Are female student-athletes the greatest untapped brand opportunity in sports?

Hailey Van Lith has been crushing it on the basketball court for years. While playing for Cashmere High School in her hometown of Cashmere, WA, she frequently set school and state records, was named the Washington State Gatorade Player of the Year two years in a row, was invited to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game and led her team to the state championship multiple times.

As if that weren’t enough, the 5-foot-7-inch point guard also earned a pile of gold medals while representing the United States in tournaments all over the world, including the 2018 Summer Youth Olympics in Argentina, the 2019 FIBA Under-19 Basketball World Cup in Thailand and the 2019 FIBA 3x3 Under-18 World Cup in Mongolia, where she was also named most valuable player. She received offers from top programs, including the University of Louisville and Baylor University, opting to attend the former. About to enter her junior year, Van Lith is now one of college basketball’s most talented players, leading the Louisville Cardinals this past March to the NCAA Final Four.

All this excellence has given college athletes like HVL, as she’s known to her fans, a unique opportunity to take advantage of so-called NIL, or name, image and likeness deals. Reversing decades of policy, the NCAA on July 1, 2021 permitted amateur athletes to profit from their reputations through marketing and promotion partnerships.

Those deals can take many forms, such as endorsements on social media platforms, autograph signings and motivational speeches, and can generate hundreds of dollars or up to six- and seven-figure deals for the top athletes. Much of the big money goes to male football and basketball players, but women are emerging as a growth opportunity for brand marketers. Women’s basketball, in fact, was third on a list ranking top sports for NIL deals, accounting for about 16% of total NIL compensation through May 31, according to Opendorse.

Van Lith, for example, currently has more than 710,000 fans on Instagram and receives substantial press coverage for her community-outreach initiatives. And just this past July, Adidas named the star player as one of their first 15 student-athlete brand ambassadors—a business opportunity that wouldn’t have been possible just a year earlier.

Brands now have the opportunity to partner with more than 500,000 college athletes¹ (compared to approximately 5,000 professional athletes). Roughly 60% of fans² surveyed say they’re more likely to respect marketers and purchase from brands that sponsor their favorite college athletes. Additionally, as socially-savvy digital natives, college athletes are relatable to teen and young-adult audiences. But how those partnerships come into play matters.

NIL deals vary from athlete to athlete. Some are very social media heavy, relying on an athlete to use their platforms to promote something specific in exchange for a sponsorship. Many others involve major elements of community-building or working with a cause that’s important to the athlete.

While many players signed deals on July 2, 2021 at 12:01 a.m., Van Lith played the long game, taking a more methodical approach driven by her values.

To that end, many of Van Lith’s collaborations contain a community give-back element. For example, a recent activation with JCPenney allowed Van Lith and a few of her teammates to host a back-to-school shopping spree³ for residents of Louisville’s Family Scholar House, which houses single-parent families in need.

HVL’s Adidas collaboration also reflects shared values between her and the brand. As Louisville’s biggest partner⁴, Adidas makes sense from a logistics perspective—there are rules about which brands a student can partner with based on existing deals a school may already have in place. For example, the sportswear company recently launched a new line of collegiate-themed running shoes, the Ultraboost 1.0, and Van Lith is the face of the red-and- black Cardinals version.

But what ultimately made Van Lith interested in becoming an Adidas ambassador was the company’s desire to grow their footprint in women’s sports⁵. Supporting female athletes and women’s involvement in the game of basketball is one of Van Lith’s core pillars.

“It’s all about figuring out how Hailey’s vision and goals align with what a brand is looking for and how they’re looking to activate,” explains Kayla Wilkinson, who helps run point on social and content at Octagon. “In this case, Hailey is excited that Adidas wants to help all female athletes, not just the ones with the biggest social followings,” adds Romano.

For athletes like Van Lith, the opportunity to promote causes they care about is what makes an NIL partnership worthwhile. As Van Lith said in a statement, “What excites me most is that I have a lot of opportunity now to elevate the things I want to elevate. I’ll be able to get more resources for nonprofits and schools in Louisville that I work with and care about. I'm going to be able to help them more with Adidas, and I’ll also have this platform with them to continue to push women’s basketball, get more visibility and representation—all things that are really important.”

It’s not just the athlete and community that benefit from these partnerships. When an athlete is in the spotlight, brands can see a massive lift in engagement. For example, during Louisville’s 2022 tournament run, HVL’s Instagram account drove huge, organic spikes in shop traffic, including an impressive 808% increase in shop traffic on March 29, the day after her school advanced to the Final Four. Those visitors are also more likely to click through to individual product pages, and return visitor traffic increased, as well.

Partnering with student-athletes presents a huge opportunity for brands to drive sales and engagement, as well as reputation and good will. The more closely a company can work with the individual athlete to align on mission and goals, the better the results.

Meta’s NIL Empower 2.0 program supports women athletes by facilitating mentorships, career coaching and brand connections to help participants increase their NIL value on Facebook and Instagram.