Influencers as role models: Swiss athletes cash in on health craze

Profit can be made from the health-conscious sports star image. Local athletes also do this. As Dominik Schwizer, sports economist and lecturer in sports management at the University of Applied Sciences in Grisonsden, points out, they seem to have recognized trendy sports nutrition as a new area for their portfolio of possible advertising partners; this certainly follows a certain logic: “It works for female athletes “It makes sense for athletes and athletes to advertise products that require little explanation, such as sports nutrition.”

A Holdener bar and protein shake from the GC influencer

At least one thing can be said: recently various Swiss athletes have entered into agreements with companies in the sports nutrition industry. Since this summer, two skiers, Wendy Holdener and Michelle Gisin, have been working at Nutriathletic, a Swiss brand that sells nutritional supplements for athletes. According to the Wollerau-based company’s promise, the two-time Olympic champion will bring his practical experience as an athlete to the development of new products. Holdener, whose main sponsor is Emmi Caffé Latte’s sponsor of two iced coffee varieties, is already ready to buy “his” bar.

Football player Ana Maria Marković’s vegan protein shake has been on the market since last spring. The Grasshopper Club Zurich player suffered a serious knee injury at the beginning of March 2023. The Croatian national player took advantage of a forced break of about a year to establish his own company and currently sells protein water called Reloadz. “We primarily use social media to reach our customers,” the founder told Handelszeitung. The company Positive Impactz (Switzerland) Aktiengesellschaft, headquartered in Zug, does this for a good reason: Marković is also considered an influencer, as he has nearly three million followers on Instagram.

The national team’s Insta queen and the questionable hype drink

Social media has become an additional asset for professional athletes. Your digital fan community is an additional advertising customer that potential sponsors can potentially reach. This offers a new advertising platform not only to global superstars such as five-time world footballer Cristiano Ronaldo, who has more than 600 million followers on Instagram, but also to a smaller number such as Marković, who cannot get by on his salary at GC. Female football players in the Swiss league do not earn enough to finance their living on their own. Despite their many accomplishments, skiers Holdener and Gisin will likely not be financially secure for the rest of their lives. “Social media is a marketing channel where athletes can establish an attractive foothold alongside their core activities,” says Schwizer.

The Swiss prototype of this development is probably Alisha Lehmann. The striker from Nati, who has a contract with Aston Villa in England, currently has 15.4 million followers on Instagram. The marketing value of a single ad post by the 24-year-old player from Bern is said to be over $300,000, according to a report by British market research company Nielsen ahead of this year’s Women’s World Cup.

Lehmann has also recently jumped on the trendy sports water bandwagon. At the beginning of September, he announced his collaboration with British beverage brand Prime on his Instagram profile. Since then, the football phenomenon has become the female advertising face of the company founded by YouTube stars KSI and Logan Paul. Her male counterpart is Manchester City’s striker-forward Erling Haaland.

Prime is currently the trending brand of all sports drinks among young people who follow social media closely. This is probably why it is the official partner of isotonic drinks for some of the best clubs in European football (e.g. Bayern Munich, Arsenal and FC Barcelona). As various experts in the medical field have pointed out, the high-priced over-the-top beverage is not necessarily the healthiest. Prime energy drinks are not approved in Switzerland and other countries because their caffeine content exceeds the maximum permitted amount of the stimulant. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration FDA is currently reviewing the drink.

In this respect, it is necessary to look at Lehmann’s advertising partnership with Prime with a critical eye. As sports marketing expert Schwizer emphasizes, after all, sports stars like them have an obligation to their fans, because they are very well-known personalities and many children look up to them. “Athletes also have social responsibilities due to their roles.” This also applies to social media presence and advertising campaigns frequently distributed on Instagram, TikTok and Co.

Sports celebrities and the water of the Bernese Oberland

The above-mentioned commitments of various Swiss athletes to sports nutrition or energy drink manufacturers are united in the fact that they all want to benefit from what their ambassadors represent. “The attributes attributed to athletes, such as athleticism, performance and willpower, can be easily sold in our capitalist society,” says Schwizer.

However, there are differences in the intensity of the partnership. Lehmann’s temporary, classic sponsorship partnership represents a looser bond than co-ownership, which carries financial risk, as GC player Marković maintains with Reloadz. It can certainly be beneficial for a company to involve a sports star more closely. Because: “The greater the athlete’s involvement, the greater the reliability of the commitment,” says Schwizer.

The investments of some top Swiss sports stars who are exploring the classic drinks market fall into this category. NHL superstar Roman Josi, Stanley Cup winner Mark Streit, national football goalkeeper Yann Sommer, wrestling king Christian Stucki and tennis coach Severin Lüthi, who celebrated the success with Roger Federer, took over the management of Adelboden mineral waters together with businessmen last June. By getting involved, they prevented the beverage company from being sold abroad. And in the future, the famous investor group may release even more fragrance brands in the beverage market that appeal to sports fans. Their newly established investment company, Aqva Holding, aims to establish a strong presence in the beverage industry and promote drinking water in Switzerland.