In business, there’s a common analogy used whereby sponsors or financiers look to back/produce a “Painkiller product” - a product that has a large and easily identifiable consumer base, that will provide instant return on investment, from an audience telling you they want it ‘right now!’.

Products labelled as “Vitamins” are things that are seen as “nice to have, but not critical”; something the company or end user sometimes doesn’t even know they need yet, and as a result it often gets passed over or consumed sporadically.

This is explained far more eloquently by the genius of Nir Eyal (@neyal99), author of one of my favourite books Hooked, where he explains how cleverly marketed “Painkiller” products delivers gratification and even becomes habitual as it reaches mass consumption.

When you apply this analogy to the world of Sports, you can immediately draw comparisons between the investments made in male athlete influencers, anthemic product campaigns, or sales of licensed merchandise (Painkillers); and the underinvestment in grassroot talent pathways, inclusive participation initiatives or female specific coaching programs (Vitamins).

The good news as Eyal explains is that the addictive Painkillers weren’t always in such high demand, they started out at one time as Vitamins, and with proper marketing and demand creation efforts we can get to habitual consumption of the healthier products too.

In the Sports industry, it has felt like most investment has been in short-term Painkillers designed to meet the latest commercial opportunity or marketing trends.  A few brands have supplemented this with Vitamins that promise incremental improvements here and there, but ultimately they still push the pain pills the first chance they get.

The final product one might include in this analogy is the “Vaccine”, a one hit preventative product or service that solves issues you’ve not even confronted yet.  These are usually super simple products that turn out to be gamechangers, but just like Insurance, often take a lot of convincing to sell despite it being common sense - In Sport, think affordable sports facilities, access to qualified coaches, or even more simply just the opportunity to exercise daily.

According to Active Lives Survey data, even before COVID struck children and young people did less than 30mins of physical activity a day. Most recently it reported that during lockdown 1 & 2 levels of inactive Adults (16+) only rose by 2.6% which is encouraging; but data shows that older people, women, people on low incomes, living in urban areas or living alone, struggled greatly to be active during the outbreak. Now we are beginning to come out from hibernation in to what many will be a Summer of Sport, the worry is that many of the team sport provisions, grassroot development funding or indoor facilities previously available won’t be there anymore.

At the height of the early lockdown The Guardian shared a common NGB ask to ‘protect indoor sport or lose a generation of players’, especially in Netball, Badminton, Basketball and Volleyball. We were reminded that important issues like body confidence in teenage girls would likely affect whether they would be active when forced outside, as well as the potential restrictions of faith that put further limits on public physical exercise.

Organisations like Sport England provide great resource to get the nation active again, but even when society opens up and activities are offered / become available there is no guarantee that people will return. Affordability still likely the biggest challenge, with people continuing to be financially impacted longer-term. Changes to working patterns, caring responsibilities, personal management of risk, or anxieties about social mixing could continue to impact Sports participation as pointed out in their latest Covid-19 impact report.

So what if, we follow science’s success and put our efforts in to scalable “Vaccine” sporting products?  In to preventative measures and products that would ensure everyone, and more importantly the next generation, could get access to Sports product, services & experiences designed to build happier healthier communities for the long term?

What if instead being served 10 new colours of running shoes before anyone else you got to join a new community athletics club? In place of surplus elite tournaments you could see junior or community sport on broadcast channels? What if instead of stories about Sport you were given access to Sport? A free basketball court , gym or a run club in a community reporting poor physical & mental health and socio-economic inequalities whilst not providing an instant commercial return could prevent Painkillers needed in the future.

Let’s get it going…

📸 Photo credits Copper Five Ltd and, Scott Heavey and Tom Shaw