Member Spotlight: AxisStars

What’s your name and position within the organisation, as well as your professional background?

Give us an overview of AxisStars as a company in general and your approach to sponsorship and partnerships specifically?

AxisStars is a unique Alternative in terms of Star management and personal development. It allow Stars to remain in control during their career. The creation of a profile on AxisStars gives Stars an extra channel through which they can be accessible, where they express interest in sponsorship and partnerships that normally go exclusively through agents, advisers or close friends.

AxisStars is the product of my experience and those of my peers in Sport and Entertainment. When writing my book, ‘Thinking Outside the Box’, I realised that many Stars follow a similar journey where they don’t get visibility of many of the decisions taken about their career and it’s hard to know who to trust. This means that when they reach retirement – at a much earlier age than many other careers – they find themselves alone and having to completely start again. 50% of Sports Stars go bankrupt or experience financial difficulty within 5 years of retiring. AxisStars is here to reduce that number, by ensuring that Stars do not have to gamble anymore on the selection of partners & service providers or the decisions they take throughout their career.

I realised that many Stars follow a similar journey where they don’t get visibility of many of the decisions taken about their career and it’s hard to know who to trust. This means that when they reach retirement – at a much earlier age than many other careers – they find themselves alone and having to completely start again.

Louis Saha

It is a self-service, private platform where Stars create their profile and vetted Partners post targeted Opportunities. They fall into 3 areas – Deals is anything that a Star may want to buy or book including fashion, holidays, tickets, private jets, cars. Sponsors -enables Stars to find new revenue streams or develop their career through education or partnering with charities. Experts – Stars can find trusted experts such as lawyers and wealth managers.

This is a very different model for Brands to be able to connect with Stars. Often when brands want to work with ‘influencers’ they will get pushed down the ‘man-made’ influencer route of people who do that for a living. And that is a valid channel but it is now very similar to other paid media. We feel that working with Stars with influence provides a very different opportunity. However, it is often difficult to reach them and they don’t always feel that they can put their hand up to be approached. By having this private platform and targeted opportunities based on a whole range of demographics and interests, Brands and Stars can find the perfect partnerships.

Stars can evaluate the offer and if they like it, they can finalise it. If they want they can ask agents or advisors to check the terms. That’s how it should be. We’re making it possible. Sponsors have a way to target by demographics and specific Stars if they want to. If a Star is interested he simply presses the ‘Discuss’ button to be in direct contact with the manager of the Sponsor opportunity.

We launched late summer 2019 and today we have 150 Stars and 70 Partners on the platform with many more to be onboarded over the coming months. At the moment they are predominantly based in UK and France. We have Footballers, Boxers, Rugby Players, F1, Comedians and more. For us the definition of a Star is anyone who has a professional contract in Sport and Entertainment. All Stars and Partners who apply to join are reviewed by our Admissions and Ethics Committee which is made up of a range of independent experts in different fields.

What approach makes AxisStars’ strategy/model unique? What is your USP/differentiator?

There are other platforms which offer to connect Influencers and Brands but AxisStars is different.

We are not Family office, Talent agency, Lawyers, Luxury partners etc… We are a facilitator by being the perfect vehicle for them to offer their expertise. No one is doing it like us because we have put the Stars’ needs at the centre of this when normally the only concern is what a provider or platform can get from them. The platform is agnostic and means Trusted Partners are able to operate freely but most importantly, directly with this niche audience.

In summary:

1. It is the Stars themselves who are in the platform rather than someone managing their account for them
2. AxisStars is a full solution for all of a Star’s needs including giving them advice and support for their welfare and development so they use the tool more regularly
3. The messaging exchange happens directly between the Star and the Brand on their mobile phones with no intermediary.

What are some recent clients you’ve worked on campaigns for, and how do these campaigns speak to wider new and emerging trends in your business area?

We only launched last Summer and built up the Partners on the platform before starting to onboard Stars so it is still early days but we are seeing some interesting trends. Due to the privacy of the platform, we can’t share names in the examples but here are a couple of key learnings so far…

1. Seeding free product is still a viable way to get coverage. We have some brands in the platform who are giving away products in exchange for social media posts. These are significant value products but normally they wouldn’t make it through to a Star as for some agents it’s too much work for no extra money themselves. Going direct makes this an option again
2. The profiles that Stars create in the platform enable brands to understand more about their interests and what motivates them so that they can put together a much more tailored proposal of how they could work together right from the start

What are the current trends within your business area, and how are they affecting how you work and how you deliver on strategy?

Stars are understanding the power of their platform and the fact that they can use it to speak out about the things that matter to them. It’s important that they have the right support network around them to be able to do that and that’s what AxisStars is. This means that Stars can be more driven by purpose and it’s really important for brands to recognise this when they are considering approaching a Star to work with. Just as the consumer trend is moving in the same direction, where people are purchasing brands for their values and what they stand for, working with a Star in the same way will enable a longer term partnership

If any brands reading this have a particular campaign or brief that they want to solve then please do contact us. We would love to give you a demo of the platform.