G4
Business mcnabb from G1
Washington and is actively look- ing for partners. At 33, the Pro Bowl quarter- back who’s charting his reinven- tion on the field and beyond has landed with a team badly in need of a championship. McNabb him- self is hoping to use his fresh start to reinvigorate his business goals off the field. For everything McNabb brings to the table, he has arrived in Washington with- out one key asset: a Super Bowl ring.
/ TWP 1999 - LOSERS. Washington
portunities unlike what he ex- perienced in 11 years in Philadel- phia. “From our perspective, he’s one of the elite quarterbacks in the NFL, and he’s committed to win- ning a Super Bowl with the Wash- ington Redskins,” Stroth said. “He is genuine. He is a winner. He is consistent.”
Stroth said they’re trying to
And in the world of sports en- dorsements, celebrity doesn’t al- ways land the big score. It usually comes down to championships. “He has an uphill battle based on the fact that he has not won any championships,” said Steve Trax, a principal in Bethesda- based MTX Wealth Management, which manages $350 million for 90 clients, most of whom are pro- fessional athletes. “Like it or not, in the public’s eye, success on the playing field correlates to success in sales.” Team McNabb said its brand stands for leadership and being a warrior on the football field. Since McNabb was traded to
Washington in April, his brand, which has earned him more than $100 million in the past decade, has seen a resurgence, and Team McNabb intends to further capi- talize on it. The reception at Top of the Town in Arlington, unusual in the world of athlete marketing, was just the first step. McNabb’s business adviser calls the move to the nation’s cap- ital “a renaissance” for the quar- terback, and McNabb has aligned himself with new corporate part- ners, discussed plans to work with the White House and plotted ways to launch his brand to new heights. “I don’t see myself as this big name. I just see myself as Dono- van,” McNabb said in an inter- view. “My mom sees me as Little Donovan; my dad, just son; what- ever it may be. But I know that from what I’ve been able to ac- complish and the things that I’ve been able to do, that some things I say and do kind of goes a long way for some people.”
‘He is a winner’ Andrew Stroth is a Chicago-
based attorney and serves as the business adviser on Team McNabb. When trade rumors be- gan circulating with increased fervor last spring, he knew Wash- ington would be a preferred desti- nation. “Playing in the nation’s capital gives Donovan access to a vibrant business community, a very committed philanthropic community, as well as the oppor- tunity to work with the White House,” Stroth said. And when the deal finally went through bringing McNabb to the Redskins from the Philadelphia Eagles, Team McNabb didn’t waste time developing its strat- egy. The goal has always been for McNabb “to transcend football,” Stroth said, but the change of sce- nery put McNabb in a hub of op-
emulate the Magic Johnson mod- el that so many others such as Ronnie Lott, Roger Staubach and John Elway have successfully lev- eraged. McNabb is in discussions with several Washington area businesses in the technology and health-care sectors, hoping to get equity stakes in return for align- ing his brand with those compa- nies. “Most athletes don’t take the time, energy and effort to meet with CEOs and to be on confer- ence calls and in meetings, culti- vating relationships,” Stroth said. “He is preparing each day for life beyond football.” It’s a savvy strategy for a sea- soned athlete: broaden the focus of his investments from endorse- ments to building ownership stakes in growing businesses. This reinvention as a business- man can be challenging, accord- ing to Trax. Instead of just taking fees to endorse a product, for instance, Johnson became an owner in a chain of theaters and in other growing properties. In effect, the athlete is an owner of a business that can create much greater wealth than a simple promotion-
KLMNO
SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 12, 2010
Selling the city on a quarterback hoping to land a big score The McNabb Brand
Equity partner: Playmaker Mobile,
Yardbarker.com New corporate partners: Dr Pepper, Capital One Existing corporate partners: Nike, Verizon, Novartis Pharmaceuticals, AirTran Airways, Mounted Memories Former corporate partners: Campbell’s Soup, Vitamin Water, Reebok, EA Sports
al fee. “Magic was smart enough to
connect with the right people in the business community, which helped him build a brand and connect with business opportuni- ties,” Trax said. Even so, “maybe one out of 100 deals that you see goes through the second level of due diligence,” he said, “where you peel back the onion and it makes sense. It’s very, very rare.” McNabb is reaching out to peo- ple in Washington who share his hometown roots. His handlers wasted little time engaging the Obama administration. McNabb is not politically active. He con- cedes that he didn’t even vote un- til the 2008 presidential election. But he’s from Chicago and shares that connection with President Obama, Education Secretary Arne Duncan and others on the White House staff. In fact, McNabb filmed a pub- lic-service announcement for the
Department of Education and will visit area schools to talk with students. Josh Dubois, director of the president’s Office of Faith- Based and Neighborhood Part- nerships, attended the Arlington reception, and McNabb intends to get involved with Michelle Obama’s “Let’s Move!” campaign. “I think certainly anytime a
marquee name migrates to a new location, in that geography it cre- ates new opportunity, companies looking to tap into the hype be- fore the athlete has proven him- self to do what he’s there to do: to win football games,” said Paul Swangard, a sports marketing ex- pert at the University of Oregon. By “moving to Washington, is he using the nation’s capital as a na- tional platform for himself?”
The upside of relocation The relocation gave McNabb’s
brand an instant boost. With his name dominating headlines and his face a constant
McNabb: The new face of the franchise by Rick Maese
Donovan McNabb isn’t the only one who stands to benefit from his relocation. A flurry of phone calls over Easter week- end gave the Washington Red- skins their most recognizable player in years, if not decades. Team owner Daniel Snyder
grew up a Redskins fan and has a special fondness for the quar- terback position, held down over the years by such legends as Sonny Jurgensen and Sam- my Baugh, and D.C. favorites such as Billy Kilmer and Joe Theismann. “When you have that special
quarterback, it’s just a big deal for the town,” Snyder said. “They’re hard to come by.” Since Snyder bought the team in 1999, it has fielded 10 starting quarterbacks and drafted seven (though only two in the first four rounds). During his tenure, he’d never seen the star power at quarterback that McNabb brings. “They’re rare,” Snyder said.
“The successful ones are rare.” So it’s not surprising that
McNabb was prominent in the advertising campaign the team
launched in July. Along with Coach Mike Shanahan, General Manager Bruce Allen and a cou- ple of teammates, McNabb’s face began popping up all over town: on Metro trains, the sides of buses and billboards. McNabb’s merchandise sales
have also benefited the team. Since the trade, the Redskins have been No. 6 in the league in terms of jersey sales, thanks in large part to McNabb having the league’s second-best selling jersey. Over the same period last year, they were No. 10, ac- cording to
NFLShop.com. Before McNabb took even a single snap, the Redskins felt they had a player who could not only lead a locker room but could serve as the face of the franchise. Snyder instantly knew that adding McNabb was an important step for the fran- chise. He was vacationing with family and friends in Turks and Caicos and was receiving a slew of text updates from Allen. Ini- tially, he didn’t believe the Ea- gles were sincerely trying to un- load McNabb on a division ri- val, however. “The whole time I was skepti- cal because, like everyone, you
think they’re just using us to up the offer from someone else,” Snyder said. “Finally, [Allen] popped the question: ‘Hey, where’s the air- plane?’ That’s when I knew it was real.” The team’s interest in a new
quarterback was hardly a secret in league circles. Many expec- ted the Redskins to negotiate with St. Louis for Marc Bulger if the McNabb deal didn’t hap- pen. “To me, it’s really about what
Mike wants to do, what Bruce wants to do and me supporting them and helping them move forward,” Snyder said. “One of the things they talked about early on was the quarter- back position. That’s something they wanted to look at.” As his family sat down to eat,
Snyder raced to his private plane and returned to Washing- ton. He calls McNabb “the total package,” and adding him to the roster was well worth cutting his vacation short. Allen met the owner at the
airport and immediately hand- ed him a cellphone. “Here’s your new quarterback,” he told Sny- der.
maeser@washpost.com
on ESPN, it wasn’t simply his playing career that was getting a fresh start. From a marketing per- spective, the renewed interest in McNabb was almost immediate, Stroth said. McNabb’s jersey hadn’t been among the league’s top-sellers since 2006.
But over the summer since the
trade, it was the league’s second- best-selling jersey, trailing only Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow.
Since joining the Redskins,
McNabb has landed at least two major sponsorship deals. He ap- peared in a national television commercial for Dr Pepper. And last month, he taped commercials with Washington Capitals star Al- ex Ovechkin for a new Capital One campaign that will launch soon. Stroth anticipated such a renewed interest in McNabb. “During the last few years in Philadelphia, at the end of every season, there was uncertainty [as to] whether or not he would re- main on the Philadelphia Eagles,” he said. “So from a corporate partnership perspective, there wasn’t as much activity as there had been in the past.” Time will tell just how finan- cially beneficial McNabb’s move to Washington might be, but mar- keting experts say that nothing will help more than winning. Marketing Evaluations meas- ures “Q ratings” — the familiarity and appeal of athletes and celeb- rities — and the company began tracking McNabb in 2001. Henry Schafer, executive vice president, said McNabb’s popularity among sports fans peaked in 2005, when he led the Eagles to the Super Bowl. Seventy percent of fans rec- ognized him then, and McNabb had a Q score of 23 — well above average. In the most recent study,
McNabb is recognizable by even more sports fans — 84 percent — but his Q score, which essentially reveals how well-liked he is, had fallen to 17. For comparison, Pey- ton Manning has a Q score of 42, Brett Favre 28 and Kurt Warner 29.
With McNabb changing cities and teams, Schafer drew compar- isons to Warner, who saw a great revival when he led the Cardinals to the Super Bowl in 2009. “Donovan has pretty good
awareness,” Schafer said. “He’s just not breaking through right now in terms of consumer ap- peal.”
And that could be a challenge
going forward. “While retired athletes such as
Michael Jordan and Joe Montana can still be seen on television commercials pitching products,” Swangard said, “McNabb may not have earned that staying power quite yet. “I’m sensing he’s got a real strong interest in building the business side of his post-profes- sional career that may not have as much to do with his endorsement upside,” he said. “He’s not going to be out there peddling Mr. Coffee, whereas Jordan can sell Ball Park Franks and Hanes underwear for the rest of the post-professional career.” Even so, following Warner’s
U.S. Department of Homeland Security is Hiring Senior Leaders
Learn more about SES opportunities, benefits, resume-only application process, and apply or sign up for job posting notifications online.
www.dhs.gov/executivehiring
REGISTER OF COPYRIGHTS ($165,300)
Located on Capitol Hill, The Library of Congress is the nation’s oldest federal cultural institution, the world’s largest library, and home of the United States Copyright Office. We currently have an opportunity for an experienced leader in the role of Register of Copyrights.
The Register directs all Copyright Office operations and ensures the timely provision of public services, principally theregistrationofcopyright claims.The Register is responsible for all legal activities and deliberations of the office and frequently testifies before Congress.
Opportunities are available in the areas of: • Business / Finance • Information Technology / Cybersecurity • Intelligence • International (Travel & Trade) • Law Enforcement / Immigration Enforcement • Legal • Management •Medical / Scientific • Preparedness / First Response / Recovery
Candidates must be attorneys in good standing (proof of bar membership is required with application) and must have progressively responsible experience in US, foreign and international copyright law. Application deadline is 10/12/2010. Vacancy #100182.
Additional details about requirements and duties for this position, along with information on how to apply, can be found at
www.loc.gov/hr/employment.
example, Schafer said if McNabb wins in Washington, he could be- come even more attractive to ad- vertisers than he was five years ago, when the quarterback seemed to be near the top of his marketing game. Back then, McNabb was on the cover of EA Sports’ Madden NFL video game. He signed the largest deal Reebok had ever given a football player. Rather than ac- cept cash to promote Vitamin Wa- ter, McNabb became an equity partner in the company, not long before Coca-Cola bought it for $4.2 billion. And perhaps most memorable: He was the person- ality in the longest-run advertis- ing campaign Campbell’s Soup has ever had.
Soupy sales
Early in his career, McNabb be- gan appearing in Campbell’s com- mercials alongside an actress who played his mother. “Every time the commercial
ran with Donovan and his Camp- bell’s mom, his real mom would call me to let me know she was ready for ‘Hollywood,’ ” says Peter Raskin, McNabb’s former market- ing agent and the co-founder The Agency Sports Management in New York. Raskin says that during one game, the commercial aired near- ly a dozen times and each time, Wilma McNabb would catch his eye. He finally persuaded Camp- bell’s to give her a shot, and Wil- ma starred alongside her son un- til 2008. Wilma’s minor celebrity illus-
PROUDTO PROTECT! DHS is an Equal Opportunity Employer
The Library of Congress is an EOE/AA Employer
trates how everyone in Team McNabb is fully invested in the quarterback’s brand. Wilma is also president of the Professional Football Players Mothers Associa- tion, runs her own Web site,
MamaMcNabb.com and is presi-
dent of the McNabb’s charitable foundation. Sam McNabb found- ed the National Football Players Father’s Association and serves as its president, and he runs football camps back in Chicago. And McNabb’s older brother, Sean, has his own event-planning company and helps coordinate everything from football camps to charity fundraisers. McNabb himself wears many
hats. He’s president of McNabb Unlimited, which handles his business dealings; founded a charity; serves on the board of trustees at his alma mater, Syra- cuse University; and runs a schol- arship fund and essay contest at Mt. Carmel High in Chicago. The money from a football camp he hosts has gone to the American Diabetes Association, an annual commitment of at least $50,000 that has totaled around $1 million in the past 10 years, ac- cording to Rich Burg, McNabb’s publicist. The cause is dear to McNabb: His father has Type 2 diabetes. He said he hopes to “spread the
awareness of diabetes” to get “people to get tested, to learn more about their family history, to learn more about themselves.” For McNabb, each member of his team is an extension of his brand and every endeavor they undertake an extension of his character. “You just can’t, as they say in the world, just sell out and put your face on any type of company that’s not just you,” he said. “You won’t see that with me. I’ve built a brand, I’ve built a name for my- self. “And if I’m going to be the face of it, it has to be something that’s my lifestyle, something of who I really am.”
‘Here for years’ McNabb says he’s here to stay.
He emphasized that he’s bought a house in Northern Virginia. Though the family will spend much of the offseason at his Ari- zona home, his children will en- roll in school here. He intends to be much more than simply Wash- ington’s quarterback. “I look at myself as being here for years,” he said. “So a lot of stuff that I was doing back in Philadel- phia, I will be doing here now.” Those around him say he has been smart with his money, mak- ing conservative investments and staying away from record labels, restaurants and other glamour properties that often bring little or no return. But his contract, which pays him $12 million a year, is set to ex- pire after the 2010 season. Both McNabb and the team say they in- tend to negotiate an extension, but there might not be significant movement on that front until the regular season is underway. But there was little movement on that front in the weeks preceding the start of the regular season. Fletcher Smith, McNabb’s agent and the final cornerstone of Team McNabb, has met with Bruce Al- len, the Redskins’ general manag- er. No announcement, however, is pending.
While the two hammer out de- tails, the rest of Team McNabb will continue plotting the quar- terback’s future off the field. McNabb can’t predict an end date for his career, but at 33, he knows the game won’t last forever. “He wants to become a busi- nessman, he wants to become a broadcast personality,” Stroth said. “He wants to win a Super Bowl with the Redskins, but he also understands that his sports career is just part of his life.” With options and opportuni- ties come pitfalls, Swangard said. “He absolutely has the chance to potentially invest in a number of things, he just has to be smart. The common theme that weaves itself through professional sports when it comes to business, the road is littered with talented ath- letes who made really bad busi- ness decisions,” he said. “The hope is that he’s going to take a smarter, more conservative ap- proach and have something to show for it in the end.” And while McNabb will be most visible wearing a helmet and pads and trying to return the Redskins to competitive form in coming months, his other team — Team McNabb — will be busy be- hind the scenes, making sure the McNabb brand can outlast the quarterback’s playing career. “I’m truly passionate with ev-
erything that I do,” McNabb said. “Not just football, but everything that I put my hand on or touch. I’m determined to make that the best. If it’s with diabetes, if it’s dealing with health care, educa- tion, if it’s physical fitness, what- ever may be. If put my hand on it, I’m going to be in it whole-heart- edly.”
maeser@washpost.com
Staff writer Thomas Heath and research editor Alice Crites contributed to this report.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99 |
Page 100 |
Page 101 |
Page 102 |
Page 103 |
Page 104 |
Page 105 |
Page 106 |
Page 107 |
Page 108 |
Page 109 |
Page 110 |
Page 111 |
Page 112 |
Page 113 |
Page 114 |
Page 115 |
Page 116 |
Page 117 |
Page 118 |
Page 119 |
Page 120 |
Page 121 |
Page 122 |
Page 123 |
Page 124 |
Page 125 |
Page 126 |
Page 127 |
Page 128 |
Page 129 |
Page 130 |
Page 131 |
Page 132 |
Page 133 |
Page 134 |
Page 135 |
Page 136 |
Page 137 |
Page 138 |
Page 139 |
Page 140 |
Page 141 |
Page 142 |
Page 143 |
Page 144 |
Page 145 |
Page 146 |
Page 147 |
Page 148 |
Page 149 |
Page 150 |
Page 151 |
Page 152 |
Page 153 |
Page 154 |
Page 155 |
Page 156 |
Page 157 |
Page 158 |
Page 159 |
Page 160 |
Page 161 |
Page 162 |
Page 163 |
Page 164 |
Page 165 |
Page 166