We are told these days that athletes are “brands”.

Digital and social media has given them unprecedented tools of direct communication. So does that mean you can just find your audience, tell your story, engage your followers and then sponsorship dollars will roll in?

Ehsen Shah, MD of B Engaged, guiding some major footballers through this particular opportunity/problem.

What they have to do, how they have to act, who they have to listen to and how they react to ‘haters’ or tough times on the pitch?

Topic breakdown: 

1.48 Ehsen Shah introduces himself

2.07 The principles he applies to building a player’s brand

2.45 Handling different personalities like Mesut Ozil v Hector Bellerin

3.30 The background to B Engaged

4.34 How important is a player’s social media game?

5.30 Why even Cristiano Ronaldo needs social media skills

6.01 Coping with non-believers in sports social media

8.30 How the conversations with agents have changed

9.40 How Gareth Bale got ahead of the game

11.08 What analytics are sought by brands

13.02 The org chart of B Engaged

14.45 Why a commission approach leads to bad deals

16.02 How you contact a brand about sponsoring a player

17.37 Fitting a player with a brand. Taking the conversation beyond an email

18.52 The best players partnership he has done - Bang & Olufsen 

21.19 The timescale for the deal

22.20 The ROI. Driving from social media to the purchase point

23.19 Helping players cope with hater on social media

25.01 Posting for players v players posting themselves

28.04 Why Instagram is taking over in players’ minds. And why they ignore Twitter

30.45 The Andre Santos example

31.15 How the posting by players has changed because “no-one cares about the truth”. Threats to their family

33.10 Fans, the media and the changing nature of the sporting narrative

34.26 Coping with “focusing on football” and not going out

36:16 Filtering out the signal from the noise. Breaking down the sentiment analysis

37.32 Whether players will become competitive to brands and so should they share content?

40.20 Dealing with a club’s communications staff. What those conversations entail.

43.17 The future for player’s social media and marketing. What content will be produced? Netflix, Amazon etc

46.15 The platforms. Their strength and the problems of fitting in Snapchat

48.41 Where B Engaged might go and the countries they will develop into. Offline v Online opportunities.