Sponsorships and Advertising Work
Almost single-handedly, Bolt has helped track transform itself from a dying sport to one with a singular, smiling, worldwide star. —The Associated Press, 10 August 2012After winning the 200 m title in the 2002 World Junior Championships in Kingston, Jamaica, Bolt signed a sponsorship deal with Puma. To promote Bolt's chase for Olympic glory in the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing, China, Puma released a series of videos including Bolt's then-world-record-setting run in Icahn Stadium and his Olympic preparations. After his world record breaking run in New York City, which was preceded by a lightning storm, the press frequently made puns on the Jamaican's name, nicknaming him "Lightning Bolt" and the "Bolt from the blue". During the Beijing 2008 100 m final, Bolt wore golden Puma Complete Theseus spikes that had "Beijing 100 m Gold" emblazoned across them. His athletics agent is PACE Sports Management.
In January 2012, Bolt impersonated Richard Branson in an Ad Campaign for Virgin Media. The multi-million-pound campaign was directed by Seth Gordon and features Virgin founder Branson to promote its superfast broadband service. In March 2012, Bolt starred in an ad for Visa and the London 2012 Olympics.
On 19 April 2012, Bolt announced, via Twitter, that he will be partnering with mobile gaming company RockLive to release a mobile game.
On 12 July 2012, Bolt and RockLive launched Bolt!, a new iOS game based on the Jamaican sprinter. Bolt! quickly became the No. 1 app in Jamaica and climbed the UK iTunes charts to reach No. 2 on the list of Top Free Apps
In 2010, Bolt signed a lucrative publishing deal with HarperCollins for an autobiography, which was negotiated by Chris Nathaniel of NVA Management. The book was released in 2010 as My Story: 9.58: Being the World's Fastest Man. During a press conference in Paris on 15 July 2010, Bolt declined any comment on what would be contained within the book, saying: "You can't really give away anything in your book ... should be exciting, it's my life, and I'm a cool and exciting guy."
Read more about this topic: Usain Bolt
Famous quotes containing the words advertising and/or work:
“Remove advertising, disable a person or firm from preconising [proclaiming] its wares and their merits, and the whole of society and of the economy is transformed. The enemies of advertising are the enemies of freedom.”
—J. Enoch Powell (b. 1912)
“... you can have a couple of seconds to rest in. I mean seconds. You have about two seconds to wait while the blanker is on the felt drawing the moisture out. You can stand and relax those two seconds—three seconds at most. You wish you didn’t have to work in a factory. When it’s all you know what to do, that’s what you do.”
—Grace Clements, U.S. factory worker. As quoted in Working, book 5, by Studs Terkel (1973)