Andy Murray Looking Forward To Success In Marketing Him

Written by: Staff on 18th April 2013

Andy Murray Looking Forward To Success In Marketing Him

epa03666960 Andy Murray of Britain returns the ball to Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland during their third round match at the Monte-Carlo Rolex Masters tournament in Roquebrune Cap Martin, France, 18 April 2013. EPA/SEBASTIEN NOGIER |

Andy Murray is keen for his revised marketing team to kick into action and help him off court in with the massive effort now being formulated to try and turn the world No. 2 into another personality-driven product in tennis.

While Roger Federer leads the international branding sweepstakes by an overwhelming margin, Rafael Nadal is also in the running as a global icon. And even world No. 1 Novak Djokovic has his marketing moments.

But it’s been slow-going so far for Murray, who has reportedly not added a single sponsor of note since he won his first Grand Slam title at the US Open seven months ago.

The Scot, who has never come across as a scintillating personality, has been put into the hands of former player Mahesh Bhupathi, who has been building a marketing mini-empire over the past decades as he competes in ATP doubles. With the Indian due to retire at the end of the season, the focus will now be on trying to hype up the low-key Murray image.

Murray, for one, is keen to make the transformation and would not mind the additional money either, “I think all of the players obviously take an interest in it because it’s an extremely long year and we travel all over the world.

“The next four or five years of my life are going to be some of the most important for me. So you want to make sure you have the right people around you. That’s why I made the decision to change some of the people I work with, like Ugo. I hope they do a good job for me.”

Murray has for years had deals with adidas, Head, the Royal Bank of Scotland and a few others. But his off-court income pales with the estimated $50 million per annum raked in by the wildly popular Federer, king of the tennis marketers whose images transcends the sport.

Murray said there should be no conflict of interest as his main handler, Italian Ugo Columbini, also works for Argentine Juan Del Potro.

“Maybe they want to see Del Potro and Murray so we can play against each other” Murray said of a theoretical conflict regarding a mythical South American exhibition in which both of Columbini’s clients might be involved.

“I don’t see any problems with a lot of the companies like IMG, for example. There’s been times where they’ve had five of the top 10 players in the world. Yeah, you could say there’s a conflict, but they’ve done a great job with a lot of different athletes. So I don’t see a problem.”

©Daily Tennis News Wire

Topics: Andy Murray, Andy Murray marketing, British tennis news, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, Sports, Tennis News