NIL Brand Roadmap: 7 Steps to Effective Partnerships with Student-Athletes
Getting started with nil
It’s a new week, but I’m almost certain that I’ll get the same three questions from brands that I do every week 😉:
Where do we start?
How do we build on what we already know how to do (i.e. with pro athletes)?
Why are our results not we had hoped for?
While every situation is a little different, I can tell you that NIL programs work “faster, cheaper, and better” when brands follow these 7 steps…in this order.
NIL brand activation
Step 1 is choosing your brand activation(s.) While social media is making up 80% of all NIL activation, my clients are seeing MUCH more success by activating the athlete partnership in multiple ways. Simply activating on social media is not a best-in-class NIL activation, so think deeper about how else you might partner with your sponsored athletes. The top 6 activation opportunities for brands are:
Social Media Sponsorship
Personal Appearances
Supporting an Athlete-Owned Brand
Sponsorship of an Athlete’s Camp or Clinic
Group Licensing (with Team or Group of Teammates)
Develop Your NIL Athlete Profile
With 190,000 Division I student-athletes (and 550,000 in all divisions and NAIA), brands have plenty of athletes to choose from. The most efficient way to determine what you are looking for in an athlete partner is to build a profile. You will then use that profile(s) as your selection criteria to help narrow in on your choices.
Some questions to get you started:
Are you looking for a revenue sport athlete with pro potential? Consider that these athletes may not have the large social media followings you’d think as many of them have been directed to avoid social media.
Are you considering a non-revenue sport athlete with significant social media following on TikTok and Instagram? (i.e. an “NIL social media influencer”?)
Might you consider a lower profile/lower cost athlete, possibly at a DI mid-major school (or DII, DIII, NAIA) who is using NIL as a side-hustle or entrepreneurial venture?
What role do gender, school, sport, season, and geography play?
determine your nil compensation
Despite much media hype to the contrary, the NIL landscape is affordable for every brand that wants to participate. The “average compensation” that is often reported ($1,300 per NIL activity per Opendorse) is inflated based on the Power Five schools/athletes that are being surveyed. The median NIL compensation is a much more reasonable $65-$100 per activity.
Brand need to decide what compensation package they will offer, including:
Cash
Commissions
Product
Other brand-provided experiences (i.e. internships, professional development opportunities, etc.)
Identify your student-athletes
You’ve go your activation plan in-hand, you know what you’re going to offer in compensation, and you know the profiles of the student-athletes you want to be ambassadors of your brand. The next step is for you to make contact with specific athletes. You’ve got three options - each has its benefits and drawbacks:
NIL Marketplaces like Opendorse, MOGL, Icon Source, and NBC Sports Athlete Direct are the dating apps of NIL; athletes can create profiles on one side of the marketplace and brands on the other - they come together to partner on all types NIL opportunities
Collectives are third party for-profit or non-profit business entities created by boosters; many Collectives work with brands to create financial opportunities for the student-athletes they are supporting
NIL consultants (like me) and agencies can help brands to identify athletes on specific campuses, DMA’s, by sport, etc.
negotiate your nil deal
It’s time to negotiate the NIL deal with your athletes. Hopefully, you’ve gathered the right intel to make a competitive offer. (You can often find useful data throughout my NIL Insider blog.)
You’ll want your agreement to be as specific as possible - not just outlining what activities you’ll be relying on the student-athlete for, but the steps to get there and the expected results.
More than anything else, you will need to be clear about how you will use your limited time together. As a reminder to brands who may be used to working with social media influencers or pro athletes, the NCAA limits “athletically related activities” to 20 hours per week during the season and 8 hours out of season.
While the availability of student-athletes in their off-season may be appealing to brands, I must warn you that there is a severe drop-off in engagement by consumers with out-of-season athletes.
nil brand immersion
This is a friendly reminder that student-athletes may be “fans” of your brand already, but they need formal brand training:
Define your NIL program goals
Identify your target audience for them
If your plan is social media focused, be sure that they understand the content strategy (spend some time collaborating on ideas together)
Provide guidelines for everything you are requiring them to do that involves engaging with the public - from social posts to retail meet & greets
Ensure that they understand your products, company culture, and your brand standards/tone of voice/etc.
Last but not least, double-check that they understand how to be compliant with advertising regulations and how to reach you if there is a problem!
Measure Your NIL Program
Like any other marketing tactic, a brand needs to monitor the performance of their NIL program against their goals. The impact of the student-athlete's promotion on business metrics can be hard to monitor, but here are some ideas in developing your NIL scorecard:
Sales: One of the most straightforward ways to measure the effectiveness of an NIL program is to track sales; it is essential to isolate the impact of each athlete
Brand awareness: NIL programs can help increase brand awareness and improve brand recall; brands can track metrics such as website traffic, social media impressions, and search engine rankings before and after the program
Social media engagement: Brands can track social media metrics such as engagement rates, reach, and follower growth to determine the effectiveness of the NIL program
Media coverage: NIL programs can generate media coverage for the brand, which can help increase brand exposure and awareness; brands can track media coverage and mentions in print, online, and broadcast media to measure the impact NIL
Return on Investment (ROI): To assess the financial impact of the program, brands can calculate the ROI of the program by comparing its costs to the financial benefits the program generated; this can include metrics such as revenue generated, cost per acquisition, or lifetime customer value
Bill Carter is an NIL Consultant, Educator, and Speaker. He is a NIL Columnist for Sports Business Journal and teaches NIL in College Sports at the University of Vermont’s Grossman School of Business. Click here to read about Bill’s NIL Consulting and NIL Education for sports organizations, universities, and brands.