The former football player and pop star combined their fame, turning it into a vast business empire over the years.
THE Netflix documentary “Beckham” was released at the beginning of October.
In four episodes, David Beckham and several of those close to him tell viewers about his football career. Ten years after retiring, the former player is still in the spotlight, as is his wife, former Spice Girl Victoria Beckham.
The Beckhams have been described as a “power couple” (“powerful couple” in French), because they are part of this very select elite of celebrity couples that most people know, like Jay-Z and Beyonce, or in their time Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie.
Apart from being famous, these couples are also known for turning their relationship into a global business brand.
Despite the Beckhams’ questionable fashion tastes in the late 1990s and early 2000s, the duo built a solid business.
According to the Sunday Times, the couple’s net worth is estimated at almost €500 million.
How did they achieve such status?
Their individual celebrity is a first element of the answer. But more is needed to maintain such a reputation over time.
Victoria Beckham, née Adams, was part of the Spice Girls, a girl band David Beckham was Manchester United’s rising star.
His sporting career took off at a time when footballers were gradually acquiring star status. While this may seem commonplace today with players like Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo, this was not the case in the 1990s.
The public has gradually become accustomed to players extolling the merits of facial creams, sports shoes or phone plans. This is precisely what David Beckham did: very quickly, his image was no longer only associated with Manchester United or England matches; the public sees it in magazines, on television and, soon, on the internet.
“The strategic and commercial discipline applied to the development and management of its brand was identical to that of major brands,” explains brand strategy consultant Andrew Milligan, author of “Brand it like Beckham”.
For her part, at the same time, Victoria Beckham was evolving as a world-famous British pop start.
“Posh” or “Posh Spice”, her nickname within the Spice Girls, remained in the spotlight after the group’s dissolution. As the wife of the man who was at the time one of the most famous football players in the world, the paparazzi couldn’t take their eyes off her.
Victoria Beckham then continues to appear on magazine covers, and will soon launch her own fashion business.
Capitalize on their notoriety
Their marriage is a good example of how they monetized their young family. In 1999, the press announced it as the event of the year in show business.
A British magazine paid the bride and groom £1 million for exclusive rights to the photos (more than €2 million adjusted for today’s inflation).
In the recent Netflix documentary, the couple explains that the constant media attention can have been extremely stressful for their family, especially with young children.
At the same time, this same media attention has been supportive in building their brand and turning their name into a lucrative business.
In “Beckham”, David says: “I knew my career was going to end at some point, and I wanted to have a career after football.” And that’s exactly what he did.
After sponsoring Pepsi, H&M and other brands, David Beckham decided to create his own. He sells perfumes, glasses and runs several investment companies.
After a lucrative career in football, with contracts worth several million pounds (or euros, or dollars, depending on where he played), David Beckham invested in various companies, including owning an unknown percentage of Major League Soccer (MLS) in the United States and becoming Qatar’s ambassador for ten years, starting with the 2022 World Cup.
He and his wife Victoria Beckham also co-own companies such as Beckham Brand Holdings Limited, which combines David’s brands and Victoria’s fashion businesses. In their latest financial reports, the couple declared a profit of more than 22 million euros for the year 2021.
For her part, Victoria Beckham’s journey is relatively similar. After modeling for brands such as Dolce & Gabbana and regularly appearing on the covers of fashion magazines, she launched her own clothing lines.
After a first denim collection in 2006, under the dVb brand (for David and Victoria Beckham), she quickly moved to the Victoria Beckham brand by presenting her first clothing line during New York Fashion Week in 2008.
To say it was initially greeted with skepticism would be an understatement. The former pop star was initially not taken seriously in very exclusive fashion circles.
However, Victoria Beckham has proven that she has her place among luxury brands and catwalks around the world. Vogue described her as “one of the most unexpected and serious fashion contenders of recent years”.
Fashion and football are two areas that people consume on a daily basis, online or not. A strength, according to Andrew Milligan, on which the Beckhams were able to capitalize: “Along with Victoria and even their children, David Beckham is one of the rare brands you find on the front and back pages of magazines, and in almost every section, including business, in between.”
A brand family
Victoria and David Beckham grew their business and family while the internet and social media were booming.
Like the most famous celebrity family in the world, the Kardashian-Jenners, the “power couple” understood the importance of exploiting their family image to boost their brands.
Even in the late 1990s, David enjoyed the image of a family man who did not hesitate to miss a training session with Manchester United to look after his sick son. He knew how to preserve it.
Over the years, in interviews and magazines, the Beckhams have not hesitated to enthusiastically share details about their parenting style and private family life, once again reaching an audience beyond their respective areas.
The couple regularly posts private photos on their Instagram profiles, captivating their tens of millions of followers with not only what they have to sell, but also who they are.
Their four children, Brooklyn, Cruz, Romeo and Harper Beckham, aged 24 to 12, are following in their parents’ footsteps.
Last year, Brooklyn, the eldest Beckham, married American heiress Nicola Peltz. The marriage attracted media attention, as did that of his parents before him. The press fought to obtain exclusive photos of the event which would have cost more than 3.5 million euros.
The Beckhams’ business empire should still have good years ahead of it.