Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning does as much off the field as he does on it.
He has endorsement deals with MasterCard, Reebok, Sony, Oreo, DirecTV, Gatorade and Wheaties.
We talked with MasterCard's chief marketing officer Larry Flanagan to discover why Peyton is Mr. Pey-Day.
Darren: Not many people would tell you that Peyton Manning would be one of the best on-camera spokesmen. When you first hired him in 2004, what did you see in him?
Flanagan: Peyton just had this natural affinity. He’s an incredible quick study. He’s got a great personality. A great sense of humor. So I think our campaign format gave him a little bit of an opening to express his point of view, his personality.
Darren: Why did you specifically chose him to represent your brand?
Flanagan: When we decided to work with Peyton, it was because of his fit with the MasterCard's values, the brand values -- authentic and being a leader and being a competitor and competing to win, but not doing it in an obnoxious way.
Darren: The endorsement world is a bit different after the Tiger Woods situation occured. Is Peyton more safe in this world in which we question if any athlete is really who they say they are or how they are portrayed?
Flanagan: In this world of skepticism, and you never know, what you see is what you get. Peyton is the real deal. He’s solid. He’s a solid person and he’s fit the MasterCard brand values and we have a lot of confidence that we’re getting exactly what we see with Peyton.
Darren: What would another Super Bowl title mean?
Flanagan: It just extends his brand. His brand is a leader, being a winner, being a team player, competing to win and that’s what MasterCard, that what our drive is, competing to win. It continues to build that equity that he had.
