Georges St. Pierre | Source: MMAWeekly.com
In part 1 of our feature on Shari Spencer, manager of UFC Welterweight Champion Georges St-Pierre, we discussed the fighting future of her client. In part 2, we focus on the past, present, and future of the GSP brand. Read on to see which marketing spaces Spencer will be pushing St-Pierre into in the near future, and how St-Pierre could eventually overtake Brock Lesnar as the sport’s biggest star.
Last year, Spencer made waves in the MMA community when it was announced that she had successfully negotiated sponsorship agreements with sports advertising juggernauts such as Gatorade and Under Armour on behalf of her client. To date, St-Pierre is the only mixed martial artist to be sponsored by those brands, and he is also a prominent figure in the marketing platforms of Mission Skin Care and Affliction.
“Affliction is making an incredible push behind Georges,” Spencer said about one of St-Pierre’s longtime sponsors, adding, “he just shot some more still photography for Under Armour’s new line and Gatorade is planning a commercial for 2011.”
The champ’s most recent sponsor, Mission Skin Care, is the first and only skincare product line developed for and by athletes. Spencer, however, said the company is involved in the sports world in a more progressive manner than many fans know.
“For Mission Skin Care, we were involved with the launch of their foundation back in September,” Spencer said. “There is an exciting new thing they are doing to recognize high school athletes that contribute on and off their respective playing fields and give back to the community. They are identifying an athlete every week, month, and then annually that gets a special recognition from one of their athletes, whether it be Serena Williams, Steve Nash, or Georges.”
While most fighters–and their management teams–would be more than satisfied with a sponsorship package as prestigious as St-Pierre’s, Spencer said she is constantly working to push her client into new marketing spaces. In effect, she is turning GSP into a brand unto itself. Asked what she had planned for the immediate future, Spencer revealed their move into the world of fitness instruction and fitness equipment.
“We will be releasing a series of fitness DvDs that I would describe as P90X meets MMA,” Spencer said. “It’s an extremely intense workout, and then we’ll also be moving into the workout equipment side of the brand. I’m calling it the one-two punch in the fitness space.”
St-Pierre pummels rival Matt Serra as a raucous Montreal crowd cheers him on | Source: MMAWeekly.com
Spencer’s future plans for building the GSP brand are far-reaching and ambitious, as she believes he has the potential to be the first true crossover star to represent the mixed martial arts world in the mainstream sports landscape. However, even Spencer admitted that she was a bit overwhelmed at the reception her client received during a recent media tour to the Philippines, one of the most passionate MMA fan bases in the world.
“A couple of years ago the UFC broadcast partner in the Philippines had hosted Chuck Liddell to do a promotional tour to help promote the UFC there,” Spencer explained. “What is unique about MMA in the Philippines is that the fights are not on Pay Per View, they are broadcast for free, and so the fan base is huge.”
“It was like Beatle-mania,” Spencer said regarding St-Pierre’s reception in the country. “Georges is well received in the States and in Canada, but it was a whole different level in the Philippines. He is the most popular fighter on a global basis based on Yahoo! and Google searches, so it made sense to expand his brand there. I was told how big the UFC was in the Philippines and how gracious they were—and they are the most gracious people on the planet—but the reception was beyond what Georges or myself ever expected.”
Asked what kind of an effect his growing celebrity has had on St-Pierre, Spencer said it has been a mixed bag.
“He’s in a position where he can use his influence in a very positive way, not only through the sport but also through charity,” Spencer said. “Having said that, I think like any celebrity there are challenges of wanting to be incognito every now and then and that just comes along with the territory.”
While St-Pierre may be the most popular fighter in the UFC on a global basis, there is little doubt that former UFC Heavyweight Champion Brock Lesnar still dominates the Pay Per View box office in the United States.
“I think in the U.S. Brock is still number one as a draw,” Spencer said. “I haven’t seen those numbers after his loss, but I would reason—looking at other top draws and their records—losses don’t always have a negative effect on their drawing ability. Even though Georges is more popular and more respected than Brock, I think Brock still has an edge in terms of his drawing capacity. I’m working hard to help Georges overtake him in that capacity, but I have to admit that he has the edge right now.”
Spencer might admit Lesnar’s current supremacy in the U.S. market, but that does not mean she doubts her client’s ability to reach and even exceed those heights in the future.
Should he keep his winning streak alive, could GSP become MMA's superstar? | Source: MMAWeekly.com
“He definitely has that potential and I think that the way Brock handles this will determine his ability to stay in the mix there,” Spencer said. “Georges has commented before that he got more fans after his loss to Matt Hughes than in any fight since then. American fans love a comeback story, and Brock handled his defeat with great humility, so he definitely has the power to remain extremely relevant and will continue to give us a run for our money in terms of drawing power.”
Civil and even-handed in her delivery, Spencer understands the presitious position Lesnar occupies as the undisputed king of the mainstream MMA market, but, as she hinted, the gloves are officially off in this battle. Some fans and analysts might balk at the prospect of a French Canadian welterweight topping an American heavyweight superstar as a top draw and crossover figure; then again, few could have predicted St-Pierre’s position alongside Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan in the Gatorade stable of athletes.
All told, Lesnar and St-Pierre will likely never meet inside of the cage (barring some sort of post-2012 Pride Grand Prix revivalist movement), but their war for mainstream supremacy is a very real one, and one that could take years to unfold in its entirety. Whatever the outcome, Spencer will be on the front lines throughout, though she remains a rarely-glimpsed behind-the-scenes figure to most fans.
