… As I understand it, USFS will be paying Opendorse to provide content that will be published on athlete’s personal social media accounts. This content takes the form of ads. Opendorse will also receive money from brands that wish to be advertised on these athlete’s accounts. The only party that makes money is Opendorse, not USFS or the skaters. Did I understand it correctly because this arrangement does not make sense to me.
Edited: I think I understand it better now. USFS will be providing the content for the athletes. Opendorse does not get a cut from advertisers. (I blame the Tostitos ad on their what we do page) What Opendorse does is provide an easy way for USFS to push content to athletes social media pages.
Sounds like a way for USFS to help with athlete messaging or to sign some endorsement deals of their own. It really depends on what USFS does with the software. I hope it won’t be too much different from what we are seeing from USFS own social media accounts.
From an Apr 2018 article (not related to USFS) also by Ben Fischer:
Opendorse has two major revenue-generating plays, one for brands and one for leagues, conferences and teams (athletes join for free).
Brands pay a fee per campaign and get access to Opendorse and its participating athletes. They create their messages and send it by text to athletes, who can either approve with a single tap or edit it before posting.
Properties, however, buy an ongoing subscription to the platform, where they can share content with their own athletes, who then use it to amplify a central message or engage their own fans.
https://www.sportsbusinessdaily.com.../Marketing-and-Sponsorship/Company-Watch.aspx (full article accessible without subscription)
USFS would be a league/conference/team-like "property", and I agree that USFS will be supplying athletes with USFS messaging.
Per
another article from yesterday, some of the USFS-approved content will be from corporate partners:
“We are excited to partner with opendorse to amplify the voice of our athletes and share exciting content with our fans,” says Ramsey Baker, Chief Marketing Officer of U.S. Figure Skating. “The opendorse platform is going to allow our organization, corporate partners and athletes to share compelling content with our fans as we head towards Beijing in 2022.”
As a separate matter, opendorse does get paid by brands. Not clear to me whether or not any skaters also will be posting content from brands that are not USFS partners.
Yeah, that's definitely a valid concern. I think it might be nice for skaters that don't post a lot, but it runs the risk of coming off not-genuine.
Another aspect that gives me pause is that approx. sixty skaters are covered by the deal.
For one thing, will USFS be *requiring* someone like Tim LeDuc -- who to date has not had social media accounts of his own, AFAIK -- to start posting USFS content? Or will skaters be able to opt out? Out of any participation at all? Or at least out of individual messages that USFS is pushing?
Also from the April article:
… athletes are getting camera-ready, high-quality posts for Twitter, Instagram and Facebook accounts.
As a fan, I am not sure that I want the same (or very similar) "camera-ready" professionalized content to be posted by sixty (or even just twenty) skaters. No matter whether the topic is #DedicationWorks, or National Strawberry Jam Day, or something else.
But … if the opendorse deal really succeeds in helping the Parsons or Angela or Camden or anyone else get a paid sponsorship
, that would go a long way toward making me forget my concerns.
ETA (on Aug 24):
A "quote" attributed to Bradie is in another article:
I am not criticizing Bradie, but I get the impression that USFS (or opendorse) wrote those words and wanted to attach an athlete's name to them. I am not naive, but find the "quote" a bit creepy. (I hope that she at least was given advance notice.)
