those that might not be huge fans.  Georges’ fanbase tends to skew a bit more female (not surprisingly), and he’s the fighter that many guys say they can get their wives or girlfriends to watch alongside them.  As a result, there’s been a very deliberate strategy not to associate too heavily with fight-related brands, so that the public would see him as an athlete first and a fighter second.

I think that for Frankie he will reach a different demographic. I think that he’s more of a “guy’s guy” and he will resonate with a different group. Frankie’s already a family man with one child and another on the way, and so he can’t (well, at least he shouldn’t) be a ladies’ man. Frankie doesn’t have a French accent; he’s got a New Jersey accent. So, I’ll market him much differently.

Frankie is going to resonate with the guy next door.  He’s everybody’s neighbour, and he’s got a very altruistic side to him that I don’t think has really been exposed. He’s done a lot of community work, a lot of giving back, and so my approach with him will be more “the lightweight fighter with a heavyweight heart”, with the obvious double-meaning on the word ‘heart’ – the heart he shows when he leaves it all in the Octagon, and the heart he shows by giving back to society. 

Frankie’s a professional athlete with a champion’s heart and he’s a true gentleman – like Georges, I think he can also make great strides in representing this sport and hopefully changing the opinion of some of the lawmakers in the state of New York.

KP: When I first heard about the agreement, I thought: a.) it was a major, mainstream endorsement of the sport, but b.) it also suggested that UA believes in the viability and profitability of MMA in the long-term – that they can make money in this industry. That’s a pretty big notch on MMA’s belt.

What’s your take?

SS: I agree on both counts.  I believe that the explosive growth that the sport has experienced has caused most brands to sit up and take notice – MMA is growing too fast and resonating too well with that target demo of males 18-35 that they can’t ignore it.  Yet I’ve frankly been a bit surprised at the continued reluctance to pull the trigger.  So when a brand such as Under Armour, known for their high-quality products and cutting-edge approach steps up, I think it can only be a positive endorsement for the whole sport of MMA, not just Georges.  I also think it exposes the sport to a broader audience and hopefully paves the way for endorsement opportunities for other fighters with more mainstream brands.

KP: Even CAA, I suppose, jumping in to help represent Georges.

SS: That’s right, he was their first MMA fighter.  But even with CAA, there was an education process, frankly on both sides, of what the relationship would look like. CAA didn’t have experience representing fighters, so they had to get comfortable with representing an athlete in this sport, then get comfortable with Georges, and finally get comfortable with me.  Over time a trust level and partnership has been established, and in a nutshell, they’ve given us accelerated access to mainstream opportunities while we’ve been educating them on the nuances of this sport.  It’s been a great relationship so far, and while the endorsement deals still do not rival those of the major sports and challenges still lie ahead, I can’t think of anyone I’d rather be making this journey with.

KP: You mention the sort of learning curve that CAA experienced, and I feel there’s still a lot more work to be done. I’ve had the opportunity to speak with a few high-level people from ESPN over the last few weeks, and the feeling that I get is their concern is not primarily based on the viability of the sport in the long-term, but rather, will they alienate some of their current audience just to bring in a new audience? They’re just not sure whether there’s a brand fit.

SS: Together (CAA/myself) we’re still approaching brands directly, as well as ad buyers and the agencies that represent brands and decide that this guy should be your brand ambassador, and introducing them to Georges and try to help them understand MMA.  Marketing Georges is the easy part – he has a great look, he backs it up with his performance, he’s got character, he’s charming -he’s got all those things.  Our biggest challenge has been selling the sport and that continues to be an education process.

So while the UFC is progressing in their efforts to obtain sanctioning in all the Provinces of Canada and all the States here in the U.S., we’re having similar conversations with brand managers and ad agencies – it’s just a constant job of educating.  And, if you were to look at me, I’m about as corporate as they come – I’m a former CFO (and still dress like one) and I speak more of the same language.  I also pull from my experience as president of the Intermountain Section of the US Tennis Association and the governance of that sport in this country.  Add to that my obvious gender, and I’m probably the last person you’d expect to be representing a guy who makes his living fighting in a cage.  That anomaly, combined with the CAA partnership and arguably the most marketable athlete in the sport, and yet it’s still a challenge to present MMA in a way that they’ll understand the sport and want to affiliate with it.

KP: Right. Yeah, and so when I saw that UA was coming on board, I thought, “man, if there had to be an apparel maker to jump into MMA, they would be my first choice.” There is no conflict of brand image with UA, because the sort of aggression that MMA represents is right in line with their target market.

SS: I do tend to think that UA tends to appeal to a younger target demo, and that perhaps the other athletic apparel brands are a bit more established and conservative. UA seems to be more progressive and cutting edge in their branding. So, I do think it’s a good fit and it’s a logical choice.

This is pure speculation on my part, but it wouldn’t surprise me if this deal weren’t some sort of pre-emptive strike.   I can just imagine UA executives sitting around the board room contemplating, something like, “OK, we’re all [UA, Nike, Adidas] looking at it [MMA], and we’re all probably going to get involved eventually, so let’s just be the first one and let’s throw the first punch. And, if we’re going to do it, who are we going to do it with?”

In my opinion, the “safest” way for a brand to enter an admittedly rebellious sport is with the most traditional guy – the guy that wears the gi, the guy that wears the suit to press conference, and the guy that doesn’t do the trash talking.  So from that perspective, endorsing Georges is probably the safest way to dip your toes in the MMA water, so to speak, because he’s got one of the cleanest images of any of the fighters.

KP: Absolutely.

Well, thank-you for your time. I’ll let you get back to work.

SS: No problem. You’re very welcome!