U.S. women's national team MF Carli Lloyd, after scoring two of her three goals in yesterday’s FIFA Women’s World Cup final within the first five minutes of the match, had so many people “going to her official website that it crashed,” according to Darren Rovell of ESPN.com. Athlete booking services firm Thuzio “estimated that the cost to ink Lloyd for a two-hour appearance would cost approximately $30,000, up from $10,000 after the U.S. won its quarterfinal match and up $15,000 after the team beat Germany in the semifinals.” While Nike has “recently used Lloyd frequently in its Training Club marketing,” Lloyd “doesn't have many other marketing deals.” She “signed a deal last September with Usana Health Sciences, which has used her in some company public relations.” Her agent, WME-IMG's Josh Weil, last week “closed a deal for her to represent Visa” through the ‘16 Rio Olympics. Weil said, “A lot of what we were going to do was going to be predicated on how the World Cup went. So we're in pretty good shape now.” Weil also said that he is “in advanced talks with an auto company as well as a watch company that has never before done anything with soccer.” He added, “I would like to see some deals come through with top USOC or IOC sponsors ahead of the Olympics: Bridgestone, AT&T, McDonald's -- those types of companies” (ESPN.com, 7/5).
A STAR IS BORN: In Newark, Steve Politi wrote young girls will be “hanging [Lloyd's] poster on bedroom walls across the country.” They will be “demanding her No. 10 on the first day of soccer practice for years to come.” Lloyd is the “breakout star of this monumental victory for American sports.” She “doesn't have the endorsement deals that teammate Alex Morgan has, or the notoriety (often for all the wrong reasons) that goalie Hope Solo has, or even the grassroots popularity that fellow midfielder Megan Rapinoe has.” But Lloyd “had a performance for the ages” (NJ.com, 7/5). The WALL STREET JOURNAL’s Matthew Futterman writes nothing was “going to take the spotlight off Lloyd, who has been nothing less than the best player in the world since the start of the knockout stage” (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 7/6). FORBES’ Patrick Rishe wrote the “interesting thing going forward is just how well her marketing team capitalizes on her newly-found fame.” The “key will be to strike while the iron is hot, because for top women’s soccer players the window is smaller than for athletes (think tennis) who are constantly performing” (FORBES.com, 7/5).
POPULARITY CONTEST: Data from Thuzio shows that Lloyd now ranks as the third-most-followed USWNT player on Instagram with over 344,000 followers. She has seen an increase of more than 277% on Instagram since the tourney began. Lloyd only had 91,000 followers prior to yesterday's game. Among all USWNT players, D Julie Johnston saw the most growth on Twitter (+425%) and Instagram (+669%) during the WWC (Austin Karp, Assistant Managing Editor). Lloyd is making the media rounds this morning, appearing on ABC’s “GMA,” NBC’s “Today” and “CBS This Morning.” Lloyd said of the win, “It’s huge for women’s soccer. The support, the coverage that we had, it was just unbelievable” (“GMA,” ABC, 7/6).
