Sports marketing agencies act as a major driving force in the evergreen sports industry and make things happen behind the scenes. Cornerstone Sport is one of those profound new-age sports marketing and talent management agencies that are making an upward shift in the industry.
Cornerstone Sport was formed in 2008 and has been emphasizing on sports and entertainment sector, functioning alongside brands to lay out varied plans from sports sponsorships, celebrity associations, IP development and affiliations.
In one of the latest developments at Cornerstone Sport, the Mumbai-based agency onboarded the star shuttler PV Sindhu to its athlete roster. From now on, Cornerstone Sport will be assisting Sindhu in building successful brand partnerships, endorsements, and other commercial opportunities.
SportsMint Media got an opportunity of having a detailed interaction with Mr Jogesh Lulla, Co-founder and COO, Cornerstone Sport. Mr Jogesh spoke at length about several different factors which are practised on a day-to-day basis at the esteemed sports marketing agency. From the company’s business model to selecting the right brand for the right athlete to brand building for an athlete, the Cornerstone Sport Co-founder touched upon all the mentioned topics.
1. What’s the business model of a sports management agency like Cornerstone Sport?
Sports marketing is a very broad term, while most people think it is simply getting endorsements for celebrities, there is a lot more to it. Sports marketing encompasses everything from talent management, sponsorships, digital marketing, league and IP (like marathons and awards) creation and management to animation as well as associations with emerging technologies like in the Web3 space.
We focus on building futures for our athletes. It is very important to keep in mind that an athlete has short careers and as an agency, it is important that we help them evolve to be able to continue to earn post their playing careers be it as commentators, coaches or entrepreneurs. When possible we focus on creating brands for athletes that will outlive their playing careers to help them to continue to earn post-retirement like we have done in the case of one8 for Virat Kohli.
2. What’s your day-to-day at Cornerstone Sport?
There is never a day that is the same. We work in a very dynamic environment where things can change in a minute depending on the athlete’s performance in a particular game. I do however like to start my day early to catch up on my emails and plan the day ahead. The focus for the day is usually taking stock of where we are on the various things we are working on like the status of each talent’s endorsements and digital deals with the sales team, updates on the status of our one8 runs and partnerships for it, progress on our animated series for Virat, brainstorming on new business opportunities available and some research on evolving sectors.
We fortunately have a strong business development team and a good amount of time is spent analysing opportunities that they bring to the table to see if they are a good fit for our athletes and if the non-athlete opportunities fit in with the future goals of the company.
Other than that just like any other business we need to manage the normal operational requirements for the organisation and our employees.
3. How will technology help in sports management in the near future?
Technology has already been playing a very important role in sports in general. From ball and human tracking technology to athlete development and identification technology there is already a lot available. Using AI is another area of focus now and we have used it to build the one8 fitness app where workouts are customised for you basis certain options you input. There are over a billion different variations of workouts that the AI engine can generate.
I’m sure if not already available, there will be technology to help coaches analyse games and even the form of athletes to help them improve. Who knows, soon technology may be able to replace a coach someday! However, the human interaction with a coach to help with the mental aspect of a game shouldn’t be substituted. At least I hope it never will! As far as the business of sports marketing goes, we are already working on technology to make the job of marketing managers easier when it comes to the identification of athletes and tracking the performance of their campaigns. This is an area that will grow rapidly considering the growth of digital marketing.
4. What’s your take on the booming esports industry? And how different it is to represent an esports athlete than a sports athlete?
Esports is rapidly growing and will continue to grow rapidly for a while considering the market in India is still small compared to the rest of the world. While we do focus on all the same areas for esports athletes, we need to keep in mind they are a lot younger than the others and they do then retire at a much younger age than the other sports. It is still really nascent as an industry but the athletes and teams with a long-term vision are the ones that will excel.
5. Could you please elaborate on the services provided by Cornerstone Sport to its athletes?
I don’t think there is a service we don’t provide for our athletes. Our thought process is that we need to let the athletes focus on their game and we should take care of everything else for them. Our services include everything from endorsements to personal brand creation and monetization to PR, social media management, legal services and even financial management if they would like us to help. We also help place players in various leagues when possible. We are of course always there to help them in any other way they need.
6. How things went behind the scenes in managing the one8 Marathon? And handling the commercial priorities of the event?
Our one8 run was conceptualized since it was a perfect fit for one8 as a brand. Our focus for one8 is to get people to come out and be active. Considering the sedentary lifestyle most of us are living at the moment this felt like the best way to encourage people to come out and be active. It is one sport that requires nothing at all as far as equipment goes. Some people even run barefoot. It is also a sport that doesn’t need you to coordinate with others.
Our first run was executed in 2 months from idea to execution. It was 2 months of non-stop hustling to make things happen. Our only focus for this run was to break even and to ensure we spread our message to as many people as possible and most importantly give the runners a great experience.
As far as the actual execution goes, we have a solid, dedicated and passionate team working on the event. All credit goes to them. They made this happen with an all-out effort and all the right partnerships. All in all, it was honestly a very satisfying experience and we are now on track to execute a few more runs this year with a little more lead time.
7. How big of a responsibility is when you represent someone like Virat Kohli?
Virat has been with us since before he played for India. Whether it is Virat or anybody else, it doesn’t really matter because, at the end of the day, you need to ensure that any endorsement done is the right fit for the athlete and the brand. As a talent management agency, we don’t want to force fit endorsements just for them to earn. Doing that wouldn’t be right in the long run. This has to be a win-win situation and we identify the right brands for the right athletes and the right athletes for the right brands simply because when a brand succeeds so does the athlete endorsing it. This is exactly what we have been doing for Virat and will do it for all our athletes.
Virat is who he is, we have to be a lot more careful due to his stature and reputation.
8. Does an athlete’s endorsement deals are hampered when the player is going through a rough patch?
As far as we go, we believe in always backing the athlete. Athlete will always have their ups and downs. There isn’t a single athlete that will never go through a bad phase. As mentioned earlier, what we do is focus on everything off the field for the athlete so that they can focus on their game.
We always back our athletes, and believe they are always going to make a comeback. We always give our 100%, no matter what the athlete’s form is. That being said, there will be enough people, be it on social media, brands or whoever else, who will start doubting the capability of an athlete.
Some brands may feel associating with an athlete during a rough patch is not a good idea and will with to see how they perform in the future before committing to an association with them. On the other hand, some brands are just like us and will back the athlete 100%, no matter how they’re performing and always stand by the athlete.
9. How does Cornerstone Sport select the right brand for the right athlete?
Initially, we try to come up with a strategy for all our athletes. We understand their traits and identify brands that fit those traits. For example, some are aggressive, some calm, some dependable and some humorous. We do our research and approach brands to suggest athletes that would fit their brand attributes.
There will also be times when athletes are very keen to work with certain brands at which point we see if the association makes sense for both the brand and the athlete.
10. What areas are covered in the brainstorming session?
Our brainstorming sessions in the office are like a boardroom discussion. Our discussions are very similar to those of building a new business. They are usually about a particular athlete, their attributes, social following, and the interests of their social followers because that gives us a very good view of what may or may not work for them.
We also look at the runway athletes have as far as the number of years left in their playing careers, and the kind of brands or categories that may or may not fit them.
In our discussions about building a new brand or product for them, the differentiator is the most important topic. When you’re building a new brand for an athlete, we strongly believe in finding the gap in the market, first. If there is no gap in the market, we prefer not to force it. For example, today everybody wants to build their own clothing line but whether the gap in the market is large enough and if that athlete is the right fit for it, is the real question. We need to take a call keeping both points in mind.