27-518: Mark Hume McCormack (November 6, 1930 – May 16, 2003) was an American lawyer, sports agent and writer. He was the founder and chairman of International Management Group, now IMG , an international management organization serving sports figures and celebrities. After his Army discharge, McCormack worked as an attorney at the Cleveland law firm, Arter & Hadden . In the 1950s he helped organize one-day golf exhibitions for professionals around
54-558: A business can use in marketing and to build trust with future customers. Testimonials are incredibly effective when believed to be true, but a challenge is having the audience believe that testimonials presented by a business are given by real people, not fabricated by the business itself. Even so, testimonials, reviews, and case studies are still considered by most marketing experts to be the most effective means of marketing and gaining brand trust by small- and medium-sized businesses. Testimonials have reached an all-time high in importance as
81-461: A class action being filed against Yelp to this effect in February 2010. Research by Martin, Wentzel and Tomczak (2008) found that the effectiveness of testimonials depends on the degree to which consumers are influenced by normative pressure and the quality of the product features highlighted. Results showed that people influenced by peer pressure place a greater emphasis on the testimonial than on
108-414: A fictionalized story of a Harvard study in which the three percent of graduates who had clear, written goals earned ten times as much as the 97 percent who didn't have clear, written goals. McCormack and numerous motivational speakers, including Tony Robbins and Brian Tracy , have used various versions of this story in their presentations. The system used to calculate Mark McCormack's world golf rankings
135-427: A person's written or spoken statement extolling the virtue of a product . The term "testimonial" most commonly applies to the sales-pitches attributed to ordinary citizens, whereas the word " endorsement " usually applies to pitches by celebrities . Testimonials can be part of communal marketing . Advertisers have attempted to quantify and qualify the use of celebrities in their marketing campaigns by evaluating
162-433: A strong depiction of sports agents. There have been some efforts to transform the sports agency business from an individual, entrepreneurial business, to more of a corporate structure. These experiments met with varying degrees of longevity and success. Some sports agency firms were once prominent, but are now gone or reorganized: Testimonial In promotion and advertising , a testimonial or show consists of
189-477: Is a legal representative (hence agent ) for professional sports figures such as athletes and coaches. They procure and negotiate employment and endorsement contracts for the athlete or coach whom they represent. In addition to contract negotiations, sports agents may also help their clients with financial planning, legal issues, and marketing. They may work closely with financial advisors, lawyers, and marketing professionals on behalf of their clients. Because of
216-429: Is done by making use of the tagging feature that directly links to the original brand or the particular location that the picture was taken. Moreover, the description of the pictures are also used to write either the review or sentences that complements the product or place. Users with a large number of followers are commonly targeted for endorsement deal requests that aims to create these testimonial posts, where in return,
243-409: Is more likely to mislead consumers, therefore, the state must consider controlling medical advertisements and strengthen the management of national celebrities appearing in medical advertisements." Testimonials from customers who are not famous have been effectively used in marketing for as long as marketing has existed. A past or current customer will present a formal "word of mouth" testimonial that
270-410: Is the massive amount of fraud in the form of fake reviews or opinion spam , testimonials that are not authentic. Often, a business owner will open multiple email addresses and then corresponding Yelp! accounts and write a multitude of testimonials seemingly by many customers of said business. Similarly, the same owner may also write negative reviews of competitors. From a New York Times article about
297-466: Is very common for agents to be in negotiations on behalf of several clients at one time. Some agents are part of large companies, and some are on their own. The number of clients an individual agent can handle and how many clients his or her employing agency can handle in total are interdependent variables. Before the 1990s, most football players did not use agents. In some cases, they used their parents as agents. Because of most parents' naivety about
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#1732783190895324-586: The Malcolm Gladwell theory of influence. Celebrity endorsements have proven very successful in China , where increasing consumerism makes the purchase of an endorsed product into a status symbol. On 1 August 2007, laws were passed banning healthcare professionals and public figures such as movie stars or pop singers from appearing in advertisements for drugs or nutritional supplements . A spokesperson stated, "A celebrity appearing in drug advertising
351-662: The McCormack–Nagelsen Tennis Center at the College of William & Mary , which houses the ITA Women's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame. McCormack died at a New York hospital on May 16, 2003, age 72, from complications after suffering a cardiac event four months earlier that left him in a coma. His second wife, Betsy Nagelsen, their daughter, Maggie, and children from his first marriage to Nancy Breckenridge McCormack, Todd and Leslie, later shared $ 750 million, when
378-549: The United States. In 1960, McCormack founded IMG . McCormack wrote several books, including The Terrible Truth About Lawyers and What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School , which spent 21 consecutive weeks at #1 on The New York Times Best Seller list . His annual publication The World of Professional Golf , first published in 1967, included an (unofficial) world ranking system. In his book What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School, McCormack tells
405-644: The agent to guide the athlete's career before the NHL draft , which happens usually at 18 years of age. Due to the length and complexity of contracts, many sports agents are lawyers or have a background in contract law. Agents are expected to be knowledgeable about finance, business management, and financial and risk analysis, as well as sports. It is important for a sports agent to follow trends in sports. Other skills an agent must possess are excellent communication and negotiation skills. Agents must be highly motivated, willing to work long hours, and capable of multitasking. It
432-548: The athlete's playing contract, and 10 to 20% of the athlete's endorsement contract, although these figures vary. NFL agents are not permitted to receive more than 3%, and NBA agents not more than 4%, of their client's playing contracts. Films such as Jerry Maguire , Two for the Money , and Any Given Sunday depicted sports agents. In England, ITV's Footballers' Wives included a female agent Hazel Bailey . The television show Ballers , which started in 2015, also shows
459-523: The attribute information. In contrast, people who ignore the opinions of others are more influenced by attribute information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) found that in US businesses, an alarming number of testimonials were in fact fictitious and misleading. In December 2009, they introduced a new set of rules governing testimonials. In essence, it is now illegal to use testimonials that "...mislead consumers and affect consumers' behavior or decisions about
486-718: The awareness generated, appeal, and relevance to a brand's image and the celebrity's influence on consumer buying behavior. Social media such as Twitter have become increasingly popular mediums for celebrities to endorse brands and to attempt to influence purchasing behavior. According to a study by Zenith, social media ad spending was $ 29 billion in 2016 and is expected to rise to $ 50 billion in 2019. Advertising and marketing companies sponsor celebrities to tweet and influence thousands (sometimes millions) of their followers to buy brand products. For example, Ryan Seacrest (an American broadcaster) gets paid to promote Ford products. Companies that pay celebs to tweet for them subscribe to
513-946: The family's shares in IMG were sold. In July 2006, McCormack was selected for induction into the World Golf Hall of Fame in the lifetime achievement category and was inducted in October 2006. On January 23, 2008, he was also inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame . He was featured as one of the Forbes 400 Richest Americans in 1995, 1998, 2001. In 1990, he was named the "Most Powerful Man in Sports" by Sporting News . The University of Massachusetts at Amherst has also named their Sport Management department after McCormack. The British film Wimbledon (2004)
540-594: The football business, these footballers were often given less-than-stellar contracts by football clubs, which yielded lower salaries than they thought they deserved. In Sweden, there were only three licensed agents in 1995. As of 2002, there were 33. According to FIFA , there were 5,187 licensed association football agents worldwide, with 600 agents in Italy alone. Since 2001, agents have not been licensed by FIFA. Instead, agents are now licensed directly by each association. Sports agents generally receive between 4 and 15% of
567-560: The internet is now a plethora of reviews (synonymous with testimonials). Websites such as Yelp! , Google Maps , TripAdvisor , and many more have become 'go to' places for individuals who are seeking other customers reviews/testimonials about a particular business. To put the growth of this industry into perspective, for example, Yelp.com's growth alone can be noted: Yelp.com has more than 71 million monthly unique visitors as of January 2012. Instagram especially has increasingly been useful in distributing testimonials on products and places. It
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#1732783190895594-405: The same topic, "On another forum, Digital Point , a poster wrote, 'I will pay for positive feedback on TripAdvisor.' A Craigslist post proposed this: 'If you have an active Yelp account and would like to make very easy money please respond.' There are tens-of-thousands of ads out there all over the internet of people requesting you to write bogus reviews for their business and people offering to do
621-439: The same.". However, there are legitimate and legal ways for business owners to build their portfolio of reviews such as mentioning to customers that they value honest feedback and then providing them with the appropriate instructions for where they can review the business. There have also been allegations that review sites themselves are prepared to manipulate reviews in return for companies buying advertising subscriptions, with
648-651: The unique characteristics of the sports industry , sports agents are responsible for communications with team owners, managers, and other individuals. In addition to finding income sources, agents often handle public relations matters for their clients. In some large sports agencies, such as IMG , Creative Artists Agency , Roc Nation Sports and Octagon , agents deal with all aspects of a client's finances, from investment to filing taxes. Sports agents may be relied upon by their clients for guidance in all business aspects, and sometimes even more broadly. For example, hockey agents start recruiting clients as young as 15, allowing
675-530: The user receives commission for 'advertising' the place or product. However, it can only be called an endorsement deal when the company or label contacts the user directly to create such testimonial post, and the user receives commission. This is becoming a trend in Indonesia , especially amongst users with at least one thousand followers, where some are now known for posting pictures with advertising purposes. The downside to such explosive importance in this arena
702-528: Was adapted in 1986 to become the Official World Golf Ranking system, with McCormack chairing the rankings committee made up of representatives from all the major golf tours. McCormack pioneered a similar system for tennis rankings. McCormack met his second wife Betsy Nagelsen-McCormack , a two-time Australian Open doubles champion and a Wimbledon doubles finalist, while she was a business client. They married in 1986. The couple founded
729-638: Was dedicated to Mark McCormack by director Richard Loncraine . The Mark H. McCormack Medal is awarded to the leading player in the World Amateur Golf Ranking after the U.S. Amateur and the European Amateur . The Mark H. McCormack Award is awarded to the player who has spent the most weeks at first place in the Official World Golf Ranking during a calendar year. The first 13 of these awards after its inception went to Tiger Woods . Sports agent A sports agent
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