New online platform Playa Power to help bolster player marketing

A new online ‘marketing coach’ has been introduced to help athletes increase their marketability and bolster their bottom line.

Playa Power founder Ben Parsons.

The rise in the number of ­athletes seeking help to bolster their brands is the driving force behind a new marketing coach tool.

“Right now the problem is you’ve got a bunch of athletes who like to win both on and off the field with no strategy to win off the field,” media executive Ben Parsons, who is the founder of Playa Power, told The ­Australian.

“It doesn’t matter which sport, male or female, you’ve got most sports administrators at a club level and administrators at the talent level with no strategy around athletes and their brands.”

Mr Parsons, a former Southern Cross Austereo executive, said Playa Power, which was rolled out in January in conjunction with Griffith University, had been created to offer a new ­subscription-based educational program to help advance players’ careers.

Fox Sports TV presenter Megan Barnard.

“We’re a direct marketing coach which helps players grow their brand, grow their social audience and framework their commercial opportunities,” he said.

“We've been supported by managers and ultimately from a manager’s point of view, they want their athlete to make them more money because they earn commission off it. It’s all about marketing in contemporary bite-sized content.”

Playa Power features 12 online masterclasses, which span about 40 minutes, to help users develop branding and marketing opportunities, including focusing on branding strategies, digital landscape, personal branding, storytelling, social media platforms and crisis management.

The online content is led by presenters including Foxtel’s Megan Barnard and Seven Sunrise’s Katie Brown.

Mr Parsons, who is Brisbane-based, said several sporting codes had already signed up to Playa Power, including clubs in the NRL, A-League and Surfing Australia. He said the tool would be of particular interest to female athletes and rookies.