Phelps Real Estate Worth Big Money!

For a guy who wears a Speedo to work, Michael Phelps sure seems to have a lot of room on his person to advertise.

So much so that Phelps' corporate partners -- Speedo, Nike, Adidas and Visa -- have enjoyed estimated in-broadcast exposure valued at $9 million through Tuesday night, according to Joyce Julius & Associates in Ann Arbor, Mich.

The firm is one of a handful of media companies that track logos and corporate branding during television broadcasts in order to estimate the perceived value that accrues to sponsors.

Big money is involved. Back on July 9, Ticket To Beijing wrote about a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that set Nike's endorsement and sponsorship obligations in coming years at just under $3.4 billion. That's a huge jump from a decade ago, when Nike's endorsement and sponsorship obligations were about $500 million.

Joyce Julius calculates that Phelps' corporate partners have combined for six minutes of exposure during prime time. The company estimates the value of on-screen time by calculating the cost of commercial spots running during NBC's broadcasts.

Phelps' races are won by cutting down on the number of seconds spent in the pool, but sponsors obviously win when the seconds mount up.

Nike's winning time through Tuesday night was 3:33 -- the minutes and seconds that Phelps wore his warm-up jacket with the Nike logo. Joyce Julius set the value to Nike at $5.3 million.

The Speedo logos on Phelps’ warm-up jacket, swim cap and bodysuit currently are in second place with 2:24 of airtime valued at $3.6 million. The remaining time was shared by Adidas and Visa.

Joyce Julius estimates that Phelps has accounted for 72% of Nike’s swimming-related exposure during NBC’s nighttime coverage, and 18% of Speedo's in-your-face time with Olympic fans.

-- Greg Johnson