Lucia had a job on her hands from day one. At its disorganized, fragmented peak, Manny Pacquiao’s endorsement strategy was being handled by anywhere between 30 and 50 friends who claimed to represent him and made hundreds of cold calls, often to the same company. They brokered potential deals for everything, including sexual-enhancement drugs and poker chips, as if playing a giant game of marketing darts.
As Pacquiao ascended to boxing royalty, as his earning power ballooned beyond even his greatest expectations, this lack of a strategy came with real consequences. Pacquiao lost a potential Gatorade endorsement, lost an appearance on an EA Sports video game cover, lost, by conservative estimates, a few million dollars in recent years alone.
Now, Top Rank Boxing, the company that promotes Pacquiao, has taken the unusual step of hiring an expert to consolidate his marketing affairs. Top Rank has little experience in handling the endorsements of its boxers. Lucia McKelvey, its new executive vice president in charge of business development and marketing, had no experience in boxing. Yet both believe uncharted territory is better than the haphazard alternative.
“When you look at Manny’s world, there was no continuity,” Lucia said. “You name it, they were coming to him and saying, ‘Sign this contract, sign this contract.’ That made no sense.”
Lucia, 33, is perhaps the most unlikely executive in boxing. Previously she worked at IMG Golf, with its hunter-green floors and country-club atmosphere, a far cry from the sweaty boxing gyms she now inhabits. She left in November 2010, and when she landed at Top Rank, friends, family and colleagues all had the same incredulous reaction: What?!
Lucia in an interview with The New York Times said she saw boxing as “the jungle,” a challenge that matched her organized, obsessive personality, that renewed her energy and purpose. Her charge extends beyond Pacquiao, into the digital and marketing portions of Top Rank’s business, but his endorsements remain an important, if not primary, responsibility.
Pacquiao’s portfolio in North America has never matched his popularity. He ended 2010 as the most searched athlete on Yahoo, ahead of Tiger Woods. In the Philippines, he endorsed McDonald’s and San Miguel beer, among other major partners. Yet while his Davie-Brown Index rating, which measures a celebrity’s influence on consumers, ranks above all current boxers, Lucia said the deals he had here and the way they were structured were comparable to a lesser-known L.P.G.A. golfer.
The first time Lucia phoned Gatorade to explain her new position, she was told she was the eighth person who had called in the past year and claimed to represent Pacquiao. That was the problem’s crux. Pacquiao’s adviser, Mike Koncz, acknowledges Pacquiao’s reputation for following through on endorsement opportunities was hurt in recent years, even as his popularity soared.
“I didn’t feel positioned to say anything,” said Bob Arum, the chairman of Top Rank. “I saw what was happening, and I said to myself, ‘It’s bad.’ But I wasn’t going to tell him until I had a solution.”
In past years, Lucia estimated Pacquiao’s potential earning power at more than $50 million. While the estimate may seem generous, he actually earned a fraction of that total.
Arum and his stepson, Todd DuBoef, the president of Top Rank, said they needed someone who spoke the language of potential sponsors. Someone with contacts at corporations. Someone who could leverage Pacquiao’s popularity to sell companies on their sport beyond one fighter.
“I’m guilty, Bob’s guilty, all of us in boxing are guilty to listening to the rhetoric that corporate America won’t associate itself in boxing,” DuBoef said. “They will, if it’s done right.”
Top Rank hopes to harness such appeal in a more organized manner. On the home page of its Web site, it lists Lucia McKelvey as his endorsement contact. In February, it sent letters to specific companies outlining its plans. All deals, Lucia said, go directly to her and Koncz.When Lucia worked at IMG, Woods endorsed products in specific categories: car, credit card, sports drink, watch, electronics. To that end, Lucia wants to broaden Pacquiao’s relationship with Nike. Nineteen executives from the company attended a recent fight.
Pacquiao is lined up for a contract with Hewlett Packard. He has a cologne line. He also recently partnered with State Street Produce, a deal that Koncz hopes, perhaps implausibly, will do for Pacquiao what grills did for George Foreman. Top Rank hopes those deals and more prominent Nike placement will lead more companies to follow suit.
On recent flights, Lucia said fellow passengers expressed amazement when she told them about her new job. She said: “I represent Manny Pacquiao. I work in boxing. And I am the most unusual suspect.” Ultimately, Lucia said, she will convince everyone — boxers, promoters, advertisers, skeptics — this experiment can work.
Either way, for this unorthodox executive, in the unusual role, Pacquiao is the test case.
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