What Brands Can Expect When Collaborating With College Athletes
NIL is growing rapidly, is your brand ready to jump in?
Just one year on from the inception of Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) rights, businesses and brands are jumping into the market at a blistering pace. College athletes are promoting a huge array of products and services across social and traditional media channels. If your brand hasn’t taken the leap yet, you may be wondering what brands can expect when collaborating with college athletes.
While the rules and regulations governing NIL are numerous, it’s been proven to be a journey worth taking. Whether collaborating with top athletes and their agents or engaging with micro-influencers, the organic nature of athlete followings on social media can lead to big results for brands. Partnering with a deal-making platform like Dreamfield can make it even easier to maximize returns and minimize the risks inherent in the market.
Let’s look at what brands can expect when collaborating with college athletes, and what to keep in mind while doing it.
Rules and Regulations for Working With College Athletes
The biggest concern for brands when collaborating with college athletes is staying on the right side of the various rules and regulations that govern NIL deals. Athletes are at risk of losing eligibility to play their sports if they participate in a deal that doesn’t comply with the rules.
This is where a deal-making platform like Dreamfield can be an incredibly useful partner for brands looking to dive into the deep waters of NIL campaigns and collaborations with athletes. Dreamfield employs a staff that is fully dedicated to making sure that all parts of the deal-making process are safe and compliant for both the brands and the athletes involved. Backed by the best legal advisors in the business, brands can be confident that their compliance needs are handled without having to employ their own staff to manage them.
Dreamfield offers support and expertise at every step of the deal-making process. Their staff creates contracts to ensure all parties have the successful campaign they want, features a safe and easy end-to-end payment system, and provides tax documentation for all parties.
Top Athletes, Agencies, and Micro-Influencers
One important change brought about by NIL legislation was allowing college athletes to hire agents, and many of the top players in the country have done just that. Dealing with agents can be tricky, but Dreamfield has built strong relationships with the most influential agents and agencies in the business, routinely negotiating with them on behalf of their brand partners.
Dreamfield has worked tirelessly to build a roster of top athletes, along with cultivating relationships with a broad range of micro-influencers, a category that is making a huge impact in the NIL market.
These influencers, defined as having a following between 10K and 50K followers, offer a more authentic feel to the promotions they do than the typical celebrity endorser. Micro-influencers can be more open to working with a wider range of brands and have built a genuine rapport with their audiences.
College Athletes Have Larger Organic Reach on Social Media
College athletes have extremely loyal followings on social media, leading to a larger organic reach than other influencers. What does this mean for brands collaborating with college athletes?
Because athletes are focused on promoting brands they believe in and that share their values, campaign posts will Social media posts made for your brand’s campaign will appear more authentic. Their social media feeds aren’t filled up with other ads, but rather with real organic content, allowing your promotions to stand out from the rest.
Because they aren’t lost in a sea of other ads, these posts will receive the rawest, truly organic engagement from the athlete’s followers. Engagement is the most important metric of social media influence, as it directly measures the trust and loyalty built between the athlete and their audience. Don’t be fooled by a big follower number; engagement percentage is the real star.
Letting Dreamfield Handle the Details
While brands can choose to pursue NIL deals and campaigns directly with college athletes, there are a number of benefits to working with a platform like Dreamfield.
From the very outset of a campaign, Dreamfield is your brand’s partner for a successful collaboration with college athletes. Their staff will incorporate your brand’s requirements and success conditions, producing a bespoke list of ideal athletes for your campaign.
Dreamfield’s staff manages your campaign through every step with personalized attention to every detail. This includes preparing contracts that spell out exactly what is required of each side, and a secure payment system that ensures payment is made upon successful completion of the campaign.
Upon completion of the campaign, Dreamfield’s proprietary analytics data shows what worked, what didn’t, and what can be improved upon for your brand’s next campaign.
Dreamfield’s only goal is to offer a true white-glove experience that satisfies your brand’s needs at every step of the campaign. Dreamfield takes care of everything and lets your brand concentrate on reaping the benefits!
