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Today’s Case

Eight college athletes partner with IHOP, share their favorite pancake stacks

Another delicious NIL deal coming right up!

Earlier this week, IHOP® announced the debut of its new “Fan Cakes” video series featuring student-athletes from universities across the country talking about their favorite pancake stacks.

This fall, IHOP is partnering with eight college football players who visited restaurants near their respective campuses and sampled an assortment of pancakes to pick their favorite as their personal Fan Cake.

The first video stars Alabama linebacker Jihaad Campbell and his Cinn-A-Stack Fan Cakes. All winning Fan Cakes will be featured on the IHOP.com menu and at participating restaurants nationwide for purchase through December 31, 2023.

The campaign was developed in partnership with LEARFIELD, which produced the video series. Opendorse, LEARFIELD’s NIL marketplace provider, sourced the student-athletes, executed agreements and coordinated participants’ shoot schedules.

LEARFIELD Senior Vice President of National Sales Roy Seinfeld: “We are proud to collaborate with IHOP on this new campaign that features some of the nation’s top student-athletes to create deeper connections between the iconic restaurant and loyal college football fans. By facilitating the use of school brands with student-athlete NIL, we are excited to help deliver creative ‘Fan Cake’ content and fan engagement opportunities for IHOP.”

The Verdict

• Video > pictures

  • Love that this NIL partnership is a video series as opposed to static images. Video tells a much better story than pictures, as it showcases the athlete’s personality. (Case in point: Jihaad Campbell’s video.)

    • Moreso, student-athletes pitching their services for NIL deals should promote video content partnerships over images only. Yes, it’s more work to create a video, but athletes can request higher payouts for potential partnerships because of it.

• Replicable concept in local town restaurants for NIL partnerships

  • The concept of food + college athlete + video = win/win.

    • This is a good opportunity for athletes to visit their local restaurants with a similar idea. Athletes can also get their teammates involved for a longer series and hopefully generate more business for the restaurant.

• Put the I in IHOP

  • Currently, IHOP operates in 13 countries outside the U.S. This would be a good way for international student-athletes to earn NIL money by doing a partnership with IHOP in their home country (since they currently cannot maximize their NIL in the US).

    • This way, the athlete builds their brand, earns some money, and can showcase a US-based business outside the country that potentially offers menu items with a local twist.

Good > Perfect

Trying to create perfect content will not happen. Rather, focus on posting good content. Watch this video to find out why!

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