Ever found yourself wondering where professional athletes head after they step off the field and take off their jerseys?  With NESN’s Celebrity Spotlight Series, viewers get an inside glimpse into the private lives of celebrity athletes such as Jason Veritek, Tim Thomas, Kevin Faulk and Milan Lucic.

Hosted by Ray Bourque, Celebrity Spotlight Series highlights athletes and their charitable endeavors, life at home and how they spend their time away from the game.

“You can try and piece together who an athlete is by snippets you might hear during a game or things you read online,” explains Bob Sylvester, owner of 3B Media, “but with Celebrity Spotlight Series, we capture who they are as individuals, and the road they have traveled to get here today.”

Entering its third season on NESN, Celebrity Marketing, Inc. (CMI) has teamed up with Emmy award-winning 3B Media and Moody Street Pictures to make the most of this fascinating sseries.  “You have the opportunity to hear directly from the athletes,” shares Cleon Daskalakis, President of CMI.  “It’s exciting to be able to share a side of these athletes that most people would never get to see.”

While companies that sell sports apparel, equipment and consumer goods are obvious choices, virtually every type of business – even those that don’t deal directly with the public – can benefit from player endorsements.

In the past, only the titans of industry and large retailers could secure a player endorsement. However, it’s not just large companies that can afford the benefits of a celebrity athlete these days.  Companies of every size can secure a player endorsement due to the wide range of affordable offerings through sports marketing groups.  Whether personal appearances, where a celebrity participates in a dedication, team building exercise, or awards dinner; or cause marketing events, where proceeds go to a charitable cause, businesses can benefit from the association with a pro.

Today, client entertainment goes well beyond sending a client a pair of tickets to an event.  Executives now entertain clients with interactive, experience-based sports marketing events.  Imagine an event in a luxury suite where sports legends entertain clients.  Take a group of clients to a celebrity charity event, private rounds of golf, fishing trips, or private dinners with the heroes of our time.  These, and many more unique client entertainment opportunities, can help forge exceptionally strong bonds between a company and its key clients.

While there is no doubt that we live in a culture that has a unique interest in the lives of celebrities, professional athletes transcend this cultural phenomenon and enter the realm of “hero”.  Perhaps this is because fans recognize that, in addition to athletic talent, it takes a tremendous amount of hard work, discipline, and dedication to become a professional athlete.

A product or service endorsement by a professional athlete offers substantial competitive advantages to a business. First, such an endorsement creates both brand and product awareness. Second is the “cool factor”. Not much has changed since we were kids…we all want to do what’s cool in the culture, and whatever professional athletes use is cool because they are cool.  Look what happened when Lance Armstrong and his celebrity friends began wearing “Live Strong” wristbands!

Third, a celebrity endorsement can give a business and its products a significant amount of attribute awareness. By pairing the unknown attributes of a specific athlete with a business and its products, the business will take on the attributes for which the athlete is known. For example, if a high-profile athlete is known to be honest and hard working, the business will be consciously associated with the same attributes.