“It is unlikely that any skier in the future will succeed in coming close to Janica Kostelić’s at these Olympic Games. What Janica did at the Salt Lake City games will have a far reaching impact on future Olympic Games,” was the comment made for Nacional by Guy Sanan, general director of the sports “Oscar” awards, as the Laureus awards are commonly called. “I met Janica last year at the awarding of the Laureus in Monte Carlo when she was nominated for best sports comeback. There I also met her whole family and saw what a strong family they are, which is so important to her success.”

Tourism Ministry declined to sponsor Janica Kostelić It is impossible to fathom, after Janica Kostelić won three Olympic gold medals and one silver, and after Goran Ivanišević became Croatia's biggest advertising ace, just how the Croatian Tourism Ministry and the Croatian Tourism Board feel today. That is, prior to this ski season. The Croatian Skiing Federation called the Tourism Ministry to sponsor the skiers, offering them cooperation in which Janica would then represent a sort of tourism mascot for Croatia. However, those in charge of decision making at the ministry felt that Janica Kostelić would not be an attractive enough mascot for Croatian tourism, and thus, declined to sponsor the Croatian Ski Federation. Psychological predisposition

“Especially since she is still so young,” said Sanan, adding “Her whole family has reason to celebrate, since I have only words of praise for her success. Ivica Kostelić is also a great champion, this time he unfortunately had less luck than Janica, but I believe he will take the World Cup in slalom.”

With respect to Janica’s future, Sanan said “Even though it is unrealistic to expect that she will again achieve this type of achievement, keeping her psychological strength in mind, I have no fears that this fact could frustrate or demotivate her in the future. She is motivated by a love for skiing and not by fame, and so we can expect Janica to continue making great results. She will certainly participate in the next Winter Olympics in Torino, and will continue to compete in the World Cup. These Olympic Games were certainly the greatest achievement in her skiing career, but I am convinced, not her last.”

As General Director of the Laureus, Guy Sanan was unable to predict or answer the question as to whether Janica would win the Best Female Athlete award this year, thus joining sporting greats such as Cathy Freeman, Tiger Woods, and Jennifer Capriatti, who won the award last year. However, he did say, “I am not permitted to make such predictions because a panel of numerous of the world’s best sports journalists will nominated and select the winner. I am convinced, though, that as we speak, the majority of them are carefully watching Janica’s performance in Salt Lake City. I personally would love for Janica to be with us in Monte Carlo again this year, to stand next to the greatest athletes in the world, because I think she belongs there.” He concluded, “Janica’s medal and current position at the very top of women’s skiing offer her immense business opportunities. And not only personally, through the signing of advertising contracts, but for the whole of Croatia as well. It is important to know that the success of your athletes, such as Goran Ivanišević’s win at Wimbledon and Janica’s success at the Olympic Games is a huge advertisement for Croatia. I don’t know if you have any idea just how many people in America have just learned about Croatia.”

In speaking about business opportunities lying before Janica Kostelić after winning four Olympic medals, Ralph Krueger, sports manager and owner of the GPS agency in Lausanne, who has managed several of the greatest skiers in the world, commented saying “If Janica Kostelić were an American, the opportunities before her would be unfathomable. Her medals would now be worth millions of dollars, but I’m afraid that, as awful as it sounds, because she’s from Croatia, her success will not have such far reaching financial results. All of us who work in sports management know how things in Croatia function, we know that any attempt to get in contact with a Croatian athlete is stopped with beaurocratic barriers set up first of all by the national sports federations, and in cases such as Janica’s, not even the family is inclined to talk about possibilities with foreigners.” According to Ralph Krueger, were the situation different, Janica Kostelić would theoretically now be in a position to sign exclusive contracts worth millions of dollars, which is a position which will not likely repeat itself.

“She now is a great sports hero and connecting a product with her would benefit any manufacturer of sporting equipment. For example, an insurance company could use Janica and all her injuries to date to stress that they, like their insuree, after all the problems became a four time Olympic medal winner.” However, Kruger explained that in order to position herself as a world sports star such as Michael Jordan, Alberto Tomba, or Michael Schumacher, she has to have a strong professional and experienced team behind her. “This is a massive machine which creates stars and through their promotion in the world of market to help athletes create significant financial profits.”

HT – Janica’s personal sponsor

We tried to learn what Janica Kostelić’s situation currently is and what her future prospects are by talking to her current sponsors. It is interesting that Janica has only one personal sponsor, Croatian Telecom, whose logo is always found on Janica’s caps. By law, the personal sponsor of skiers is to be displayed on their head gear, while the logos of the remaining companies we see on Janica’s clothing are the official sponsors of the Croatian Skiing Federation. Without them, today the federation would not be so successful, and it is unlikely that Janica would have been able to train in such good conditions without them, and whether she would have equally quickly and well recovered from her injuries and operations. Also, thanks to the sponsorships the federation received based on Janica’s successes, a new generation of talented skiers has also evolved. Among them are certainly Nika Fleiss and Ana Jelušić, who achieved excellent results at these Olympic Games.

The strategy towards the sponsors was created five years ago when Vedran Pavlek and Srećko Ferenčak formed a marketing company within the skiing federation. Having learned from their strategy, the Croatian Olympic Committee also founded its own marketing agency, and succeeded in gathering together enough funds to completely finance the expenses for our athletes to participate in the games. Even though they dislike talking about exact figures, we were unofficially able to learn that this year’s annual budget for the Croatian Ski Federation is about 1 million DEM. For next year, thanks to Janica’s success, the federation is hoping to increase that to 1.5 million DEM.

Financial value of the medals

Companies that invested in Janica Kostelić and the other Croatian skiers on the national team are: HT Cronet, as the general sponsor, Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank, Jamnica, Renault and OMV Istrabenz. In contact with all these sponsors, we attempted to analyze the amount of resources donated, and the benefits which come for both sides, and to find out just how much Janica’s Olympic medals really are worth. It is interesting that not a single sponsor wanted to comment on the exact amount of money invested in Janica Kostelić to date, since that is considered to be confidential. “I wouldn’t want to talk about money, if Janica wants to talk figures, that’s her business. I can only say that we are far from the world average where investments in advertising and sponsorships is in a 1:7 ratio,” said Marijan Jurlek, director of HT marketing, the personal sponsor for Janica Kostelić. However, Nacional has learned unofficially from well informed sources that this season’s sponsorship contract between HT Cronet and the Ski Federation is worth 500,000 DEM. Or, exactly half the federation’s budget. From Marijan Jurlek we learned that HT is actually the general sponsor of the Croatian Olympic Committee, through which is becomes the sponsor of national sports federations. In 1997, HT became the general sponsor for the Ski Federation. “And since Janica was in that federation then, we helped Janica through that sponsorship, before growing into her personal sponsor.”

Financial recovery

“We rarely commit to personal sponsorships, and Janica is an exception.” Jurlek explained that personal sponsorship means that through the ski federation, money is also paid out directly to Janica. “If Janica achieves one of the top three spots in a competitions and if she continues to excel, then we additionally stimulate her. I have to comment that this is an exceptional situation and these kinds of sponsorships are not usual in our company, but considering that at one point in time, Janica was the Ski Federation, then this was a logical continuation of our contract,” continued Jurlek. He stressed “As a company, we recognized great strength and talent in Janica which will help develop Croatian skiing as a whole. Now, after her success, many more kids will decide to ski. Our goal as a national company is to use her charisma to expand skiing as a sport.” With direct financial sponsorships, HT also helps the Ski Federation and Janica Kostelić through the use of its products and services either at better prices or in compensation.

“At one time, before she was a star, when she had that great misfortune and had to go in for operation, we went above and beyond our sponsorship contract to help her quickly recover and get back on the ski hill,” Jurlek recalls. He added, “In the same way, we helped Ivica Kostelić during his operation and recovery. We helped them to get back to skiing quickly because, as a company investing in someone or something, you expect that with time that investment will pay itself off. In helping Janica get back to competing, we were also helping ourselves return our investment. Because when Janica is not skiing, it’s clear that we cannot capitalize from our investment.”

HT Cronet

In addition, Janica wears the HT logo at all her competitions, and the HT logo is required to appear next to any interview she gives in the newspapers. “In the future we will, I hope, launch a new dimension in our relationship, we would love to raise them up to an even higher level. We intend to develop advertising here to world standards. Concretely, that means that the star sponsored would be obligated to appear at events organized by HT, at HT parties and similar events.” Marijan Jurlek also said that one of HT’s best profits from sponsoring Janica Kostelić comes from tying name, image and charisma to the name Croatian Telecom. “Connecting Janica Kostelić to HT gives our company new value, through Janica, HT becomes closer to people, it helps the image of the company, and that is immeasurable in value. We asked Mr. Jurlek if he thought that Janica in the near future would be signing multimillion advertising contracts, like the one between Michael Jordan and Nike. “Here, this is all still very rudimentary. Our sponsorship of Janica is not the same kind as the one between Jordan and Nike, which is the most developed of relationships. Likely she will begin signing such contracts.”

Sponsors at the Olympics

These days, the representatives of the companies which sponsor the Croatian Ski Federation were with the Kostelićs and the Ski Federation in Salt Lake City. Heinz Truskaller was there, president of the board of Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank, who signed a sponsorship contract with the federation in 2000. It is interesting that the business motto of the banking group is to sponsor cultural groups and not sporting ones. However, this sponsorship from the very beginning held an emotional note. At the bank, they explained this saying “President of the Hypo Alpe-Adria Bank, Mr. Heinz Truskaller, while still back at home came into contact with the Croatian skiers, and he always admired them and how much faith and dedication they had put into the sport, and how little financial resources they had available to them. In recognizing the potential and talent within the Croatian skier, Mr. Truskaller personally supported making those sponsorships happen. At that time, few believed in the possibility that any of the skiers could achieve such fantastic results in the World Cup, and not, at the Winter Olympics, they have become a sensation.”

Hypo Bank

With regards to the sponsorship, at Hypo Bank they said “The rights and obligations for both sides is precisely determined with a sponsorship contract, and with the usual conditions, we would like to stress that Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank gives financial support to the Croatian Ski Team at their trainings in Carinthia. We cannot release the action financial details from the contract, but there were not any compensation points in the contract.” From Hypo Bank, Nacional learned that they donated 150,000 DEM to the Ski Team this season, and that additional funds are awarded to skiers who win first, second or third place. Within the bank, they stress how sponsoring the ski team has certainly added to the image and recognizability of the bank. When asked if they were planning to continue their support of the ski team, even after the conditions following this success become more difficult, the response from the bank was, “The President of the Board announced that if it were up to him, the sponsorship contract with the Ski Federation would be extended forever!”

The cooperation between Jamnica and the Kostelićs and the Ski Federation began back in 1996 and, as they commented in Agrokor, was the result of a well though out business strategy to build the recognizability of their product and company. “Jamnica was one of Janica Kostelić’s first sponsors, and on her path to world success, we followed her with the slogan ‘Jamnica for Janica’”, stated Violeta Colić from Agrokor’s public relations department. At this company as well, sponsorship contracts are confidential, but they did note that the sponsorship was virtually entirely financial. “Of course, as with all Jamnica’s athletes, including the ski team, we supply our them with our products.” They added “tour experience to date has shown that this form of cooperation between athlete and successful company is extremely useful for both sides. The successful athletes which we sponsor and whose name is associated with our company gives added value to the company, especially in terms of promotions.” However, sponsorships result in increased sales of Jamnica, which Violeta Cović illustrated with “In February, during the Olympic Games, increased its sales of mineral water by 25%, and of Juicy juice by 20%, certainly stimulated by the success of our skiers.”

Renault Croatia is also one of the important sponsors of the Croatian Ski Federation, and their cooperation began in May 1999, when Janica was given a Renault Espace to use. “From that date forward, we have cooperated with the Croatian Ski Team by providing them with vehicles. Today the Ski team has six Renault vehicles, the majority of which are the new Laguna Grandtour – the caravan version of the Laguna. Along with the Laguna, the skiers drive the Espace and Grand Espace models due to their spaciousness. With these six vehicles, the ski team acquired another 6 vehicles, including a van under very reasonable conditions, so that today, there are 12 Renault vehicles in the ski teams parking lot. “

As we learned from Marijana Kuzminski from Renault, from the very beginning to date they are very satisfied with their cooperation with the ski team and with Janica, which they recently displayed by calling one of the new Renault models after Janica. On January 5 of this year, Renault lunched the Clio Janica, an exclusive limited series of 80 vehicles.

Clio Janica

The Clio series was quickly sold, and we will soon decide if we will issue another series. In 2001, the Clio was the best selling car in Croatia, and that’s why we associated it with the most successful Croatian skier. At that time, we had no idea that Janica was yet to achieve her greatest sports achievements. Marijana Kuzminski confirmed also that the sponsorship positively affects the image of the brand and she added, “After this historical success which Janica has achieved, we are happy and proud that Renault sponsored Janica to achieve the greatest achievement ever in Croatian sport.”

That which none of the sponsors noted, which stands for them all is the fact that at the moment we spoke with them, as the result of Janica Kostelić’s historical success at the Winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City, and in the middle of Janica-mania which has taken Croatia by storm, they all unexpectedly greatly increased their profits.

Official sponsor of the Croatian Ski Federation

Sponsors since 2000 at the initiative by board president Truskaller, Hypo Bank finances the skiers training in Carinthia, Austria

Increased sales of mineral water Jamnica

In February, during the Olympic Games, the sales of Jamnica mineral water increased by 25%, while Juicy juice increased by 20%, certainly related to the skiers’ success

Provide gas products to the Croatian Ski Federation

Company with its headquarters in Umag sells oil and gas products and has 22 gas stations in Croatia

Official Automobile of the Croatian Ski Federation

Sponsors since 1999, ski team has 12 Renault vehicles, recently released limited edition Clio Janica

Only Personal Sponsor

HT sponsored the Ski federation at the time when Janica was the ski federation, which grew into a personal sponsorship with direct financing, an exception to the rule for HT

General sponsor of the ski team

Sponsor since 1997, this season they sponsored the ski team with 500,000 DEM, half the total budget of the federation