Name, Image, & Likeness Marketing

The College Athletic Landscape Is Changing And Keeping Pace Can Be Tough. So Expand Your Team And Help Your Student-Athletes Flourish

A student-athletes Right of Publicity or name, image, and likeness (NIL for short) has never been something they could make money off of during their collegiate years because of their amateur status. However, this is changing as the mood has shifted so that student-athletes can profit off of their efforts via third-party sponsors. This policy shift will be tough for universities to keep up with as no overarching standard exists and this could mean it may vary state by state and if those state regulations exceed the NCAA standard and that could risk your student-athletes eligibility. These challenges are making it hard for anyone to be considered an expert in the subject as it is quite literally still being written.

Learning the Legislation 

At The AD Leaf ®, we are committed to learning the ins and outs of the name, image, and likeness legislation and combining that with our marketing knowledge to help both your universities and most importantly the student-athletes flourish in these changing times.

In this commitment, we are going to look at how the new regulations will affect each division and develop plans that will be the most effective ways of utilizing the new policies. 

Breaking the Stigma

Many people still struggle with this legislation thinking it’s a “Pay to Play” scheme. The way to ensure this is the development of transparent messaging that focuses on:

• Fair and Balanced Competition
• Strong Recruitment Protection
• Distinction Between Collegiate and Professional Opportunities

In addition, this will also have to take place with the messaging around the student-athletes as we know that it’s not a “Pay to Play” scheme and it’s actually a way to help empower student-athletes and give them the ability to only receive similar treatment as their peers. Meanwhile, maintaining the current priorities of a successful collegiate experience academically, athletically, and socially, since they’re students firsts and not university employees.

Training On and Off the Field

Practice. Yes, we’re are talking about practice. Training is vital for team success in competition and this is no different in the marketing space as your university and your student-athletes are in competition with every school in the nation. So capturing the attention of potential sponsors for your student-athletes will be harder to come by if they do not possess camera presence, sizable social media followings, and high engagement rates. The AD Leaf ® can provide you with strategies that could lead to the aforementioned growth with our Keys to Marketing Success series. In this series, we provide strategies that focus on platforms such as:

• Tiktok
• Youtube
• Instagram
• Twitter
• Facebook
• Podcasting

Dominate Your Hometown

Outside of your university’s regional base, attention is hard to come by as most people have their own allegiances. However, for many athletes outside of the top tier of collegiate student-athletes, that regional base is going to be the focus as they’re the businesses that stand to benefit the most from working with your student-athletes since they are recognized and appreciated for their contributions to the community. However, we will help develop the talking points that make it clear to the potential sponsors that they can not compensate the athletes for athlete performance or general participation.

So we will help provide your university and its students-athletes thorough research into your surrounding demographics and what appeals to them thus making the messaging the most effective for your university, your student-athletes, and the affiliated businesses. 

Establishing a Brand

Your university may have its branding set and its plan developed to optimize your strategy. However, your student-athletes most likely do not understand the branding process and this will show in how they use the platforms. At The AD Leaf ®, we can help possibly develop that necessary knowledge so they thrive with a strategic plan that fits their wants and needs.

For more information check out our Branding & Brand Development page! 

Working With the Student-Athlete Population

We want to provide full-service marketing efforts that can help the university as a whole all the way down to individual student-athletes. So for this, it could be a marketing presentation by us that is put on by your university for the student-athletes. Down to giving them a chance to work one on one with a proven marketing firm at a price point that fits their budgetary restrictions. It’s our goal to help everyone achieve their dreams.

Let’s Work Together!

We want to make your department worry less while getting more value for your university and student-athletes. Let just worry about the changing landscape while you’ll do what you do best, helping your student-athletes flourish both in the classroom and on their field of play. So give us a call at 321-255-0900 or email us at info@theadleaf.com and let get started.