by Larry Eder
Annie Adams is the new Athlete Manager at ASICS America. She has been in the Volleyball promotions position at ASICS recently. Annie steps into the position left open when Ben Cesar, the long time Athlete Manager at ASICS America, left ASICS to join the Nike sports marketing team.
Over his tenure at ASICS America, Ben Cesar developed into one of the most visible athletics promotion managers in our sport. Cesar was able to develop, dollar for dollar, one of the best rosters in the sport, focusing on athletes that could be used by the ASICS brand to promote their brand, their involvement in the sport and who resonated with young sports fans. Among the ASICS athletes were Ryan Hall, Sara Hall, LoLo Jones, Kara Patterson, Greg Nixon, and of course, Deena Kastor. Cesar’s comment to RBR was that, as a performance brand, with many places to be, ASICS had to get more out of their budgets than most: ASICS needed athletes who could help the brand grow.
ASICS also developed some unique programs to reach out to cross country and track athletes, from posters of LoLo Jones & Kara Patterson, to one of the largest poster promotions ever, 800,000 posters of Deena Kastor and Ryan Hall, prior to the 2008 Olympic Games. Their ASICS summer cross country training logs, published over the past seven years, are another very popular program, using ASICS athletes and promoting the ASICS brand.
RBR welcomes Annie Adams to our sport. Her experiences in media and other sports will give her some new ideas to approach our sport, which is always welcome and needed. Annie Adams is working for one of the truly iconic brands in our sport and with a great team and some tremendous athletes.
We wish Annie Adams the best of luck.
ASICS
America Corporation is pleased to announce Annie Adams as the new Athlete
Manager effective immediately. Adams has been with ASICS since early 2010 in
the Team Sports division where she was responsible for managing contracted
volleyball, wrestling and field hockey individuals and teams.
“Annie
is extremely passionate about Track & Field and endurance sports, and
working directly with athletes,” says Kevin Wulff, President and CEO of
ASICS America Corporation. “She plans on working with ASICS athletes to
promote the brand, enhance involvement within ASICS and build more awareness
for each athlete.”
Prior to
ASICS, Adams worked for Rodale Publications on Runner’s World magazine
and before that for the AVP. Adams was a UCLA Track & Field team manager
and ran Track & Field and Cross Country at UCLA. Adams will report
directly to the Vice President of Marketing, Erik Forsell.
