PHASE 1: RECRUITMENT
After discussing your campaign goals (including segmentation of athletes by sport, gender, location, follower size, etc...), we spend up to 3 days recruiting athletes to be considered for your campaign. We reach out directly to our 5,000+ members as well as a greater audience of 70,000 additional D1 collegiate athletes. We recruit through a combination of SMS, Email and Postgame App notifications.
PHASE 2: SELECTION
After recruitment has completed, we provide the brand with an extensive list of the athletes who have opted-in for consideration. The list is sorted by athlete value - determined in part by our own calculations and past history of having worked with the athlete(s).
During this phase we offer suggestions in order to help maximize the brands' budget.
PHASE 3: NEGOTIATION
After selections have been made, Postgame begins negotiating with each athlete and/or their agent. Our experience of working with thousands of college athletes gives us a strong sense of their worth - allowing us to expedite the process with a fair offer - and one that makes the best use of the brands budget.
PHASE 4: CONTRACT
After the offer has been accepted by the athlete, we generate a custom contract between us and the athlete that includes campaign expectations, payment, content rights, and more.
Each college expects the athlete to submit a contract to their respective compliance office prior to participating in a campaign and receiving payment.
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IN THE NEWS...
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HEYDUDE Releases Collegiate Collection, Launches NIL Campaign with 12 Athletes through Postgame
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Texas' Quinn Ewers, Alabama's Jalen Milroe, More Athletes Land HEYDUDE NIL Deals through Postgame
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Colorado's Shedeur Sanders Headlines Urban Outfitters NIL Campaign With Postgame
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Let's Talk Marketing: Marketing With Student-Athletes w/ Bill Jula, Co-Founder of Postgame - Spotify
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Managing NIL Brand Deals in the College NIL Space with Postgame CEO, Bill Jula
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The NIL Deal - Postgame Facilitates Steve Madden NIL Deal with Men's Basketball Players
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Marketing Brew - Brands Are Ditching Their Usual Influencer Marketing Strategies For NIL Deals
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Penn State Athletes Watch Private Screening of Woody Harrelson's 'Champions' in NIL Campaign
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Boardroom - How Postgame and Reebok Define the New Age of NIL Partnerships
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Front Office Sports - The Unexpected Trend With NIL Apparel Sponsors
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On3 - Postgame Launches NIL Campaign Featuring Star Athletes
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College Athletes Make Their Mark in Postgame - Urban Outfitters Campaign
-RECENT PRESS-
The Teenage Millionaires Rocking The Sports World
College athletes are making more than some professionals from their name, image and likeness, and opening up a loophole for the most successful programs to cement their dominance.
“I’m Not a Businessman; I’m a Business, Man!”
A social-media post like that would have been odd coming from an amateur athlete like Caleb Williams just a few years ago. It might even have sparked an investigation. But the University of Southern California quarterback, last year’s Heisman Trophy winner, won’t have to wait until April’s National Football League draft to be a millionaire. He already is, thanks to commercial endorsements for companies like
Keurig Dr Pepper, United Airlines and Wendy’s.
And Williams easily could get out-earned by his one-time backup, Malachi Nelson, who completed just one pass at USC before announcing his intention to transfer this month. While still a high school junior, Nelson drove to algebra class in his $90,000 Mercedes and told Sports Illustrated in 2022 that he expected to earn nearly $1 million before even suiting up at USC.
With as much revenue as Major League Baseball and England’s Premier League combined, college sports already had multimillion-dollar bidding wars for coaches and eight of the world’s 10 largest stadiums. That largess didn’t extend to its unpaid players until recently, though, notwithstanding open secrets like the gold Trans-Am star running back Eric Dickerson insisted for decades that he got from his grandmother.
“Now it’s above board—sort of,” says Michelle Meyer, a former college athlete and head of consulting group NIL Network.
That is thanks to a June 2021 Supreme Court decision about athletes’ right to profit from their name, image and likeness, or NIL. Williams’s “businessman” post was made days later. Now a looming class-action suit and a proposed rule change could unleash billions for players on top of the millions available today.
The National Collegiate Athletic Association for decades resisted paying players, but NIL ironically could turn college sports into an even bigger moneymaker by retaining stars. Take Monday’s Rose Bowl game between Alabama and Michigan that will decide who gets to play for the national championship. Shortly after Michigan’s New Year’s Eve upset loss in last season’s semifinal, Michigan supporters launched the One More Year Fund to keep elite running back Blake Corum in college despite being eligible for the NFL. The fund and others like it didn’t disclose how much was spent, but whatever the sum, it worked. Corum has played a big role in Michigan’s current undefeated season.
When people talk about NIL, they really mean two markets. There are commercial endorsements—Corum also has made money from the likes of Subway and Bose, for example. Then there is cash they get from boosters who want to help their team win commensurate with athletic ability, not marketing clout.
Players still can’t legally receive salaries, but they can be compensated by an outside group for making appearances or signing autographs. Alabama’s Nick Saban, with more national championships than any football coach, initially lashed out at this aspect of NIL, saying that conference rival Texas A&M “bought every player on their team.” He has since both apologized and reversed course.
NCAA guidance now allows schools to endorse NIL collectives that funnel money to athletes and “say the quiet part out loud,” according to Dan Lust, a sports attorney at Moritt Hock & Hamroff.
Saban’s is the first face you see on the website of Bama’s “official” NIL entity, Yea Alabama, which has explicit cash donation tiers. A “starter” level is $216 annually, which gets you a decal and an invitation to a player autograph session. The $3,000 “Hall of Fame” includes autographs, meetings with athletes and other benefits.
Some entities, like the Texas One Fund at The University of Texas, say that donations are tax deductible. Others, like Ohio State’s The 1870 Society, are explicitly for-profit entities. Colleges can’t direct the funds, but donors are under no illusion, says Lust.
“They know it’s going to the players—directly to the star power of the school.”
Some coaches have lamented not jumping on the NIL bandwagon quickly enough.
“Everybody in the country is in this arms race” said University of Utah football coach Kyle Whittingham to The Salt Lake Tribune in October after all 85 scholarship players were given free leases and insurance for $45,000 pickups by Utah’s Crimson Collective.
About half of college football fans root for just 16 teams, and Utah isn’t among them. Yet even Crimson Collective aims to raise $6 million for its football program next fiscal year, according to Erin Trenbeath-Murray of its steering committee.
Stars can get much more than a leased pickup—especially now that transferring between schools has become so common. Nebraska coach Matt Rhule let slip that snagging a good quarterback that way costs “$1 million, $1.5, $2 million” and that there are “$6 million or $7 million quarterbacks out there.
“Some schools are going to have difficulty keeping up with the Joneses,” says Bill Jula, co-founder of NIL marketing agency Postgame.
A less-known aspect of NIL is how it benefits those who will never go pro. Postgame built an app ahead of the Supreme Court decision that provides a way for college athletes to indicate interest in getting paid. Tens of thousands of student athletes have used Postgame to bid on NIL opportunities. Occasionally those who get a few hundred dollars for a social-media post see their content go viral.
“There’s a lottery ticket in there for brands when working with college athletes. You can’t budget for that,” concluded Bill Jula.
Take one of the top NIL earners, Louisiana State University gymnast Livvy Dunne, who can earn $30,000 per post to her 7.8 million followers on TikTok and five million on Instagram.
The best-paid athlete, according to estimates by college-sports data provider On3, is 19-year-old USC freshman basketball player Bronny James. While not the best high school prospect, @bronny has a whopping 13 million social-media followers. And his is no rags-to-riches story, with his celebrity linked to his father, hoops superstar and billionaire LeBron James.
The same goes for number two on On3’s list, Shedeur Sanders. Son of “Coach Prime” and Hall of Fame star Deion Sanders. His dad’s marketing prowess is directing a flood of talent to the Colorado football program he leads, and the elder Sanders is even teaching a class about NIL.
Though not at the top of the heap, Colorado and Utah belong to a “Power Five” conference and are among the haves of college football. Flashy marketing and devoted fans could move them up in the world. The have-nots could lose ground based on a proposed rule change and a lawsuit.
NCAA President Charlie Baker would allow top programs to pay athletes directly for their name, image and likeness, but not others, creating a sort of super league. Separately, a class-action lawsuit certified in November could distribute hundreds of millions of dollars from broadcast rights directly to college athletes. TV and radio coverage is heavily skewed toward already prosperous programs.
NIL has been polarizing for college sports fans. Once the dust settles, the teams holding the trophies should look familiar.
Postgame x CVS 'Meet & Greets' attended by 1,000's of Fans across the country (coverage)
Postgame x CVS Host 'Meet the Longhorns' at University of Texas
Postgame x CVS Host 'Meet the Seminoles' at Florida State University
More Coverage
HEYDUDE Releases Collegiate Collection, Launches NIL Campaign With 12 Athletes Through Postgame
HEYDUDE is jumping head first into the college athletics sphere. The popular shoe company released its collegiate collection last week. With licensed marks from a range of schools including Alabama, Texas, Tennessee, Florida and LSU, it’s a great chance for fans to represent their team.
But the brand took the campaign a step further, signing NIL deals with 12 high-profile college athletes to promote the new product. In the new age of college sports, it’s a smart marketing move to put HEYDUDE in front of consumers in specific markets.
The campaign was facilitated by the sports marketing agency Postgame. Athletes earned different levels of compensation based on factors such as the size of their social media followings and their engagement rates. Full terms of the agreements were not shared.
HEYDUDE tabbed a range of college athletes, ranging from football to gymnastics. Those athletes include:
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Clemson volleyball player Aźyah Dailey
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LSU quarterback Jayden Daniels
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TCU quarterback Chandler Morris and running back Trey Sanders
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Alabama quarterback Jalen Milroe and track & field thrower Chandler Hayden
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Florida quarterback Graham Mertz and gymnast Trinity Thomas
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Louisville basketball’s Jayda Curry
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Tennessee quarterback Joe Milton and forward Rickea Jackson
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Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers
The sneakers come in men’s and women’s sizes. Priced at $74.99, fans can purchase them online or at Dick’s Sporting Goods. Boat shoe-esque, Hey Dude has become a popular go-to shoe for Gen Z. Acquired by Crocs in February 2022, the brand grew by 70% and generated roughly $1 billion in sales last year.
The company has become a major spender in NIL, too. Before South Carolina baseball opened the NCAA tournament this past spring, nine players inked NIL deals with Hey Dude. All of the brands NIL campaigns are run through Postgame.
Texas' Quinn Ewers, Alabama's Jalen MIlroe, More Athletes Land HEYDUDE NIL Contracts through POSTGAME
Texas quarterback Quinn Ewers will be rocking some new footwear as he chases a Heisman Trophy and College Football Playoff spot. And he won't be the only college athlete doing so.
HEYDUDE announced it signed 12 college athletes - through the NIL Agency Postgame - from eight different universities as brand ambassadors through Name, Image and Likeness opportunities. The casual footwear brand is releasing shoes with school logos and colors, which will give consumers the chance to show off their school spirit.
Here is a list of the athletes joining the fold:
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Clemson: Azyah Dailey (volleyball)
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LSU: Jayden Daniels (football)
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TCU: Chandler Morris and Trey Sanders (football)
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Alabama: Chandler Hayden (track and field) and Jalen Milroe (football)
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Florida: Trinity Thomas (gymnastics) and Graham Mertz (football)
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Louisville: Jayda Curry (basketball)
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Tennessee: Rickea Jackson (basketball) and Joe Milton (football)
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Texas: Quinn Ewers (football)
The brand incorporated a number of different sports, giving various athletes the opportunity to capitalize on their NIL as they compete at some of the highest levels.
Colorado's Shedeur Sanders Headlines Urban Outfitters NIL Campaign with Postgame
Before Shedeur Sanders took the college football world by storm the last couple of weeks, the University of Colorado quarterback used NIL to give back to his teammates.
Through a nationwide campaign with Urban Outfitters, he took 10 teammates shopping at the brand’s Boulder location. Since then, he’s thrown for more than 900 yards and seven total touchdowns with no interceptions.
Sanders wasn’t the only college football star to treat his friends to an afternoon at the lifestyle retail chain. Three other quarterbacks participated in the campaign: LSU’s Jayden Daniels, Penn State’s Drew Allar and UCLA’s Chase Griffin.
Facilitated by the sports marketing agency Postgame, more than 100 athletes promoted the brand ranging from college football to basketball and track and field. Athletes earned different levels of compensation based on factors such as the size of their social media followings and their engagement rates.
This is the third time Urban Outfitters invested in the NIL space. It’s the company’s biggest investment yet, with a commitment to identifying highly marketable athletes in markets that have an Urban Outfitters location.
“We did a big back-to-school activation last year, featuring Cameron Brink and DeMarvion Overshown,” Postgame’s Director of Athlete Relations Aaron Hackett told On3. “Also, our March Madness campaign featured some of the top basketball players in the countrywhich we expanded on with this new list of higher-profile guys."
“Urban has been strategic about their choice of locations - specifically targeting highly-recognized athletes who can do these live activations during the season. It has proven to been really powerful,” concluded Hackett.
For Sanders’ work with Urban Outfitters, Postgame traveled to Boulder to capture the day. The quarterback included teammates Xavier Weaver, Alton McCaskill, Jimmy Horn Jr., Jordan Domineck, Jeremiah Brown, Isaiah Hardge, Assad Waseem, Omarion Miller, Javon Antonio and Adam Hopkins in the NIL activation.
A video released on Instagram showed all the athletes in-store, trying on outfits and hanging out. For brands like Urban Outfitters, having multiple members of the Colorado football team at a store can help foot traffic. It’s also a valuable deal for Sanders, who is able to give back to his teammates.
The in-store activation wasn’t limited to Colorado. A similar promotion was launched at University of Texas with both football players and 35 athletes from other sports as well.
“Urban Outfitters is using a top of the funnel approach to promote their overall branding with Gen Z - working with guys like Shedeur to do that,” Postgame Founder Bill Jula said when asked about Urban Outfitters’ investment.
"We’ve now promoted and managed a few in-store activations with Urban Outfitters - each seeing a significant uptick in sales that day at that location We're looking forward to continuing to work with the team at Urban on growing these activations at more locations with more college athletes," concluded Jula.
Marketing With Student-Athletes w/ Bill Jula, CEO & Co-Founder of Postgame
This week, Katya Allison hosts Bill Jula, CEO and Co-Founder of Postgame to discuss Name, Image and Likeness (NIL). During this episode Bill discusses:
- The importance of staying focused as a marketer and not being distracted by new channels and trends.
- The high caliber of content produced by today’s college-athlete influencers.
- How student-athletes educate themselves on what quality content looks like.
- How multiple student-athletes can often generate more value for a brand vs. one famous influencer.
- What brands should do when approaching student-athletes to become influencers.
- How brands must be prepared to capitalize on athletes’ moments of success.
Listen to the episode on Spotify (below).
The Most Impactful Companies Helping Student-Athletes, College and Others Navigate NIL
College sports have dramatically transformed in the last two years since the introduction of name, image, and likeness, or NIL, monetization for student-athletes.
Millions of dollars in advertising spend and licensing deals, once reserved for colleges and universities, are now starting to trickle down to players. The NIL business is still in its infancy, changing month to month as new businesses and ways to make money enter the field.
"It really is the first inning here of a nine-inning game, and rules are pretty wide open right now," said Bill Jula, whose company Postgame helps athletes join influencer-marketing campaigns for big brands. Read More >>
Postgame runs large campaigns for more than 50 brands
Main clients: Student-athletes, brands
Why it matters for the NIL industry: Postgame said it connects companies with more than 65,000 athletes on its platform for large campaigns with hundreds of athletes at a time.
"Most brands are thinking of this from the standpoint of, 'How do we reach people across the entire country and do some hyper-local targeting through 10 or 20 athletes in those regions?'" Postgame co-founder and CEO Bill Jula told Insider.
Popular brands like Adidas, Crocs, Taco Bell, McDonald's, Reebok, and Urban Outfitters have partnered with student-athletes through the platform. Postgame also built and runs the technology for Adidas' ambassador program that works with college athletes at Adidas-sponsored schools to promote the brand.
Postgame's primary revenue stream comes from the management and service fees it takes from more than 50 brand partners.
Managing NIL Brand Deals In The College Athlete Space With
Bill Jula, CEO of Postgame
With 2021 changes to NIL laws for college athletes, many college athletes are now using their influence to earn money. Helping them is Postgame, the largest NIL agency providing cutting-edge technology and a white-glove approach to help college athletes excel as influencers.
Located in Sarasota, Florida, Postgame is the largest NIL Agency and is doing more deals with the biggest brands with the most athletes at a vast scale. This agency combines a full-service approach and specialized technology to help college athlete influencers succeed. Some of the most notable brands with Gen Z audiences they work closely with include Adidas, Urban Outfitters, CeraVe, Crocs, HEYDUDE, McDonald’s, Reebok, Steve Madden, Taco Bell, and more.
The NIL Revolution for College Athletes
In 2021, the Postgame team built an app to help college athletes leverage their influence in anticipation that NIL (Name, Image, Likeness) laws surrounding college athletes would change. In July 2021, NIL laws for college athletes changed, allowing these athletes to monetize their NIL and use their influence to earn money.
Bill Jula, CEO of Postgame, shares, “We had a couple of brand deals with some major national brands ready to go to provide them [college athletes] with opportunities to promote those brands and earn from their influence during that first year in 2021. I want to say we worked with probably ten companies and got around a thousand athletes paid for using their influence and NIL across social media.”
Postgame handles campaigns with varying numbers of athletes at once, which can look like campaigns with 15 or 300 athletes at a time. An interesting part of managing NIL brand deals is how brands use college athlete influencers differently. Bill shares, “Each campaign is different in how it’s set up and what it’s looking to achieve. Some brands are looking to work with really high-profile athletes primarily. Other brands take on this more scaled approach, which is what Postgame is known for, where we work with what you call tier two or tier three athletes, which may not be household names.”
While tier two or three athletes aren’t household names typically, they are celebrities in their regions, hometowns, and amongst fans. This influence is significant for brands looking to reach a specific area of the country.
The Crocs Campaign
The Postgame x Crocs campaign involved around 500 to 700 athletes over 60 days. Bill shares that many athletes were high-valued, meaning they typically receive four-figure payments for their influencer marketing campaigns. However, it also involved more minor athletes. The first step for this campaign was vetting thousands of athletes who wanted to participate in the Crocs campaign to ensure they aligned with the brand.
From there, the Postgame team ordered and sent out the product to all participants with campaign instructions from Crocs. Lastly, the Postgame team oversaw the payments to ensure that all athletes who fulfilled the campaign’s requirements were paid. For Crocs, Postgame reported on important analytics about the campaign’s performance, such as how many clicks, orders, and more athletes inspired.
Working with Postgame
Bill shares that Postgame was an outsider in the sports space that nobody had heard about until they burst onto the scene two years ago. He explains, “We were an outsider coming into this and going up against a few companies that already had relationships with colleges. We kind of took that approach because rather than being beholden to only working with athletes at specific schools, we opened up our world to basically every athlete imaginable.” Unlike many sports agencies, Postgame works with athletes from all different schools and niches.
Postgame is also unique because it has created and uses specialized technology to help college athletes succeed as influencers. In addition, the Postgame team works closely with athletes to walk them through the influencing process because technology alone can only do so much.
AI Technology in the Sports Influencer Space
Bill believes that while AI technology will naturally affect some things, the Postgame strategy will remain the same. He explains, “It [AI technology] may streamline a few things. But, I’ll be honest, I think probably 90% of what we do right now in the way we use our tech is probably how, if I were to look up two to three years from now, I would imagine it’ll be very similar.”
However, he does see AI technology impacting how college athletes create content, allowing them to create even higher production value with just their phones.
As for Postgame, Bill shares, “At the end of the day, it’s our belief that what we’re doing is working really well, and we want to stay the course. We’re trying not to chase too many of these headlines… We keep adding employees. It seems like every other week, which is good because the way we do what we do requires human bodies to do it for our brand partners and to continue to scale the way we are.”
HBCU Athletes Receive MyMcDonald's Rewards NIL Deals Via Postgame
HOUSTON — McDonald's is partnering with over 40 HBCU student-athletes through NIL deals to promote their new MyMcDonald's rewards program. The athletes will be featuring a new frozen slushy, available for a limited time, and the mobile order pay feature offered by the fast food chain on their social media channels.
"We help brands leverage partnerships with these college athletes to drive a marketing activation with a measurable reason," Postgame's Danny Morrissey told HBCU Legends. "It's intentional, brands want to be more inclusive, and they're partnering with athletes from Grambling and other HBCUs."
The McDonald's MyRewards promotion features Fisk, Tennessee State, Alabama A&M, and North Carolina A&T athletes to promote via social media accounts. The HBCU student-athletes connected with the McDonald's MyRewards campaign via the expanding NIL agency Postgame.
"Working with these athletes is about engaging their surrounding community, too. McDonald's franchisees want HBCU athletes who are like local heroes in their market around the campus. They attend the schools and are celebrities." The business owners aim to connect with the HBCU culture by enabling student-athletes to interact with the nearby community surrounding their campuses.
Postgame provides a free service for HBCU student-athletes to navigate its NIL space to gain lucrative agreements with high-profile companies. Several major brands have recognized the untapped marketing potential of black colleges and are increasing their budgets to appeal to young black consumers through HBCU student-athletes. Adidas, Crocs, Urban Outfitters, Steve Madden, Reebok, IZOD, Taco Bell, and McDonald's have noticed the benefits of engaging talent from HBCUs through the NIL Agency, Postgame.
Postgame Facilitates Steve Madden NIL Deal With Men's Basketball Players
Athletes are continuing to step further into the creator space, partnering with brands in their efforts to take advantage of influencer marketing.
These deals don’t happen without facilitation, which is where companies like Postgame come in.
Postgame, the world’s leading NIL agency, is managing some of the top NIL campaigns in all of college sports. The company boasts 60,000 athletes on its platform to recruit for deals. Athletes opt-in, then Postgame provides the brand with a list of athletes, sorted by athlete value.
Postgame’s goal is to democratize the NIL space, so that even smaller-scale athletes are receiving opportunities.
Athletes who are inking NIL deals aren’t full-time creators. They’re athletes and students first, which is why assistance on the creation side is a must when trying to juggle it all.
“We offer help on the content creation side of things to help these athletes share their stories, engage with their audience in unique ways, and create the best content possible,” Aaron Hackett, dIrector of athlete relations at Postgame, told The NIL Deal in a recent interview.
Deals of this nature not only financially benefit the student-athletes who produce high-quality content, but the brands that are investing in them as well.
“I think the sheer amount of content that’s coming in is really helping brands, because not only is it top of the funnel awareness, but brands are able to reuse and repurpose that content on their social page,” said Hackett. “That’s one thing that a lot of brands are looking for — authentic, user generated content on their social platforms.”
One of the most recent deals that Postgame facilitated was with Steve Madden.
Steve Madden worked with 15 collegiate men’s basketball players to promote their loafers that are being sold at Dillard’s.
With a slew of athletes, Steve Madden is able to tap into a much larger, more diverse crowd than would be possible with just a single influencer.
Washington’s Keion Brooks Jr. shared a photo wearing the Steve Madden shoes on his Instagram, where he has 41K followers.
“Student athletes’ audiences are a lot more engaging than traditional influencers,” said Hackett. “You’re able to get different stories told from student athletes that you wouldn’t get from traditional influencers, which is very valuable.”
Another men’s basketball player, Mark Calleja of USF, posted multiple photos wearing the shoes. He has more than 3K followers on Instagram.
“Athletes are taking more ownership of their brand and realizing how powerful they are,” added Hackett. “They’re able to partner themselves strategically with brands they want to authentically represent.”
While the clothing industry is definitely capitalizing on NIL — experiencing success from student athletes wanting to show off their personal style — community resources and charitable events are another big space.
“That’s the beautiful thing about NIL. It’s allowing athletes to give back more than ever,” Hackett said.
The Steve Madden campaign took place during March Madness, arguably the busiest time of the year for basketball players. Postgame’s unique value proposition is that they’re aware of the time crunch athletes face and do everything in their power to execute these campaigns in an efficient, yet attractive manner.
“This campaign was really hand-picked and hand-curated,” said Hackett. “If you look at the content that’s coming from it, you’re going to see very high quality photos, professionally done content, a lot of great style from these athletes.”
Louisville’s Hercy Miller posted a carousel of images wearing the Steve Madden shoes on his Instagram, where he has amassed 145K followers.
Athletes are able to represent more than just what happens on the court or on the field. One of the purposes of the Steve Madden campaign was to showcase not only the athlete’s fashion sense, but how they can wear Steve Madden in their everyday outfits.
“Athletes are really learning how to maximize themselves by showing their unique personality. These athletes have many other interests besides their sports and they’re wanting to highlight that,” said Hackett. ”A lot of athletes are starting to branch out more and are wanting to work with brands who they want to represent and feel fit their personal needs.”
Hollywood Taps Into Student Athletes At Scale For Movie Promotion
Headlines are often dominated by NIL deals offered to individual student athletes, but NIL agency Postgame is taking a different approach and offering athletes to companies at scale in order to promote things like Hollywood movie releases.
In March, more than 1,000 college and high school student athletes shared content promoting Woody Harrelson’s latest comedy, Champions, as part of a sponsored NIL deal. The campaign included five screenings for athletes through a partnership with Hollywood production company Focus Features.
"The Champions event offered a unique opportunity for student athletes to participate in promoting a major Hollywood film,” said Postgame’s director of athlete relations, Aaron Hackett. “For many of these athletes, this was their first NIL opportunity. Postgame was able to coordinate five different movie screenings across the country with over 150 attendees. Postgame helped student athletes capture professional drone videography to help boost their personal brands.”
It’s one of the largest NIL campaign so far in terms of the more than 1,000 athletes involved who generated nearly 2 million impressions. Postgame says Instagram reels produced the best engagement.
"The event was great because student athletes promoted a movie that shows how sports goes beyond wins and losses,” said Hackett. “Athletes walked away with a different perspective of how impactful sports can be in many different ways."
Champions is described as a hilarious and heartwarming story of a former minor-league basketball coach who, after a series of missteps, is ordered by the court to manage a team of players with intellectual disabilities. He soon realizes that despite his doubts, together, this team can go further than they ever imagined.
Student athletes who promoted the movie were compensated both with baseline compensation and with additional monies earned through affiliate commission.
San Diego State’s Lamont Butler joins Postgame’s NIL campaign with Urban Outfitters
Lamont Butler always will be associated with his last-second shot that put San Diego State in Monday night’s national title game.
That shot is the reason his name, image and likeness rights are extremely valuable at the moment. He has seen an uptick in his social media following. Plus, he has joined Postgame’s NIL campaign with Urban Outfitters, posting on his Instagram on Sunday night. “Urban Outfitters has game winning apparel,” Butler wrote.
While he only scored nine points in the Final Four win over Florida Atlantic, his jumper as time expired put him in the national spotlight. His teammates mobbed him near center court. Butler was interviewed on the CBS broadcast next to coach Brian Dutcher, too.
The focus is obviously winning Monday night against UConn, but Butler could be looking at plenty of NIL possibilities. A junior, he has two years of eligibility remaining because of the extra season granted by the NCAA in the wake of COVID-19. He is averaging 8.7 points, 3.3 assists and 2.7 rebounds per game.
Terms of Butler’s deal were not disclosed.
This is not his first NIL deal; the NIL Store released a T-shirt featuring Butler’s shot, with his jersey also for sale through the custom and co-licensed apparel company. He also has released physical trading cards with the digital marketplace Daps and a pre-existing deal with JLab audio.
Postgame’s role Urban Outfitter’s deal
A source told On3 other college basketball stars are expected to join the Urban Outfitters campaign in the coming days. A sports marketing agency, Postgame plays a role in getting the company to the table in the first place. More than 60,000 athletes from over 350 colleges are in Postgame’s athlete portal.
Postgame does not classify itself as an NIL marketplace, such as Opendorse or Icon Source. It also does not view itself like INFLCR, which brands itself as a software company. It has worked with a number of recognizable brands including Reebok and Urban Outfitters. A recent marketing deal with Crocs featured 550 athletes.
The Urban Outfitters campaign has been running since September and was renewed for March Madness.
“I can say with confidence, we’ve done more NIL deals than anyone in this space,” Postgame director of athlete relations Aaron Hackett previously told On3. “We’ll go approach brands, and we’re a free platform for athletes. We work on the brand side. And you know, we’ve had a lot of success running these influencer campaigns at scale."
Brands Are Ditching Their Usual Influencer Marketing Strategies For NIL Deals
Ever since the NCAA gave college athletes the chance to profit off of their names, images, and likenesses with its NIL policy, brands have been lining up to court them. Almost two years later, though, some companies are finding that student athletes can be a bit hard to pin down.
Many student athletes don’t have agents or PR reps for brands to reach out to. Some aren’t used to checking their emails regularly (they’re Gen Z, after all—you have to slide in their DM's. And between academics and athletics, they are essentially juggling two full-time jobs already.
“We’ve had to relook at our marketing timelines and adjust to new factors such as the players’ academic schedule, practice, and game days,” Sara Tervo, CMO of fashion brand Express, which last year entered into NIL deals with Ohio State Buckeyes football players C.J. Stroud and Jaxon Smith-Njigba, told Marketing Brew in an email.
As a result, brands that want to play ball with college athletes might have to ditch their traditional influencer marketing strategies and write a different playbook.
“Whatever strategy you have for influencer…take it and throw it out the window, because it does not work in this space,” Danny Morrissey, co-founder of college sports marketing agency Postgame, told Marketing Brew.
There are plenty of perks to working with college athletes, NIL pros noted. For one, players can be “regional heroes,” Morrissey said, which makes them ideal for crafting winning local ad campaigns. Express, for instance, was “able to focus on more regional marketing opportunities where we can hone in on the fandom of a localized network with appearance days, local media outreach, and photo shoots,” Tervo said. The brand’s initial partnership with Stroud and Smith-Njigba resulted in 30 billion social impressions, she added.
Student athletes are also busy—really busy. Partnering with student athletes during the season can result in a more “elevated” campaign, but that also tends to be the toughest time scheduling-wise, Morrissey explained.
To alleviate some of that scheduling pressure, he advised brands to enter into partnerships with students before the season starts. Marketers might start creating content with a soccer player ahead of the season in late July or early August so that when the season kicks off, “you can then activate” with the players quickly, Morrissey told us.
Some brands seem to be embracing that kind of less-produced content: A fashion brand once specifically requested an athlete do a reshoot because the photos were “too high-quality,” Morrisey said. Brands should also prepare to be flexible.
”These athletes, they are busy, they have student commitments, they have athletic commitments, and they’re also just living life. The more that you can be engaging with them, flexible but involved, I think you’ll be successful.”
Penn State athletes watch private screening of Woody Harrelson's 'Champions' in NIL Campaign
A number of Penn State athletes watched a screening of Woody Harrelson’s latest sports comedy movie, “Champions,” on Monday night. The private screening took place at UEC Theatres 12 in State College with the event being organized through film studio Focus Features and NIL agency Postgame, which touts itself as managing “the largest Name, Image & Likeness campaigns in all of college sports — for many of the world’s most recognized brands.”
Penn State alumnus and former basketball player Danny Morrissey is a co-founder of Postgame. He said that Focus Features “was great to work with” and “has been awesome” in partnering with colleges and universities around the country to screen “Champions.” “As a sports-related NIL company, having a movie that athletes can be promoting is great,” Morrissey said. “But going a step further, the movie itself is a great story — a feel good story about being inclusive of people with special needs. There’s so many interesting stories out there about basketball, football and other athletic programs that are out there that are inclusive to those with intellectual disabilities.”
When Morrissey played with Penn State, Patrick Northrup-Moore served as the team’s manager. Northrup-Moore has Down syndrome, “a genetic condition that causes delays in physical and intellectual development,” according to the National Association for Down Syndrome. Morrissey is still friends with Northrup-Moore and believes that it’s a unique way to promote the movie with having players that are in-tune with its message. Penn State happened to be one of the target markets for Focus Features — reaching Los Angeles (UCLA), Austin, Texas (University of Texas), and Philadelphia.
“It worked out great that it was my alma mater,” Morrissey said. Also set to appear in the movie are Kaitlin Olson (“It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”), Matt Cook (“Clipped”), Ernie Hudson, Cheech Marin and Mike Smith (Trailer Park Boys), along with ESPN’s Scott Van Pelt and Jalen Rose as themselves.
Nearly 500 athletes will have participated in the social media campaign before the movie is in theaters on March 10.
How Postgame orchestrated CeraVe Skincare's NIL investment
When a notable brand partners with Postgame, there typically is more to it than social media posts from a wide range of athletes. The sports marketing agency plays a role in getting the company to the table in the first place. In the past few months, Reebok and Urban Outfitters have launched campaigns. But instead of a few endorsement deals with some big-name athletes in target markets, Postgame is creating the opportunity for further reach – specifically, the type of advertisement that brands could not create on their own.
The latest example is CeraVe, which has tactfully used name, image and likeness to break down the stereotype of men not caring about their skincare.
Using Postgame’s portal, which includes more than 60,000 athletes from more than 350 colleges, the brand has signed agreements with 100 male athletes. When the campaign is finished, roughly 250 to 300 unique pieces of content will be posted across social media channels.
“CeraVe was really looking to drive male Gen Z audience awareness, and I think it’s a perfect fit because it’s definitely authentic,” Postgame director of athlete relations Aaron Hackett told On3 via phone last week. “For a lot of guys, this is their go-to skincare brand.”
Hackett said the company’s priority was “athletes participating in seasonal winter sports, so snowboarding, skiing, ice hockey, long-distance runners.” But anyone who attends college in cold- weather regions, including those who play basketball and football, was a possibility. “They definitely wanted to speak on authenticity and using their products and how athletes use it in their daily life,” Hackett said.
Hackett said each athlete involved in the campaign will be compensated based on a variety of factors, including their social following. The school and sport also are taken into consideration. Athletes can secure cash bonuses if, for instance, a post generates a larger-than-expected reach. Postgame has an in-house algorithm to help with this. All the content posted throughout the CeraVe campaign is reviewed, too, and strong posts could result in a bonus. The goal at Postgame is to create original NIL opportunities for all athletes.
“We at CeraVe know how seasonal weather changes, especially when the temperature drops in the winter, can have a huge impact on your skin – and that’s no different for athletes, who experience these seasonal changes firsthand during outdoor practices or games,” CeraVe vice president of marketing Jasteena Gill said in a statement. “As a brand rooted in dermatology, we’re always aiming to bring skincare education to the forefront and have enlisted these collegiate athletes to help authentically share how they use CeraVe and expand reach among Gen Z consumers.”
How Postgame picks athletes for brand campaigns
Postgame does not classify itself as an NIL marketplace. Hackett said Postgame views its operation as a sports marketing agency based off how it works with brands and the size of campaigns executed. Its recent work with Crocs featured 550 athletes.
“I can say with confidence that we’ve done more NIL deals than anyone else in this space,” Hackett said. “We’ll approach brands, and we’re a free platform for athletes. We work on the brand side and have had a lot of success of running these influencer campaigns at scale, kind of democratizing NIL.”
Athletes can join the Postgame app, but it does not immediately add them to the upcoming ad blitz with a notable brand. While it has brought major names to the NIL world, there are some parameters in place. Typically, before an athlete is monetizing their NIL next to a recognizable logo, they will promote Postgame. And while some may see it as a test, Hackett said it’s an opportunity.
“For any athlete who reaches out to us, we’ll send them a free product in return for a post,” he said. “Whether it’s a Postgame shirt, hoodie, hat, shorts – whatever it is, it gives them an opportunity to promote content. And what we’ll do is use the content created to determine who’s a good content creator, who makes good quality content. We’ll share some of those videos with our brand partners to show them, ‘Hey, we know this athlete; he’s reliable. Look at this great video he’s done in the past.’ “
Quality content does not have a concrete definition, though. Each athlete is given the avenue to create how they see fit, whether that looks like a TikTok with a voiceover or a compelling set of photos on Instagram.
That thought process is leading more brands into NIL, Hackett said, especially when a company can partner with athletes from multiple markets across the country who have built-in followings on social media and in communities.
“These athletes’ communities follow them and actively engage with them,” he said. “I think that’s the difference, right? Not only are they being seen on TV all the time, but they’re stars in their local community. Having people who can authentically speak to Gen Z about your product – that’s the biggest thing for these brands, having someone who can authentically speak and represent your brand in a manner that you want it to be."
Master P's Sons Mercy and Hercy Miller Talk Inking NIL Deals with Leading Sportswear Brands through Postgame
The NBA just wrapped up All-Star weekend showcasing the brightest talents in the league. While that stage is showcasing the stars of today, stars of the future are rising the ranks of basketball, while cashing in on NIL deals.
Among those are high-school Basketball phenom and rapper Master P’s son, Mercy Miller, who recently aligned with Reebok. The future Houston Cougar will star in announcements for Allen Iverson’s latest sneaker. The deal was executed by the NIL influencer marketing agency Postgame.
NIL is a relatively new program but is currently sweeping the nation across pre-professional ranks. Postgame Director of Athlete Relations, Aaron Hackett, details what makes NIL an essential part of the game.
“We see a lot of misconceptions in the headlines surrounding NIL with collectives, pay for play and the transfer portal,” said Hackett. “Working with both Hercy and Mercy on these two latest campaigns embodies the true intent of why NIL was passed. Allowing athletes to leverage their personal brand and collaborate with businesses to share unique and authentic stories.”
How Postgame and Reebok Define The New Age of NIL Partnerships
Creative casting across dozens of colleges has empowered student-athletes to headline a new campaign for some of Reebok’s most iconic models.
When Kenny McIntosh and the Georgia Bulldogs won the College Football Playoff last month, the star running back donned the school’s staple red uniform, with no less than 16 visible hits of Nike Swoosh branding across his jersey, pants, helmet, gloves, socks and cleats. Even the play card holder around his waist featured a subtle Swoosh.
In exchange for the brand visibility, Georgia nets around $40 million in total from the Swoosh in cash and product value during their decade-long deal. With their current 10-year deal set to expire soon, the next one should be exponentially more lucrative.
Luckily for McIntosh, for the last 18 months, he’s been free to cash in on his star power, too, even by representing Nike’s competitors across his own social media pages.
With the help of the Postgame platform, an agency specifically geared towards connecting collegiate athletes with brands for paid promotional NIL campaigns, McIntosh and more than 30 other players from a variety of sports and colleges recently repped Reebok in a full campaign activation.
“Reebok was reintroducing the Question, the Answer and the Classics, and they wanted to get some big-time college athletes wearing the shoes and taking a look back at Allen Iverson to represent it,” Postgame founder Bill Jula told Boardroom.
Postgame touts around 60,000 athlete users from more than 350 colleges. Those players integrate their Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter pages to the platform to track metrics like followers, impressions, and engagement.
Tallied from a total of more than 20,000 pieces of content created and shared, the platform founded in Florida has delivered over 100 million combined views across social media for its brand partners since launching.
Postgame works by sending student-athletes alerts when brands have campaigns that might fit their interests. The players can then opt in or out, and create content in support of a given launch that they want to participate in.
Of the 34 total players included in the Reebok campaign, which has run through December and January, with Foot Locker and Champs serving as the retail partner, not a single athlete wears Reebok on their respective game days. That’s because Reebok has gone away from school-wide sponsorship deals in the last decade, while still staying right in the mix of sneaker culture with ongoing retro launches and re-releases of the industry’s second-greatest brand archive from the 1990s.
Of the players incorporated into the campaign, twenty competed at Nike schools, another eight played for Jordan branded college programs, while a handful of others attended Under Armour universities and one lone athlete wore Adidas on the gridiron. There’s already another upcoming Reebok campaign powered by Postgame in the works that will feature 25 more athletes opting in.
The Postgame Approach
The NIL landscape not only represents a new era of how brands approach marketing rollouts and campaign launches, but also in how they determine longtime industry benchmarks like ROI, total impressions, and impact.
Rather than signing pro players to traditional long-term endorsement deals, brands are seeing more of a return on a wider-cast effort that splashes partner posts across dozens of well-followed younger athlete pages on Instagram or TikTok. The collegiate athletes are closer in age to a target audience of middle and high schoolers, the thinking goes, while also having a command of crafting content for their own social media pages.
“Our approach is that we offer campaigns at scale,” Jula said. “Brands might be worried about spending their entire budget on one athlete. They can accomplish more visibility and exposure by getting 100 athletes, and get 10X the total views on it.”
With participating players from powerhouse football programs like star wide receiver Isaiah Bond at Nike school Alabama, college basketball’s third-leading scorer Jordan “Jelly” Walker at UA-sponsored UAB, UNC hooper Alyssa Ustby and Olympian and Florida track star Taylor Manson, the platform has been able to bridge a blend of top stars, along with athletes who’ve shown an ability to deliver creative content.
“We want to deliver a campaign that the brands themselves would’ve had a difficult time doing,” Jula said. “Dealing with so many athletes at one time and negotiating real rates is difficult.”
As Jula points out, for a recent Crocs campaign that featured 550 athletes, Postgame established rates per post, outlined expectations for assets and timelines, and then delivered an aligned campaign of player posts across social media.
“We had five athletes in particular that people may not have heard of that created great content and got 230,000 views on Instagram,” he said. “A six-figure type player would basically get the same visibility.”
Creating Compelling Content
The wide-reaching approach to campaigns has created a lane for some athletes to rise above the rest with their creativity.
Take “E.Diamondz,” or Erin Brown, for example. The transfer is newly listed on the official track and field roster page of Grand Canyon University. Rather than mention his sprinting prowess on his Instagram bio, the 5’10” runner specifies that he’s an “Entrepreneur 💻🤵🏽” On his own “The Erin Brown” Linktree bio page, the header declaration is even more bold: “The Greatest Creator The Internet Has Ever Seen”
Creator of a running form style he dubs “The Spider,” the sprinter also sells his own merch shirts with the phrase, “Let The Clock Talk.” While not a household name like a UConn hooper or a Georgia star running back, Brown’s inclusion in the Reebok and Postgame campaign represents how NIL can elevate athletes from lesser-known programs.
“It was a great experience that allowed me to express my creative skills,” Brown said. “Something that I feel that separates me from most NIL athletes.”
From the top of a parking garage, Brown showcased the white and baby blue Reebok Questions, which Allen Iverson once wore during his Denver days.
The four-photo album production was all his own doing. A follow-up video showed him wearing both the Question and an all-white pair of the Reebok Classic. Postgame will often entrust the student-athletes to execute their imagery and content, with the athlete either capturing the assets themselves, or enlisting a friend with photo or video skills. In rare cases, Postgame will send a crew out to a priority athlete to ensure a level of quality.
“The creative freedom with me being able to create freely with no limitations is a huge plus,” Brown added of the campaign process. “I also enjoy the pressure of a due date for videos that I make, to allow my creative juices to flow rapidly.”
Another athlete that stood out in the campaign was Gabe Taylor, younger brother of late Washington safety Sean Taylor. Clad in his maroon and gold No. 21 uniform, Taylor was also laced in the clean and classic black, white, and gold Answer 1 Retro, as part of his integration into the Reebok campaign.
While the standard participation format entails athletes earning money in exchange for their posts on social media, Postgame has also worked with brands that want to incorporate the created content into their own brand pages and advertising materials.
“Sometimes a post might perform really well and the metrics were strong,” Jula said. “A lot of times, it’s the quality of the content, that the brand is looking to re-license and extend the life of by using in their own paid media content. They’re always looking for good content, and a lot of athletes are getting picked up again and again.”
There’s a straightforward way that athletes can best utilize the platform and establish themselves as strong partners for brands.
“Your metrics are your metrics,” Jula said. “Your engagement rates will be what they’re going to be. But what you can really control is creating some really high-quality content, go above and beyond with what we’re asking for, and then be reliable and timely with the process.”
In the first year, athletes that’ve shown consistency and reliability in production have seen their deals grow in volume. On the back end, there’s even a portal header named “Top Athletes Creating Awesome Content” to help brands identify players that might be a fit as a standout creator.
“Brands are definitely looking at these campaigns as a way to identify future brand ambassadors,” Jula explained. “Some of the brands we’ve worked with, they’ve done two or three campaigns with us that might run for 60 days and involve 50-100 athletes. From each of those campaigns, oftentimes they’re asking us to go back to some of those same athletes to incorporate them into future campaigns.”
While it’s now commonplace for top amateur athletes to have official representation at the college and even high school level, as Jula reveals, around 95% of the athletes using the Postgame platform are opting into a brand campaign on their own. That leaves around 5% with agents. Postgame recently hired a Director of Athlete Relations to help facilitate any conversations, negotiations, and activations with higher level representatives or larger agency teams that manage an athlete.
Postgame & The NIL Landscape Ahead
Just 18 months in, the overall Name, Image and Likeness space still carries a wild west feel at times. As Jula has noticed, two divisions of deal formats have evolved since NIL first came into effect last July 1.
“There’s the true spirit of NIL, which is what we’re doing. Whether you’re a low-level athlete or a high-level athlete there is a rate that a brand will be willing to pay,” he said. “And then, there’s collectives and pay-for-play NIL. No brand would ever really spend that amount for what the ROI would actually be. That’s a collective or a booster that wants to see his or her team win. That’s a whole other thing.”
When million-dollar deals do get leaked or announced, they’re typically in tandem with a school securing a prospective athlete’s signing. Within the rules, that’s technically in play, and also a refreshing element of simple open market demand that allows for the true superstar prospects to monetize the starting point of their college careers.
As Jula sees it, rather than splashing money through a collective at an athlete and then leaving them to create and execute content, schools could offer more resources for the athletes looking to build their digital imprints.
“If I was a school, I would lend out my marketing team in the athletic department to help athletes create content,” he added. “If I was bringing recruits in, you used to show them the stadium, the locker room and the weight room. I would walk them right into a video production room, and say, ‘This is where you’re going to make money.’ I would make that the focus of a recruiting trip now.”
As the landscape continues to evolve, inventive athletes have been able to generate five or even six figures a year.
“Over the last year and a half, the quality of the content has dramatically improved, across the board,” Jula said. “These athletes are seeing each other create content for NIL campaigns, and the bar just keeps getting raised. That’s part of why the brands keep coming back. They’re getting a library of great content.”
The Unexpected Trend With NIL Apparel Sponsors
One of the biggest questions in the early name, image, and likeness era concerned whether athletes would sign deals with apparel companies that competed with their schools’ sponsors. The majority of athletes appear to be sticking with their school’s apparel brands: South Carolina’s Aliyah Boston inked a long-term deal with Under Armour; UCLA’s Reilyn Turner signed with Nike; and hundreds of athletes at Adidas schools have begun to work with the company.
But a select few have deviated.
How are they allowed to do so? Some state laws allow schools to prohibit athletes from inking partnerships with their sponsors’ competitors — but others don’t have any such requirements.
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One of the first athletes Adidas signed was golfer Rose Zhang, who played for Nike school Stanford.
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Startup women’s basketball shoe brand Moolah Kicks has inked more than 40 NIL deals, despite the fact that the D-I athletes like Aijha Blackwell of Baylor and Taylor Soule of Virginia Tech aren’t allowed to play in the shoes.
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Reebok has launched a campaign with NIL agency Postgame - attracting dozens of athletes from Georgia football players Kenny McIntosh and Darnell Washington to UAB basketball player Jordan “Jelly” Walker.
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Even Under Armour has signed a few athletes to its program that don’t go to Under Armour schools.
As Bill Jula, co-founder and CEO of Postgame, pointed out to Front Office Sports, there’s an argument to be made that several activewear brands shouldn’t count as direct “competitors” to school sponsor brands, as they aren’t in the business of team contracts. Postgame has helped many athletes sign with activewear brands, and have only run into issues with schools once or twice.
Even when these types of deals are permitted, however, there’s a major drawback: Brands won’t get as much exposure from athletes who are contractually obligated to wear different companies’ apparel during games or other school-sponsored events. But pulling an athlete away from its original sponsor can actually be a successful marketing ploy.
"When athletes post about brands they choose to partner with, rather than brands their schools require them to wear, it “has the potential to across as more authentic,” Jula said. Postgame has helped facilitate both Reebok and Adidas deals.
Moolah Kicks founder Natalie White echoed that sentiment. “I think it says something pretty strong that when players have a choice, the choice is Moolah Kicks,” White previously said.
In other cases, signing an athlete could be less a specific strategy and more just a necessary evil. Charece Williams Gee, Under Armour’s senior director and head of sports marketing and partnerships, previously told FOS that Under Armour sometimes signs athletes from non-UA schools because “their values just align.”
Postgame Launches Reebok NIL Campaign Featuring Star Athletes
The sports marketing agency Postgame launched a campaign with Reebok in December that features 60 athletes, including a number of star college football and basketball players. Georgia running back Kenny McIntosh and tight end Darnell Washington each signed an NIL deal through the campaign, as did Alabama wide receiver Isaiah Bond.
The participating athletes will promote shoes including the Allen Iverson Reebok Question Mids, Allen Iverson Reebok Answer DMXs and the all-white Reebok Classics. They’ll also promote either Foot Locker or Champs Sports, where the shoes are available.
Postgame founder and CEO Bill Jula said in a phone interview the participating athletes must post an Instagram Reel and an Instagram post featuring a carousel of photos. Athletes have the option to post on TikTok rather than the Instagram Reel. Jula said the athletes will earn different levels of compensation based on factors such as the size of their social media followings and their engagement rates.
Florida track runner Taylor Manson, who won a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympics, and Oklahoma forward Madi Williams, a two-time unanimous first-team All-Big 12 selection, are two of the headlining athletes who compete in track and field, and basketball, respectively.
Jula said the agency’s goal in sourcing athletes was “trying to get a nice cross-sampling of a combination of male and female [athletes], basketball and football, some different sports. Just kind of spread it around a little bit.”
UCLA guards Tyger Campbell and Jaylen Clark, and UAB guard Jordan “Jelly” Walker, who’s the leading scorer in men’s college basketball, are some of the notable men’s basketball players who are participating in the campaign. Master P’s son Mercy Miller, who’s a combo guard at Notre Dame High School in Sherman Oaks, Calif., and who committed to Houston, is also participating.
Athletes at Nike, Under Armour schools participate in campaign
It’s notable that all of the college athletes who are participating in the Reebok campaign attend schools that have contracts with Jordan Brand, Nike or Under Armour, according to Jula. Alabama, Florida and Georgia’s apparel partner is Nike.
UCLA’s apparel partner is Jordan Brand after it settled a lawsuit with Under Armour. Oklahoma has also partnered with Jordan Brand. Over their lifetime, apparel contracts can be worth eight or nine figures for universities. UCLA and Under Armour originally agreed to a 15-year, $280-million contract. However, the athletes involved in the Reebok campaign are promoting the shoes of a competitor of their school’s apparel provider.
“Obviously you’re at Ohio State, Georgia, wherever, you’re on the biggest stage with the most pressure to be wearing Nike, right? Or Under Armour, whoever they’re sponsored by,” Jula said. “The willingness to do it is one thing and to then go and also create really good content behind the brand too is a whole other thing to put in the effort.”
Texas wide receiver Jordan Whittington‘s Instagram post featured a video of Allen Iverson crossing over Michael Jordan before a clip of Whittington dribbling.
Postgame helped facilitate a campaign with Reebok during the holiday season in 2021, too. It featured athletes like former Kentucky guard Rhyne Howard, who was the No. 1 pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft, and former Arizona guard Dalen Terry, who was the No. 18 pick in the 2022 NBA Draft.
Jula said there have only been two or three examples of athletes who have been unable to participate in a campaign that Postgame facilitated due to the athlete’s school having a contract with a competitor. Institutional policies and state laws can limit the types of NIL activities athletes can pursue but Jula said that in his experience, it’s not common for athletes’ potential brand partners to be limited based on their school’s contractual relationships.
“That’s few and far between,” Jula said.
College Athletes Make Their Mark In Urban Outfitters Campaign
The lifestyle retailer Urban Outfitters has partnered with 29 NCAA Division I athletes in NIL deals as part of a campaign during the back-to-school season in which they’ll showcase how they “make their mark,” according to a press release. The NIL agency Postgame helped connect the athletes and the brand through its network of roughly 60,000 college athletes.
The Urban Outfitters campaign will feature athletes who are household names for fans of their respective sports. Stanford women’s basketball player Cameron Brink, Georgia running back Kendall Milton and defensive back Kelee Ringo, and Texas linebacker DeMarvion Overshown are part of the campaign. The campaign features 11 women, and athletes from 10 different sports and 20 different schools.
“In collaboration with Postgame, Urban Outfitters will work with the participating athletes to showcase how they ‘Make their Mark’ in all aspects of student-athlete life, whether it be on the field or on campus,” the release stated. “The campaign will include a variety of social media posts by each athlete over a number of weeks wearing UO apparel and showcasing UO Home’s dorm decor assortment. UO’s diverse community can follow along on social media as the athletes share their favorite products and how they fit into their daily routines.”
The athletes partnering with Urban Outfitters
While some third-party companies that provide NIL resources or education sign contracts with specific institutions or conferences, Postgame does not.
“We’re an open network,” Postgame CEO Bill Jula previously told On3 over the summer. “We have no allegiance to any specific program, conference, anything. We don’t have any contracts with schools. So we’re as open a universe as imaginable.”
The 29 athletes who are part of the campaign will provide social media endorsements. They’ll also have the opportunity to make in-store appearances at select Urban Outfitters locations. The lifestyle retailer has more than 200 stores in the U.S.
On Thursday, Sept. 29, Texas’ Overshown will attend Urban Outfitters’ College Night programming in Austin. The athletes in the campaign will be featured on Urban Outfitters’ platforms “throughout the quarter.”
The complete list of athletes who are participating in the Urban Outfitters campaign with Postgame is below:
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Stanford University: Cameron Brink
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University of Georgia: Kelee Ringo
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University of Michigan: A.J. Henning
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UCLA: Margzetta Frazier
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USC: Brenden Rice
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FSU: Cam’Ron Fletcher
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Texas: DeMarvion Overshown
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University of Georgia: Kendall Milton
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Penn State: Anna Camden
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Arizona State: Chad Johnson Jr.
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U of L: Hercy Miller
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Georgia Tech: Devion Smith
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Penn State: Ishaan Jagiasi
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UCLA: Janelle Meono Ivy
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University of Arizona: Lauren Ware
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Georgia State: Tony McCray
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IU: Malachi Holt-Bennett
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Drexel University: Ronnie Gunter
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Penn State: Beau Bartlett
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St. John’s: Tyler Roche
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UPenn: Madison Leibman
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Tennessee: Chandler Hayden
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Tennessee: Jonas Aidoo
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Villanova University: Trey Patterson
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FSU: Allison Royalty
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Columbia: Jaida Patrick
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IU: Jordyn Levy
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Tennessee: Rickea Jackson
Postgame App Unleashes An Army of NILLIONAIRES.
The app that started as a way to measure student-athletes’ NIL value has grown into a full-service agency connecting national brands with thousands of college athletes, an NFT marketplace, and “NIL Coin,” its own cryptocurrency.
Phase I: Brand Services
Sarasota, FL - July 1, 2021 will go down as one of the most significant days in the history of college athletics. From that point forward, student-athletes were able to start monetizing their personal brands. When that day hit, Postgame already had a database of thousands of college athletes and an estimate of how much it would cost brands to do a deal with them.
To start, Postgame had to go to brands and pitch their services, which wasn’t hard, considering everything it offers. “We do everything for the brand from A to Z,” said Postgame CEO & Founder, Bill Jula. “We have 6,000-plus athletes with significant followings on our network ready to endorse; We ask the brand who they are trying to reach... and specifically what type of athletes they want to work with based on geography, sport, gender and more. We then recruit our athletes into the campaign and allow the brand to ultimately choose who they want to work with. It could be 20 athletes it could be 2,000 depending on their budget. We're built to manage any size campaign."
While Postgame has its database of athletes, Jula notes that the company is not an agency and hasn’t signed any athlete to any sort of exclusive deal. Athletes merely provide Postgame with their information in exchange for notifications about potential opportunities. To date, Postgame has successfully paired athletes from just about every team and sport with interested brands — be it for a one-off social post or an extended partnership.
“You could tell right away, most of the market was really fixated on the big one-off deals,” Jula said. “I didn’t think our chances of succeeding on day one was with those marquee guys, so my plan was: Let’s go far and wide with this and give the brands a different kind of opportunity vs. putting all their eggs in that one basket with that one big-name player. Let’s reach more followers with more athletes at less cost.”
Phase 2: NFT Marketplace
It only seemed natural that the next step for Postgame would be to dive into the NFT game, as the blockchain-powered phenomenon gives athletes the chance to do something on their own and invest in themselves.
When Postgame agrees to develop a non-fungible token for a player, he or she is given five for free, either to sell and make money from, or to bet on themselves, predicting that they will go pro one day and their college NFTs will accrue more value over time. Digital collectibles sold in the marketplace are split 50/50 between Postgame and the athlete.
“Our vision is to be a conduit for these college athletes to earn money from their NIL's,” Jula said. “Coming from a technology background and watching the NFT space and what was happening with NBA Top Shot, there’s definitely a void in this space (college athletes). Not many people were doing college athlete NFTs as of a month or so ago.”
From Postgame’s perspective, it needs to be strategic around who gets an NFT. Jula says there are some simple criteria that the company uses. For one, the athlete needs to have a real chance to go pro and/or offer something unique like being the first-ever NFT for their college, sport and more.
Florida pitcher Hunter Barco was one of the early athletes to have an NFT in Postgame’s NFT marketplace. He’s the Gators’ ace and is a potential first-round pick in the 2022 MLB Draft. Postgame’s homepage touts that one of his Limited Edition GOLD NFTs sold for $850.
Opening up NFTs to college athletes also means bringing in a new audience of fans — older alumni, or simply people who have not been engaged with the likes of NBA Top Shot. Postgame isn’t in the business of explaining cryptocurrency to its customers, so it removed that barrier. Fans can shop on Postgame’s marketplace with a credit card or PayPal in addition to their MetaMask wallet. Their marketplace NFT Locker, also stores the NFT(s) for a buyer until they are ready to move them. Soon, Postgame will provide another option for payment: NIL Coin.
Phase 3: NIL Coin
If your staff is tech-savvy enough, it’s only logical that the next step would be to go from dealing in cryptocurrency to actually creating one. So Postgame did, officially debuting NIL Coin in January.
While NIL Coin was made with college athletes in mind, the hope is to have it available on crypto exchanges alongside Bitcoin, Ethereum, and the other big players. When NIL Coin officially went live, Postgame and its athletes were ready to promote it across their Instagram feeds and stories. They will now have the opportunity to get paid to promote Postgame in US dollars, NIL Coin, or a combination of the two.
“It doesn’t necessarily have to be something that’s going to be limited to college athletics,” Jula said. “But because we have such a good starting point with 6,000-plus athletes on Postgame, it’s a no-brainer to launch the coin through this.”
NIL Coin is still in its infancy, but in just two full days since its launch, it was up over 200%. Two hundred of Postgame’s athletes are currently promoting the currency, and all of them will officially tie as the first student-athletes to be paid for a name, image, and likeness deal at least partially in NIL Coin.
Consider the era of the self-made NIL-lionaire officially minted.