Rising above the roar of the crowd is a new sound in sport: the clatter of cash registers. And nowhere is it better illustrated than in the selling of Kieren Perkins. Larry Schwartz reports.
HE looked good. That was the first thing. He carried himself well in public. That was important, too. And that gold medal hanging around his neck. They liked that. They really liked that.
So after he returned from Barcelona a national hero they set to work.
Could Kieren Perkins and all he stood for – integrity, courage, commitment and that nice, boy-next-door homeliness – help National Dairies sell more cartons of low-fat milk? A series of research sessions began. Groups of eight average consumers were hauled in at a time. An image of Perkins, accompanied by various products like muesli, chocolates and cereals, was shown to the groups until they were sure the swimmer had “a natural fit to milk”.
Then they went out and started selling. “I’ve tried a lot of milk looking for the right combination of taste and low fat,” says Perkins in a signed statement on the carton. “Light Start is an easy winner … it’s the perfect way for everybody to start the day.”
Everyone except Kieren Perkins, that is. The group product manager for National Dairies, Mark Wallace, concedes that the swimmer’s favorite is available in Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia and will be in New South Wales later this year. But not Queensland, where Kieren Perkins lives and trains. Because it has no dairy there, National Dairies cannot provide Perkins with a regular supply of the milk he recommends.
But never mind. It’s the thought that counts. And National Dairies thinks a lot of Kieren Perkins. He is, says Wallace, “probably the most valuable property in Australia today”.
Perkins’s value on the commercial market could rise yet again over the next two weeks should he, as expected, win more gold in the pool in the Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada. And should he fail? The business world might then have to make another decision. There is no better example of the close link between sport and the corporate world these days than the selling of Kieren Perkins.
ROUSED by his alarm clock minutes after 5am, Perkins’ 193-centimetre frame has been negotiating a heated pool near Brisbane for the first of today’s two, two-and-a-half hour training sessions.
Up and down the 50-metre school pool, a short drive away from the family home in suburban Kenmore. A solitary figure in the water, moving easily through the seven-and-a-half kilometres he completes in each of the 11 sessions a week. He likens it to driving a car. Just substitute the white line for a black one.
It doesn’t really matter what color it is. He doesn’t look. “When I swim, most of the time my eyes are closed,” says the Olympic gold medallist who celebrates his 21st birthday today. “That’s just me and how I do it. Usually when I breathe or when I’m moving my head, my eyes will be closed. I’ll keep an eye on the line to see where I am in relation to the pool, obviously. You use it as a centre focus and as a way to keep yourself in line.”
He says that, just as in a car, a million and one thoughts will arise.
There is much vying for the attention of the young swimmer. Requests to attend charity functions and fund-raising events; demands of manufacturers of the several products he endorses; the clamor of autograph-seekers; parental advice on investment opportunities.
Since his astounding gold-medal win in the 1500 metres freestyle at the Barcelona Olympics, Kieren Perkins has emerged as a nation’s darling whose profile has been lifted through a series of lucrative product endorsements.
In commercial terms, he is “the most successful gold medallist we’ve had”, says Max Markson, of the Sydney management group, Markson Sparks, whose clients include Jane Flemming, Dawn Fraser, 1988 Olympic swimming gold medallist Duncan Armstrong and
equestrian Matt Ryan, who won gold twice in 1992. He believes that none of his clients earns anywhere near as much as Perkins. “He is a manager’s and a sponsor’s dream.”
Perkins promotes the virtues of Eyeline swimwear manufacturers.
National Dairies signed him up with a five-year contract late last year to promote its Pura Light Start milk. He has contracts with Mazda and Sizzler Restaurants. He has done promotions for Visacard and Bank of Queensland. He is under contract to Channel Ten both for promotional reasons and as celebrity reporter on the `Sports Tonight’ program.
Perkins says it was Lisa Curry-Kenny’s example that showed him what might be gained through endorsement. The commercial potential she had realised impressed him back in 1989 when she was media liaison officer accompanying an eight-man male team that took part in three World Cup meets in Europe.
Perkins’ sporting prowess has proven lucrative so far. His Sydney- based manager, Graeme Hannan, says that while he is not a millionaire yet, he is “doing better than most 21-year-olds, unless their name is James Packer”.
The swimmer’s financial affairs are handled by a family company. One of its directors is his father, Kevin. He is less expansive about his son’s earnings. “I wouldn’t say he was that well off. In fact, I would say it was a gross exaggeration.”
GRAEME HANNAN is vice-president of the International Management Group, the giant sports marketing firm with a reach encompassing the globe.
Among its clients: Ian Baker-Finch, Peter Senior and Bob Shearer (golf); Evonne Cawley, Rachel McQuillan, John Newcombe and Patrick Rafter (tennis); ironmen Jonathan Crowe and Guy Leech; rugby union internationals Nick Farr-Jones and Phil Kearns; the
“Oarsome Foursome” (rowing); and John Bertrand (sailing).
And Kieren Perkins. Hannan advised the family informally a year before the Barcelona Games and signed him after the Australian Olympic trials in 1992. He notes that few, if any, Australian athletes have been able to capitalise on sporting achievement to the extent that Perkins has.
He says the family has a strong input and enjoy “virtually a partnership arrangement” with IMG.
HE attributes Perkins’s appeal to the swimmer’s look, his personality and the confidence with which he handles himself. Listing his sporting achievements and many awards, a blurb from IMG describes him as “a role model for all young Australians”. Half of 400 Australians interviewed in a random survey a week after the closing ceremony of the Barcelona Olympics rated his 1500-metre victory as this country’s most impressive achievement at the Games.
“When it comes down to it, it is just me,” he says. “That is just how I am. I don’t do anything special. I mean I’ve never been to an image consultant. I’ve never had to take classes on how to public speak or present myself or anything like that.”
Kevin Perkins recently quit a top job as a manager with Mack Trucks Australia Ltd to attend to business interests including those of his son. And he is adamant there has been no deliberate attempt to manufacture an image for the young swimmer.
“He’s not a great deal different when he’s relaxing around home. We see some things in his personality or in his personal life that others don’t. He’s not perfect, like all of us. He’s untidy around the bloody house which is a constant source of annoyance to his mother. I mean just like any kid, you know.”
Perkins has an uncommon self-assurance that belies his years. “He was elected prefect at his high school (Brisbane Boys’ College, 1990- 1991),” says his dad. “And in the very early days he didn’t like the idea of standing up in front of the assembly of 1100 boys and teachers and parents.
“I remember him saying he used to get nervous and I used to say to him as a youngster try and force yourself to do as much as you can and you’ll work your way through those nerves where one day you’ll stand there and you’ll say it’s all right. And I said, it’ll never happen from then on and I think that’s exactly what’s happened. It’s just come to him naturally.” Though he has had a few one-off deals, the Perkins camp is interested more in long-term endorsement deals over three to four-year periods. Because his commercial potential is tied to sporting achievement, Hannan tries to ensure that his sponsorship deals do not interfere with the rigorous training schedule. He says in 75 per cent of cases, they will approach the potential sponsor. The Sizzler chain of restaurants, however, approached them (through a Sydney advertising company).
LIKE National Dairies, Sizzler tested the swimmer’s appeal by sounding out groups of eight to 10 people. The surveys showed he had a better “fit” with its product than other athletes including footballers, cricketers and tennis players. Sizzler’s marketing director, Lew Nielsen, says Perkins’s appeal is ideal for its brand, helping to convey the image that its restaurants serve fresh, wholesome foods that fit people enjoy to eat. It would continue to use Perkins after the 1996 Olympics even if he fails in the pool, so long as it believes he is a “credible and believable presenter”. Nielsen cites Lisa Curry-Kenny as an example of an athlete whose promotional value was never entirely tied to success or failure.
He says of Perkins: “He is a dream in so far as he is very easy to work with, very professional, good with the cameras and that sort of thing. For a national figure, he is quite down-to-earth and easy to get along with.”
In the marketing of Kieren Perkins the product, there had been an emphasis on presenting a polished public image. Hannan felt it was important that he not be seen in a tracksuit as a swimmer who had just jumped out of a pool. Following Robert de Castella’s lead, Perkins always appeared in smart attire at press conferences.
Hannan says Perkins’s contracts each have a morality clause and can be terminated for inappropriate behavior that tarnishes the image. Part of the appeal, says Hannan, is that companies feel relatively safe in their association with him.
SURELY he isn’t as perfect as the image? Hasn’t Kieren Everyman, the smiling, gentle suburban boy who opens doors for the elderly and picks up litter on the footpath, ever felt an urge to rebel? “There are things like when I did do my tour of honor for Young Australian of the Year, I was out on the road for a couple of weeks straight doing appearances and of course when you do get a bit tired, you get a bit frustrated and there might be that sort of, `Go away, leave me alone, I’d like to do my own thing’. But really I can’t say I’ve ever had that problem.”
Does he not feel overwhelmed by celebrity? “The main problem is that it’s very difficult to be anonymous.”
The products he endorses are carefully chosen. No, says Hannan, they would not let him act as compere at a wet T-shirt contest. The preferred products for endorsement are “compatible” with his wholesome image. Low-fat milk, nutritious breakfast cereals, family restaurants. They would not have him promoting fatty foods or even endorse as worthy a product as a condom “even in this day and age”.
Lisa Herden, who edits an industry newsletter for the Sydney-based Sponsorship Marketing Group, says sponsors carefully research public appeal before committing themselves to an athlete. Olympic gold is prized for sponsorship because it ensures a national profile as opposed to the regional popularity of rugby league or even Australian Rules. Swimming is particularly attractive because it is exciting television viewing and receives plenty of coverage.
“If the latest trends are any indication, then stars are going to be packaged entirely differently in the future,” John Kroeger, managing director of an organisation called International Event Resources, wrote in a recent issue of the newsletter edited by Ms Herden.
He says Shaquille O’Neal, the young American basketball star “has single-handedly turned the world of sponsorships and endorsements upside down”. He signed a $US40 million contract with the Orlando Magic basketball team, and his advisers cleverly registered the name “Shaq Attack”, setting up a highly sophisticated marketing strategy for a range of products. Just 22, his earnings last year were $US15 million.
“The final message,” writes John Kroeger, “is grab on to a shooting star and follow him/her into the future.”
For his part, Perkins says he would not endorse alcohol or cigarettes.
“In general, as an elite athlete and somebody who the young people of Australia look up to, they’re not really the sorts of things I would like to be promoting.”
His father says there’s probably something in this too in the way he and his wife, Gloria, have raised Kieren and brother, Jared, 19. “I mean, you know, don’t get the impression that we’re wowsers. We’re not. I mean, I drink. I’m only a social drinker, I don’t drink to excess.”
Once upon a time, Perkins dreamed of becoming a jockey. “I think that little aim in life died when I hit six foot and 15,” he says.
“There’s always been other things along the way. Physiotherapy interests me a lot. There was a stage there when I thought a lawyer would be a nice little trade to get into.”
PERHAPS, when the swimming is over, possibly after the Sydney Olympics in 2000, he’ll make a career of television. “I probably have ideas of what I’d like to be. Television is obviously one of those. I enjoy the work that I have done for Channel Ten so far. It is definitely something I would like to get involved with. But there are any number of things that could happen. Who knows? I could get involved in marketing or even a management type of position. I guess the possibilities are limitless.”
Kevin Perkins says he has sought to consult his son throughout on his finances. “He’s aware of everything that goes on. I’ve always been very meticulous in involving Kieren in all contractual matters. I’ve always been meticulous in making sure he understands everything that’s happening, even the complex legal stuff.
“In the final analysis, he’s always been the one who must make the decision and I’ve emphasised that. I wanted him to as soon as possible accept the total responsibility.
How astute is the swimmer in handling his finances? “I wouldn’t say I’m the best in the world at it,” concedes Perkins. “Things like the sharemarkets and stuff like that. Dad oversees all of that and he explains to me everything that’s going on. With his advice and IMG’s and solicitors’, accountants’, whoever it is … I then make decisions. I’m very lucky in the respect that Dad and I in a lot of cases do things very alike. Nine point nine times out of 10 I’ll agree with him completely. So that does make life fairly easy for both of us.”
The swimmer does not seem unduly fazed by the fact that no one (not least the sponsors) likes a loser. His contracts mostly include bonuses for wins.
“I think there’s always going to be times in the back of your mind when you say, `Well, this is going to hurt you promotionally’, but really when it comes down to it at the end of the day I’m there for the sport and for the enjoyment of it.”
On golden pond.
HOW much is Kieren Perkins worth? For contractual and other reasons, the swimmer’s camp declines to say.
While he says he is not even close to becoming a millionaire yet, industry sources estimate he is earning $500,000 a year and could take an annual $750,000 or more by 1996 if he continues to win and becomes an even “bigger name”.
They say the Olympic gold medallist will probably be worth at least $2 million by 1996. If contracts due to expire then are renewed, he will have made $5 million through endorsement and sponsorship by the Sydney 2000 Olympics, when he plans to end his swimming career.
Sources say that, even if his success in the pool does not last so long – even if he quits swimming altogether by 1996 – his profile in the community is already so high that he could continue to make between $150,000 and $200,000 a year.
With a sizeable proportion of earnings (said to be at least 20 per cent) going to management, estimates for the worth of individual contracts include: $50,000 (Network Ten), $100,000 (National Dairies), $100,000 (Uncle Toby), $80,000 (Sizzler), $50,000 (Eyeline), $50,000 (Mazda, in the form of a car).
The industry sources put his fee for personal appearances at $5000 a time.
THE SUNDAY AGE, 14-Aug-1994
Larry Schwartz Writer 