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Today’s Case

Mizzou Athletics, School of Journalism partner on innovative branding program

Thank you to longtime colleague and subscriber Danny Kambel for sharing this story.

Student-athletes at the University of Missouri, along with students from the School of Journalism, partnered in a pilot program during the fall semester, where J-School students assisted student-athletes in exploring and expanding their brand potential in the NIL market.

Here's how it worked: Once paired together, the J-School student(s) conducted an interview with the student-athlete to learn more about their interests, their passions and their personalities. From there, they audited the student-athletes' social media platforms. (How much content are they producing? What kind of content appears on their platforms? How frequently are they posting? etc.)

Next, they presented the student-athletes with a social media plan in the form of a playbook, packed with guidance on the content they should post and the best times to post their content — all to build their audience and further engage more followers. Then they developed a business pitch with a list of potential companies they should contact for NIL partnerships.

In the coming semester, student-athletes will also have the opportunity to have their NIL contracts reviewed by third-year Mizzou law students.

Euphenie Andre, senior triple jump and long jump specialist & journalism major: "I think this is such a marvelous experience involving the J-School with the athletes. We have one of the best journalism schools in the country, and this just makes sense to do…I wanted to try to connect with Tiger fans as much as possible but also expand my brand as a track athlete here.”

The Verdict

• One of the best partnerships I’ve seen to date

  • The major takeaway is that the partnership is setting up the athletes for long-term success with NIL as opposed to one-time deals.

    • Even if the Mizzou athletes don’t become pro athletes, they will have a solid personal branding foundation to build upon long after their playing days are done.

• Buy-in from schools will be the norm going forward

  • Look for more schools to partner with various departments on campus for complete NIL guidance.

    • Liberty University offers tax prep and services for student-athletes (which has now been expanded to all students), along with the aforementioned contract review assistance from law school students (which several schools have implemented).

  • Colleges are also partnering with business schools on financial literacy and career guidance.

Caitlin Clark now has her own cereal!

Clark leverages her long-term relationship with grocery store chain Hy-Vee for a tasty deal. Check out this video for more!

Thank You for reading today’s newsletter

^{I discuss insights and news related to name, image and likeness in 3 minutes or less every Monday, Wednesday and Friday at 12p ET/9a PT.}

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