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After being the golden girl of London, Missy Franklin had a disappointing Rio Games.
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Missy Franklin, the most heavily marketed U.S. Olympian of the year, mostly fell flat in Rio, greatly complicating her career as a brand spokeswoman.
But her agent, WME-IMG’s Mark Ervin, says little has changed in his strategy since she left the Games with no individual medals and having not raced in the finals of any event.
“The plan remains essentially the same,” Ervin said. “We will do our best to give Missy a platform to inspire people. We’re going to look for partners who want to support what I think will be an extremely compelling comeback story. I think it’s important to point out that Missy’s 21 years old.” 1
Franklin won her fifth career gold medal in Rio, albeit as a member of a relay team that won the finals without her help. Relay competitors who swim in the heats to allow faster swimmers to conserve energy for the finals also are awarded medals, albeit away from the awards podium and TV cameras. Other than that, Franklin was a competitive nonfactor.
But she didn’t disappear. IOC sponsor Visa gave her a prominent role in its near-ubiquitous “Carpool to Rio” ad, putting her face on TV screens several times a night during NBC broadcasts. Her social media followers also grew by 20 percent or more depending on the platform.
Speedo will continue down its path of launching a Missy Franklin line later this year, and Franklin’s book, “Relentless Spirit: The Unconventional Raising of a Champion,” written with her parents, is still due out in December.
Ervin doesn’t dispute that performance is part of the equation for Franklin — some of her deals include incentives — but insists her partners view her as more than an athlete.
“The Olympics are definitely about medals, but they’re also about the human spirit and how we respond to adversity,” Ervin said. “She’s a five-time gold medalist at the age of 21. She’s a great spokesperson who embodies her sponsors’ brand values, disappointing performance or not.”
Heading into Rio, Franklin’s portfolio was worth an estimated $3 million during this Olympic cycle alone. Her deals included United Airlines, GoPro, Speedo, Minute Maid (Coca-Cola), Visa, Wheaties, Topps playing cards and the book deal with Penguin Random House. Not all of those deals were designed to maximize her income. Visa, for instance, is not known as a high-paying sponsor but is a heavy TV advertiser. United Airlines put Franklin in a widespread out-of-home campaign.
Just before the Games, Ervin also arranged a deal for her to take equity and a board seat at SafeSplash, a swim school franchisor.
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After two years at Cal, Franklin signed with WME-IMG agent Mark Ervin in March 2015.
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But by choosing to compete in college and not turn pro following her London performance in 2012, when she took home four gold medals and a bronze, Franklin forfeited between $2 million and $5 million in income, some experts calculated.
Franklin returned home this morning. She’ll take a vacation with her parents before heading back to Cal-Berkeley in September to continue training, with an eye on the FINA World Championships next year and, eventually, Tokyo 2020. Obviously, her comeback story depends on her returning to her world-class times she recorded prior to 2014.
Before Franklin left Rio, she gave the world a glimpse of her new, more nuanced role during a Facebook Live appearance on behalf of Visa at the brand’s temporary headquarters near Copacabana Beach.
Rather than playing the bright-eyed champion, Franklin spoke of how disappointed she was and put a positive spin on things. “In spite of it not really being the Games I wanted it to be, there’s still a lot of amazing things to come from it and being able to represent my country on the relay team means the world to me,” she said.
