Kohl's Using Olympic Athletes For First Time In Female-Targeted Marketing Campaign

Kohl’s department stores yesterday announced its spring integrated marketing campaign, featuring U.S. Gold Medalists Dara Torres (swimming), Mia Hamm (soccer) and Lindsey Vonn (skiing). The new campaign, titled “Shop to Win,” debuted yesterday and follows each of the three female athletes during recent Kohl's shopping trips. It is the first time Kohl’s has used Olympic athletes in its marketing efforts (Kohl’s). USA TODAY’s Roxanna Scott noted the campaign is targeted at “suburban moms shopping for themselves and their families.” All three women are “top names in the sports marketing and sponsorship world.” But Forbes noted that “none cracked the top 10 for leading female highest-paid athletes” in ’11 (USATODAY.com, 3/19).

MOMMY DEAREST: SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL’s Tripp Mickle notes Gold medal-winning beach volleyball player Kerri Walsh, who has two children under the age of two, recently signed a deal “based on Walsh’s motherhood: a Pampers endorsement for Walsh to promote USA-branded diapers and wipes.” Walsh is “not the only female athlete” making pitches to mothers, as Torres, U.S. women’s soccer D Christie Rampone, and swimmers Amanda Beard and Janet Evans have “all turned their role as mothers into endorsements with companies ranging from Buy Buy Baby to Jersey Mike’s, and from Evofem to McDonald’s.” Sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s, which “signed a three-year deal with Rampone, plans to use her to promote the chain’s offering of fast but healthy food to soccer moms and parents on the go.” CMOs at Jersey Mike’s and beverage and dietary supplement company FRS said that Rampone’s role as a mother of two “was critical to their decision" to sign her. Mickle notes Olympic sponsors “began making a concerted effort to tap into the expanded purchasing power of moms” in ’08 (SPORTSBUSINESS JOURNAL, 3/19 issue).