Odds are, Michael Phelps will be speaking a lot to the Chinese media this summer. He figures the least he can do is learn how to say “Hi.”
So when the Olympic swimming star returned from a media tour across China last summer, he decided to learn Mandarin, the Chinese dialect favored in Beijing. Phelps’ agent, Peter Carlisle of Octagon, has turned that desire into an opportunity.
Carlisle’s Olympic sports division approached Rosetta Stone, a language-learning company, and negotiated a one-year, low-six-figure endorsement deal that lets the company use images of Phelps and fellow Olympic swimmers Katie Hoff and Ian Crocker in its promotions. In return, Phelps, Hoff and Crocker will use Rosetta Stone’s technology to learn Mandarin before diving into the pool at the Beijing Olympics this August.
The unusual language-learning deal is the first of its kind for a cadre of swimmers. It’s also the first athlete endorsement deal undertaken by the 15-year-old, Virginia-based Rosetta Stone.
“It was really a no-brainer,” said Pamela Mulder, vice president of brand marketing and strategy at Rosetta Stone. “It’s a really good fit, especially because the Olympics are in China and there’s this perception that the language is impossible to learn.”
Rosetta Stone rolled out its first advertisements featuring Phelps this month when a series of print ads appeared in Swimming World, Outside magazine and Men’s Journal. The ad shows Phelps swimming butterfly under the words “Learn Chinese in record time. Guaranteed.”
A more extensive advertising campaign is being finalized. Mulder expects it to include additional print ads, TV commercials on networks such as TNT, the History Channel and A&E, and direct marketing materials that promote all three swimmers’ affiliation with Rosetta Stone.
Agent Peter Carlisle (center) with clients
Ian Crocker (left) and Michael Phelps
“They each have their following and it makes for a much more human interest story to use all three,” Mulder said. “They can not only train and swim together but also train and learn the language together, too.”
Mulder said Rosetta Stone will measure its first-time athlete endorsement by monitoring awareness and references to the program in media interviews by the athletes.
Phelps, Hoff and Crocker are expected to get a course on using Rosetta Stone soon. Carlisle expects the benefit of the endorsement to become apparent when they travel to Beijing this summer.
“When you’re standing in front of a group of Chinese media and say, ‘Hi,’ it doesn’t translate and can seem indifferent to Chinese language and culture,” Carlisle said. “But if you say, ‘Ni Hau,’ and show you’re trying, the response is unbelievable.”
