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For most non-millionaires in the athlete economy, right now the game is about accumulating deals. That means a lot of loosely relevant partnerships (Sports? Protein!) with athletes who are happy to add a brand to their portfolio in exchange for free products.
But you get the feeling that both sides want more. And that “more” seems awfully attainable. But what kind of bridge can we build to help both sides feel supported, incentivized and properly positioned to make a bigger impact?
Athlete Partnership Growing Pains
There are some really great solutions like JABA that are helping athletes navigate the partnership world. As Kirby Porter describes it in The Athlete’s Economy, “Two years into NIL, we may be reaching the point of education fatigue, as athletes & their support teams are eager to simply get the job done.”
However, even as we make partnerships more attainable, there’s still performance and expectations to deal with.
Marketing managers want immediate ROI, and athletes want validation before committing months of content to a specific niche (creating a real buying audience). Both are nearly impossible to come by without any real commitment, so everyone settles for “why not” deals through generic lifestyle content.
These plug-and-play type deals aren’t inherently bad, but the results (if they’re being tracked at all) are generally “meh,” with minimal sales boost. And even though the athletes usually have technically strong engagement, a few seconds of analysis shows the nature of that engagement.
Nice to see, but “get ur bag” isn’t exactly a strong buying signal. This is why most brands who want to work with athletes end up poking around Opendorse with low-commitment, low-expectation campaigns. The emotional desire to work with athletes is there, even if the fit isn’t.
Meanwhile, traditional influencer marketing has gotten real about it. As Reddit user u/foamnoodle, a self-identified social media marketer, states it:
If I’m doing an ad post for wine, I will look for influencers that talk about wine, not ones that do GRWM or a day in my life or have never before shown an interest in wine.
Of course there are inherent differences between a wine influencer and an athlete influencer, and the value of working with athletes is certainly real. But the point remains—while everyday influencers are focused on categories, most athlete creators are focused on quantity over quality. And it’s not slowing down.
The ideal outcome of an athlete using JABA or Opendorse is to maximize their market impact and ultimately attract more deals. But what do those deals look like? An athlete with 15 brand deals might make for a good story, but is it moving the needle for the audience? Another quote from u/foamnoodle says what many of us are thinking:
If somebody advertises 10 things to you in 10 minutes how much will you truly believe they are saying the truth, that that product is good?
Most athletes have been forced to take hands-off deals that just kind of…exist. But how much impact are you driving for a brand partner when you’re taking on 10 deals at a time? What is your audience supposed to do when they see your LinkTree as a grocery list of forgettable links?
We need to make “getting the job done” mean creating partnerships that brands value, while giving athletes the opportunity to establish themselves as impactful partners. We need a way to allow athlete partnerships to mature and develop by lowering the lift of what it means to partner, while giving both sides space to to commit to each other without the anxiety of instant results.
Reduce fatigue, allow brand messaging to marinate
While Dame’s LinkTree may be a bit of a hurricane, he can (mostly) get away with it, as his star power (mostly) transcends the need to optimize. For the majority of athletes, a more focused approach is much more likely to give brands the confidence and performance they’re looking for.
ProPages let athletes and brands create a journey together, giving a more focused, productive home to the stories told through athlete partnerships. Similar to jersey patches, a brand can “sponsor” an athlete’s ProPage without link fatigue, integrating collaborative links, products and content within the athlete’s bio. Plus, it enables proper tracking and attribution if and when that brand awareness has been established.
By creating a way to build longer relationships with a lower financial and resource lift, ProStories is hoping to encourage a deeper connection between a brand, its athlete partners and their audience.
The bottom line is this: we need to help foster partnerships that grow over time, rather than expecting immediate ROI and cutting things too early. Brands and athletes need more time and space to mesh. And it’s not just individual brands who have the responsibility: teams and agencies have a major role to play. Realigning ourselves with this expectation isn’t just beneficial financially, the future of the athlete partnership industry depends on it.
Further reading: The Pro Athlete Partnership Guide for Teams and Agencies