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Today’s Case

Death Wish Coffee creates the first anonymous NIL deal

Death Wish Coffee marked its first national campaign by penning the world’s first anonymous NIL deal.

Why?

Because the NCAA has deemed excessive consumption of coffee to be ‘performance enhancing’ before athletic competition.

With the ruling implying that 500 milligrams of caffeine (or 3+ cups of Death Wish Coffee) two to three hours before a competition can give an athlete an ‘unfair advantage,’ Death Wish Coffee has launched Performance Enhancing Coffee.

The campaign comes to life through a hero film, digital and social assets and features three sponsored football players from Ohio State University, University of Michigan and Penn State University. But to ensure these athletes don’t get suspended for overindulging on its coffee before competition, Death Wish Coffee has signed them all anonymously, ironically blurring their names, images, and likeness.

Frank Garcia, Group Creative Director, Mojo Supermarket (agency that created the ad). "We know sponsoring these athletes might get someone in trouble, so we asked, 'can we sponsor college athletes anonymously?' This (very real) rule could not have given us a better platform to show how drinking Death Wish Coffee makes you feel and what a brand who ‘Lives With a Death Wish’ would do.”

The Verdict

• Counterintuitive way for a brand to enter NIL

  • This is an extremely creative method for Death Wish Coffee to get their product out to the masses via NIL while simultaneously protecting the sponsored athletes.

    • This way, the athletes maximize their name, image and likeness while the brand does not get in trouble by disclosing which athletes they are partnering with. Genius.

  • Brands are pushing the envelope for unique ways to showcase their products in the NIL space - with something creative being created weekly, it seems.

• Tougher for other products to emulate

  • Depending on the product or ingredient, this might not be as easily replicable for other NIL deals.

    • The NCAA has a strict policy on what substances are permissible and prohibited for student-athletes. So while a product may be seemingly harmless, there may be an ingredient which can trigger a failed drug test - certainly a risk a student-athlete is not willing to take for an NIL deal.

  • Also, even with the three Death Wish Coffee athletes, theoretically they can still fail a drug test if too much caffeine is found in their system - something that Death Wish Coffee is looking to avoid with their Performance Enhancing Coffee.

LSU gymnast Livvy Dunne signs teammates to Accelerate Active Energy NIL deal

This is Dunne’s first partnership with The Livvy Fund focused on LSU women student-athletes.. Check out this video for more!

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