On July 19th Mick Fanning very nearly became a shark statistic while competing in the J'Bay Open. Caught on live webcast, it was the shark 'attack' seen around the world.

In Part 1 of this series, Craig Jarvis investigated the impact the incident had on Jeffreys Bay. How J'Bay's newfound notoriety has affected tourism and the potential for subsequent surf contests.

In this part we inspect the other side of the ledger: how the incident has affected Mick Fanning.

“He's always been well known among surfers, but what the shark attack did was take Mick Fanning's name out to a far larger audience. I've no doubt this will affect his standing.”

I'm speaking to Brian Levine, Director of Blinc International, and he's expounding upon the events of July 19th and how they will affect Mick. Our conversation doesn't cover the psychological impact, I should make this clear from the outset. Levine is in the celebrity management game, he procures and advises celebrities and professional athletes. He understands the celebrity market and he knows their worth.

So, without putting too fine a point on it, Levine and I are discussing the 'commercial implications' arising from the J'Bay incident.

“Mick has a lot of attributes that sponsors would really value. He's a fierce competitor and an all-round nice guy. I'd say even before the shark came along he'd have presented excellent value to a sponsor,” says Levine.

What the shark incident did, says Levine, is move him into “another dimension” of athletes and celebrities. Google trends bear this out; for a period following the shark attack Fanning outgunned Kelly Slater – by a significant margin - as the most searched surf star in the Google search engine. See the graph below for an illustration of interest shown in Fanning.

Although the searches have gone back to pre-shark levels, Levine says the resultant fame is what potential sponsors are interested in. “It's just a case that more people know him now.”

Ronnie Blakey is Mick's media manager, a position he's held for seven years though in that time he's never been as busy as he has been the last three months. “I’d say certain people were reaching for their phones as soon as that fin popped up behind Mick on the live broadcast,” says Blakey with bemusement. “It really was that instant. The next three weeks were radical.”

Blakey says he was getting “hundreds of calls per week” in the three weeks that followed the incident though much like the Google graph things are starting to settle down.

And just as Brian Levine predicted many of the calls are coming from outside the surf industry. “The interest is varied,” admits Blakey. “Dancing with the Stars in the States sent him a proposal less than a week after the the attack!”

More seriously, Blakey says Mick's been offered lots of corporate speaking and motivational speeches, however he hasn't taken anything on. “Mick didn’t care to milk the story at all. He is only concerning himself with the title shot at this stage,” says Blakey.

But after that, who knows?

Brian Levine is sure we'll see a few new stickers applied to Mick's board. “I imagine that Mick's top four sponsors are currently surf or action sport related, but without any doubt I'd say we'll see another non-core sponsor appear there.”

“What this has shown,” says Levine referring to the incident and also the subsequent media attention, “Is that Mick Fanning is self-deprecating and that he deflects fame. Those are qualities that are very, very hard to find. That we found it out by inference just makes it that much better.” Which is to say that you can spin a story any which way but nothing resonates like reality.

When Neil Ridgway of Rip Curl talks about Mick Fanning his emotions are always very close to the surface, it was like this even before the shark incident. His relationship feels more paternal than commercial and for this reason he's not easily drawn on speculation about Mick's shifting fortunes.

There are, however, two things things that Ridgway is very adamant about. The first is that Mick will be very judicious when choosing future endorsements. Like Ronnie Blakey, Ridgway knows Mick won't milk the incident for short term gain. “For instance,” says Neil by way of example, “If EA Games were to approach him about a game where he punches a shark, you can be sure Mick is going to say no.”

In that context it's easy to understand the consternation coming from Fanning's camp regarding the recent Kentucky Fried Chicken ad that lampoons the shark incident.

The second thing is that Rip Curl – where Ridgway is Group Marketing Chairman – have no plans to change their marketing of Mick. “He's been with us for 16 years,” says Ridgway. “Every surfer knows him and every surfer saw the shark attack. We wont change our marketing perception at all.”

That said, Ridgway is fully cognisant of the opportunities currently being presented to him. “Mick Fanning is a fighter, he's a survivor, I imagine many companies would want to associate with that. When Mick Fanning retires he'll be able to do whatever he pleases.

Maybe even go Dancing With The Stars.

Read Part 1 of 'A shark swims through it'