Dare to choose an athlete!

There’s something I keep noticing in sports & marketing…

The moment a sports campaign starts with “this fits our brand values,” it usually goes wrong.

Not because brand values don’t matter, but because sport doesn’t adapt to your brand. It works the other way around. Look at Odido Nederland and Jutta Leerdam. Jutta provokes. She almost always triggers an (unsolicited) opinion in the Netherlands. And that’s exactly what makes this partnership interesting. This isn’t about female empowerment or influencer reach. It’s about a brand accepting that attention can be uncomfortable and that not everything needs to be controlled upfront.

Athletes aren’t always safe carriers of your message. They’re a magnifier. Everything gets bigger. The attention, but also the debate. If you start from “this fits our brand values,” you’re trying to stay in control. If you dare to choose an athlete, you accept that control partly disappears. And that’s exactly where relevance and authenticity are created.

🙌🏻👏🏻 teams at Odido Nederland and TBWA\NEBOKO

#darkhorses #sportmarketing #sportbusiness #disruption