Will Phelps (the brand) endure?

Advertisers bet big on swimmer's winning ways

MILWAUKEE -- Visa popped out ads almost as quickly as Michael Phelps swam his laps. Pizza Hut is giving the swimmer and his teammates free pizza and pasta for a year because Phelps bested Mark Spitz's record of seven gold medals in one Olympics.

The makers of a new sports drink are embarking on their first national advertising campaign, banking on Phelps' swimming glories.

As one of the most celebrated Olympic athletes, Phelps is everywhere this summer. Companies want to share in his fame, creating ads and pitching endorsements and giveaways. The 23-year-old from Baltimore has proved himself in the pool, but will he sink or swim as a long-term pitchman on Madison Avenue?

"He is in the top tier of athletics, and now he's going to get his tryout as a personality," said John Sweeney, director of sports communication at the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

"Tiger Woods sure passed, but Mark Spitz didn't. There are plenty of people who they try to develop the whole persona around, and two years later, it's gone."

Phelps won 14 gold medals, the most of any Olympian. Eight were won at the Beijing Olympics, which end Sunday. His achievements at this Olympics broke U.S. swimmer Spitz's record of seven golds at the 1972 Olympics in Munich for most won at one time.

Phelps already has top endorsements with Visa, Speedo, Omega, Hilton, AT&T and others. He has a big fan base, or "phans" as they call themselves. On the online networking site Facebook, more than 795,000 people have declared themselves fans of Phelps, including more than 120,000 on Monday.

That's a lot of buying power.

Doubling his income?

Phelps' agents at Octagon know it. Peter Carlisle, who leads its Olympic and action sports division, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that he expects Phelps' earnings, $3 million to $5 million a year, to at least double because of his performance in Beijing.

"What is the value of eight golds in Beijing before a prime-time audience in the U.S?" Carlisle said. "I'd say $100 million over the course of his lifetime."

Phelps has been a focal point of Visa's "Go World" campaign, which uses rich sepia tones and slow, focused shots to tell stories of athletes and the Olympics.

When he hit the two milestones, Visa aired the new ads at the very next commercial break. The company also debuted print ads over the weekend and on Monday.

Carlisle told the Journal that he's getting as many as 50 pitches a day from other companies.

The beverage PureSport is about to debut its first national advertising campaign with Phelps as a spokesman. Human Performance Labs' chief executive, Michael Humphrey, said the company, not even a year old, plans a big campaign with Phelps and gymnast Nastia Liukin. "It's the opportunity that no startup generally gets," Humphrey said from Beijing.

Pizza Hut is giving Phelps and his teammates on the men's and women's U.S. swim team free pizza and pasta for a year.

Still, it's not clear how persuasive a pitchman Phelps will be. Americans haven't seen much of him outside the pool. He made TV appearances after winning his medals, and he'll likely do the talk show circuit and have speaking engagements, said Joe Terrian, assistant dean at the College of Business at Marquette University.

But Phelps' feat will only carry him so far. He will need more than his achievements to have staying power in advertising, Sweeney said, including a personality that draws people in and qualities that people like, he said.

Mark Spitz earned a living from his wins but didn't quite make it on Madison Avenue, Sweeney said.

But gymnast Mary Lou Retton turned a gold medal in the 1984 Olympics into a career of speaking engagements, TV appearances and commentaries that's still going strong, Sweeney said.

Phelps has earned his shot at a very elite tryout, Sweeney said. And now we'll sit back and watch.