Beckham: The man who became a brand

NEXT MONTH David Beckham will play again at Old Trafford. This time as captain of a Great Britain and Ireland XI, for a huge charity game for Unicef. Beckham does such things for a number of reasons: first and foremost because he genuinely believes in the causes he promotes, and secondly because doing them continues to build Brand Beckham.

Beckham could soon oversee a $500m business under his personal brand. Earlier this year an international YouGov poll of 25,000 people found him to be the 10th “most admired person in the world”, just behind the Dalai Lama and Stephen Hawking. Not bad for a footballer who was once branded “the most hated man in England” after he was sent off in the 1998 World Cup.

Beckham’s subsequent campaign to revive his brand, to take it beyond football, into fashion, entertainment, retail and charities, has changed the whole way modern celebrities develop. It is notable for its ambition, clarity of purpose, innovation and brilliant perception management. Beckham enjoys public awareness more akin to royalty or a large corporation, and as a result has also suffered the same challenges, slip-ups and crises.

In the 17 years since the World Cup dismissal, Beckham has displayed unusual bravery and determination to build his personal brand across the world through very proactive PR and communications and strategic planning.

From the very early days he recognised the power of his own image and content – the increasingly used marketing buzzword of “owned media” – and his partners and advisers have managed these assets to their utmost impact.

David Beckham is now at the forefront of the next generation of celebrity branding where personality-based brands can leverage their value in jointventure equity deals to move from a sponsorship model to an ownership model. It was a rising pop impresario called Simon Fuller who first introduced David to Victoria in the players’ lounge after a Chelsea versus Manchester United game in March 1997. But it wasn’t until 2003 that Fuller’s 19 Management took over Brand Beckham. From then onwards his strategy became more focused and sophisticated.

It can perhaps be summed up in a sentence: to create an iconic male figure who inspires and has broad appeal and recognition around the world, and who instills positive values in terms of respect, hard work and equality. To be fair, Beckham always worked extremely hard, both on an off the pitch.

Throughout the 2000s, with his wife at his side (also massively successful as a fashion brand in her own right, it should be said, and also managed by Fuller) David Beckham extended beyond his lucrative sponsorship deals with Adidas and Pepsi into new types of commercial endorsements, tie-ups and ventures.

But Fuller stresses that everything 19 (later to become XIX Entertainment) did with Beckham with the media or commercially always had the same authenticity, integrity and scale to match his ambition. The latter was simply to become and stay the world’s most iconic sportsman. The attention to detail of 19’s marketing and PR team was incredible and they followed the motto that “it is better to do nothing than do the wrong thing”.

More recently Beckham has exercised his 2007 option to create a new Major League Soccer team for $25m (franchises are usually sold for around $100m) and he and Fuller have chosen Miami. It was one of the few major cities in the US without a strong football team despite its large Hispanic community. The team is due to start playing in 2017.

By 2013 the duo were investigating how celebrity brands can leverage their value in joint-venture equity deals. Crucially, Beckham was able to move from a sponsorship model to an even more lucrative ownership model. Last year in a deal with Hong Kong-based Global Brands Group – which owns Calvin Klein, Coach, Tommy Hilfiger and many Chinese brands – Beckham and Fuller took a 50 per cent stake in a joint venture that would develop Beckham-branded products across the world.

So when Beckham steps out next month at Old Trafford to thunderous applause, and with that same boyish smile, we should remember that it didn’t just come naturally. Instead it was the awesome result of a sustained and ambitious campaign that has changed the very relationship between the concept of celebrity, talent and business.