Sports investment bank Park Lane has signed an endorsement deal with Olympic speedskating hopeful Elli Ochowicz. It is the investment bank’s first athlete endorsement. The deal, which is in an unusual category for athlete endorsements, comes at a time Olympic hopefuls are pursuing funding through crowd-funding sites and other opportunities. Park Lane, which cut the deal directly with Ochowicz, plans to launch a social media campaign (#GoElli) and develop print and digital advertising featuring the two-time Olympian. Ads will appear on sports sites and in financial trade publications. Park Lane Founder & Managing Partner Andrew Kline said, "We do both sports business deals (with startups) and team deals. A lot of the reasons Elli was skating is a lot of the reasons these business guys start businesses. It’s a passion. A lot of these guys are willing to put years and years and years into these businesses and maybe one day they might win gold. I drew parallels between what Elli was doing and what our clients were doing.” Park Lane hired California-based agency Collier Simon to develop a digital and print advertising campaign. There will be two- to four-minute digital videos in which Ochowicz talks about the similarities between her training for the Sochi Games and start-up businesses' efforts to launch their new companies. Kline got to know Ochowicz through her father, Jim Ochowicz, a former Olympian and the manager of the cycling team BMC Racing.
