Pro athletes have been doing endorsement deals ever since Hall of Famer Honus Wagner agreed to put his name on the Louisville Slugger bat in 1904. But for much of the time since, college athletes were denied the same right to benefit from commercializing their name, image and likeness (NIL). So when the NCAA suspended all the old compensation rules on July 1, 2021, it represented a sea change in sport marketing.
One of the first deals of the new era was a partnership agreement (structured by Playfly) between retail brand PetSmart and Arkansas wide receiver Trey Knox and his dog, Blue. For marketers, endorsements offer many opportunities to create authentic connections between fans and athletes. In fact, data from Vision Insights shows that 75 percent of fans aged 18-34 believe that NIL has a positive impact on college sports.
So with an already engaged audience, here are six areas where marketers can drive NIL value:
1. Influencer Marketing
Until the rule change, athletes with large social media followings weren’t able to monetize their success — unlike their fellow students. Now, it’s a level playing field and athletes are making smart moves. Among them, University of Southern California star guard Juju Watkins landed an NIL deal with personal finance company NerdWallet to share her financial literacy journey.
In men’s basketball, Powerade featured NIL athletes for the first time this year when Louisiana State University’s Flau’jae Johnson and USC’s Isaiah Collier starred in a national campaign to promote March Madness. Meanwhile, one of our partners, LSU gymnast Olivia Dunne, is evidence of the kind of money on the table. Dunne is already a millionaire after harnessing the power of her 8.1 million followers on TikTok and 5.3 million followers on Instagram for a number of lucrative NIL deals.
2. Storytelling and Content
Brands are not only looking for college stars with a good name but also with stories that are contextual to their marketing message. A great example of this alignment is how the softball and baseball tech platform Diamond Kinetics has worked with University of Alabama pitcher Montana Fouts in their storytelling content.
Fouts is providing young players with drills and activities that use the PitchTracker Smart Softball — which captures motion data in real time — to help them monitor their performance. As part of the year-long NIL partnership, the two-time All-American has been using Diamond Kinetics’ sensor-embedded softball in her training and she will be ever-present in content integrated into the app’s programs.
3. Enhance Existing Campaigns
For advertisers already supporting college sports, the ability to sponsor an athlete directly adds significant authenticity to their marketing. The Good Feet Store, which specializes in footwear arch support, found the right custodian for its branding in University of Virginia basketball player Kihei Clark.
In one of the company’s spots, the guard describes how the arch supports give him more balance and stability on the court and free him from worrying about pain. Clark says they are not only a game-changer, but a life-changer. For a brand with an existing association with UVA athletics, the sponsorship has put a face and story to its message.
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4. Regional Flexibility
The size and breadth of college sports programs allow for national and regional brands to surgically determine where they use athletes to market. For example, United Airlines wanted to promote its nonstop flights to historic football towns like South Bend, Columbus and Baton Rouge. So it chose an NIL deal with then USC Trojans wide receiver Jordan Addison to publicize new point-to-point routes in a digital campaign.
The airline followed this up by signing USC quarterback Caleb Williams to promote another 127 new routes for the college football season. Alaska Airlines took a similar course when it signed a multi-year partnership with San Jose State University (SJSU) Football. In one social media campaign, players were seen in full gear on board promoting the Spartans’ upcoming Famous Idaho Potato Bowl appearance.
5. Local Campaigns
While the big NIL deals for nationally recognized college stars get all the press, it is easy to overlook the high volume of local campaigns. Deals that feature athletes with a profile closer to home are important to the local market, sponsors and schools. Many of these partnerships permit marketers to use school branding, typically arranged through multi-media rights management firms.
Take the partnership between Philadelphia-based Ardent Credit Union and Villanova University’s athletics program. Ardent’s tagline is integrated into the fan experience through its “Grit Makes Great Play of The Game” segments during football and basketball matches. The credit union also features student-athletes in its social media spots as a vehicle to bring financial education and products to local communities.
6. Athletes as Creators
Whether it’s social media content creation or more formal content production, athletes are now getting behind the camera and in front of it. In one variation on this trend, Spartan football athletes Payton Thorne and Jayden Reed host Campus Cast Live, a second-screen production that goes live on Facebook during Michigan State men’s basketball games.
Not only are they setting up future career opportunities in broadcasting, but Thorne and Reed are getting paid for their time. This partnership with Playfly includes sponsor integration with the likes of McDonald’s and multiple East Lansing-area businesses. Expect to see more athletes break the “fourth wall” as college sports coverage trades on their unique perspective.
From NIL to Multiple Zeros
NIL monetization will continue to mature in college sports, and new companies are developing specialized services and technologies to support this ecosystem. There are technical platforms such as Open Sponsorship, which helps with fulfillment of social media campaigns, and NIL portal services like Louisiana State University’s NILSU by WMT. Then there is our own Playfly Max — a service that helps college athletic departments find untapped opportunities to drive incremental revenue.
It might’ve taken over 100 years for college athletes to be given the right to monetize their marketability, but we can now expect more NIL innovations to come on stream faster than ever.
