Follow these steps to complete our NIL project.

1. Student Athlete Selection

Identify an amateur athlete to represent, and gain an understanding of what they can and can’t do.  Here are some important rules to consider. Watch videos in Canvas for more details.

1. Consider NIL rules – athletes can hire representation
   1. Boosters can purchase player merchandise
   2. International students may have visa laws limiting working hours (20 hrs)
   3. Student athletes can’t promote some categories (alcohol/drugs)
   4. State schools won’t allow conflicting categories to exclusive official university partnerships (Adidas school – Student can’t rep Nike )

Deliverable: Provide an overview of your student athlete for this assignment.  Provide some background information on who they are, why they were selected, and how you expect them to be successful.  Consider the NIL rules in place, and work within the current framework to establish your strategy. 

1. Student Athlete Brand Analysis

Analyze this student athlete and their marketability.  Explore stories that may help brand your student athlete, and begin to identify potential markets that might be interested in working with this athlete. Unique Strategy to create brand awareness;

1. Establish potential stories to tell to help brand your student athlete
   1. Personal Interests
   2. Hobbies or unique skills
   3. Charitable Organizations
   4. Personal Experiences

Deliverable:  1. Student Athlete Bio & Profile 2. Student Athlete Boilerplate Elevator Pitch 3. Social media followers, and overall influence on social

1. Social media Strategy

Select 2-5 social media platforms to target and address why these platforms are appropriate for your client.  Consider and addressing the following items as you craft a social media strategy using these platforms

1. Tik Tok / Youtube / Instagram / Facebook / Snapchat / Linked In / others…..
2. How you will engage on these platforms? Types of stories, or videos to use
3. Suggested influencers on these platforms to connect with / follow / collaborate

Deliverable: 6 month strategy for your student athlete.  Can incorporate pre-season, in-season or post-season. What they should post; when they should post, what story to tell and why this all makes sense.  Can be in a table, or written timeline that illustrates your strategy for creating engaging content that will help student athletes generate interest and potential revenue.

1. Personal branding strategy

Who is your student athlete and what do they stand for?  What are their unique interests, abilities, hobbies, or activities of interest outside of their sport?  Who would their ideal audience be on social media, and what type of stories would be interesting enough to share? Create a strategy to build brand awareness and outline PR strategy  – Develop PR assets – Bio for their Profile and more.

Pitch 3-4 social media stories based on your athletes’ brand

1. Charitable work / involvement
2. Behind the Scenes / Day in the life
3. Fantasy Football draft analysis / playing video games with other athletes
4. Strategic Timing of posts
5. Think Local / hometown or college town
6. Weekly blogs or podcasts
7. Social media postings across platforms

Deliverable: 3-4 Social Media stories that can be used across platforms.  For example a 5 minute Youtube video covering a student athletes charitable involvement, can be cut up into smaller 1-2 minute Instagram Reels, that can be then posted to their TicTok Channel, and then shared on Facebook Live.  The same content can be repurposed across these platforms to build awareness, and drive interest

1. Cashing In

Identify 6-8 ways to generate revenue for this student athlete, and link those activities to their brand, and potential opportunities that can be created using their Name Image and Likeness.  Activities could include, but are not limited to:

• Sell merchandise, Athletes’ own brand of merchandise; or a vendor they work with
• Sell autographs or access to themselves personally through appearance fees
• Join cameo- charge for shoutout videos
• Accept payment for paid posts on social platforms; who would pay and why?
• Accept free stuff from brands to eat/use/ wear or promote on social media
• Run camps for younger athletes either on campus or back at home
• Monetize social media channels for paid commercial ads: if warranted

Get creative here, and use your chosen student athletes’ personal brand to identify potential revenue streams or gifts in kind that can help support them as they navigate the world of college athletics.

Deliverables: Identify 6-8 realistic potential partners for this student athlete. Your student athlete should also have 6-8 clear strategies to generate revenue using their NIL.  Match PR opportunities with athletes brand positioning.  Identify potential ways they can engage sponsors, promote products, or provide value to others, and capitalize on this new opportunity.  Make sure these are realistic suggestions, and provide details on where/when/how/ and why each strategy would work. Target charitable pursuits and Leverage possible interest

Identify potential partners and link their brand with your athletes’ to illustrate a direct connection that will support your suggestions.