Viewpoint: Personality training needed to engage viewers, boost revenues

With the 2010 Winter Olympics just around the corner, the spotlight is now on Canada’s top amateur athletes. 

To prepare Canadians for the Winter Games, CTV commissioned a slew of commercials featuring 125 top athletes from a variety of sports in a campaign entitled "Get to Know Your Canadian Athletes" which launched earlier this year.

The purpose of the vignettes that appear between every CTV show is clear: turn these lesser-known athletes into mini-celebrities to attract viewers to the station for their February 2010 broadcast of the Games.

Therefore making CTV’s decision to scoop up the broadcasting rights of the 2010 Winter Games from the CBC a worthwhile business venture, especially since CTV and Rogers (who have a joint agreement to broadcast the Games) are also slated to broadcast the 2012 Summer Olympics.

While this is a clever marketing move, there is one problem.

The majority of the featured athletes often come off awkward and nervous in front of the camera and are uncomfortable talking about anything outside of their sports.

When speaking about what drives them to succeed in their respective sports, the athletes are clearly in their element and appear more comfortable. The nerves suddenly kick in when the advertisements ask them to describe their personal style, favourite music or other activities they enjoy outside of their sports.

Heading into the 2010 Olympics, 18-year-old Patrick Chan has been pushed into the starring role of Canada’s showing in the Games, with high expectations for Chan to medal in Vancouver.

While Chan undoubtedly has star talent, his nervous demeanour in front of the camera when talking about his favourite music or his Chinese background leaves much to be desired.  

The reluctance to reveal personality isn’t only an amateur problem; it is a Canadian problem. A prime example of this is hockey superstar Sidney Crosby.

While Crosby is arguably the best Canadian hockey player in the NHL, in interviews he is about as interesting as a table.  

With few exceptions, the majority of Canadian athletes are simply boring in the media. Whether it is nerves or discomfort, they almost always resort to tired clichés.

The last great personality in the Canadian amateur sports world was world champion figure skater Kurt Browning in his heyday in the early 1990s. Through his talent and larger than life personality, Browning helped propel his sport into the mainstream. Since Browning, men’s figure skating has had several stars for audiences to latch onto in Elvis Stojko, Jeffrey Buttle and now Chan.

However, the problem with Stojko, Buttle and Chan is even with all their personalities combined, they still cannot match Browning’s cool and charismatic public persona.

Perhaps a reason for this is the strict media training all elite athletes receive at a young age nowadays to ensure they conduct themselves appropriately in front of reporters.

While media training is important, it seems to have also drained anything that makes Canada’s athletes interesting. In addition to media training, perhaps our athletes should undergo personality training to find the happy medium between Crosby and Sean Avery, whose outspoken personality has often landed him in trouble.

If successful, Canadian amateur sports and the NHL could see a spike in popularity as star talent and star personalities provide the public something to latch onto and hang on their every word.

When it gets down to it, the business of sports entertainment is all about the numbers on the bottom line. In order to improve those figures, leagues and major sporting event organizers need strong personalities to attract audiences.

This would then parlay itself into greater sponsorship opportunities, which is especially important for the Olympics, with organizers constantly seeking external funding to host such a large spectacle. Corporations play a huge role in the funding of athletes and are attracted to those with a strong and passionate fan base.

While the Vancouver 2010 Games are guaranteed to attract viewers with the home advantage, CTV is going to struggle to do the same in 2012 if they do not learn to coax genuine personalities from athletes first.