Jimmie Johnson Inks Deal With CAA; Gatorade Ad Set To Debut

Johnson Inks Representation Deal With CAA

Back-to-back NASCAR Nextel Cup Champion Jimmie Johnson has signed CAA to represent him in marketing, licensing and endorsement deals, according to SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL's Smith & Mullen . CAA Sports co-Head Michael Levine will lead a team “that will attempt to capitalize on Johnson’s success on the track.” Johnson “considered eight agencies before selecting CAA Sports and Wasserman Media Group as his finalists” (SBJ, 1/7 issue).

GATORADE: In a separate piece, SBJ’s Michael Smith reports Johnson will appear in a national Gatorade ad as part of the sports drink’s “League of Clutch” campaign. The 30-second spot, expected to debut this week, will “feature [Johnson] exclusively and represents Gatorade’s intentions to leverage him more” in ’08 (SBJ, 1/7 issue). 

JIMMIE WHO?: The following shows where Johnson ranks on the Davie Brown Index relative to other drivers and athletes, using Tiger Woods as the high mark and Michael Vick as the low end.

NOTE: * = Average of the seven key attributes taken into consideration (appeal, notice, trendsetter, influence, trust, endorsement and aspiration).

METHODOLOGY: From a national sample, 1,000 respondents are presented with the name and face of a celebrity and asked if they are aware of the individual. Respondents who indicate that they are aware of the celebrity are then asked a standard set of questions about that celebrity, using a six-point scale to record their responses. These questions form the basis for the celebrity scores on the seven key attributes. The overall DBI is calculated using awareness and the other seven measured attributes. Because recognition is often at the heart of celebrity selection, awareness is given a 60% weighting in the overall DBI score calculation. The remaining 40% is calculated using average sub-index scores found in the Summary Attribute table.