Caitlin Clark’s college basketball profession is over, but her pro profession is just starting — and fans and types alike are buying in.
During her final collegiate season, fans lined up to observe Clark lead the University of Iowa Hawkeyes to the ladies’s NCAA Tournament championship game for the second straight yr, and repeat broke viewership records.
When Clark declared for the WNBA draft in early March, ticket prices for the Indiana Fever, the team with the primary pick within the draft, were reduced. shot up. The Las Vegas Aces touched Their July match against the Fever was at a venue with almost twice as many seats, and the W’s CMO said broadcasters were “crawl” for the rights to Fever games this season. Not long after, the league announced that 36 of the Fever’s 40 regular season games could be broadcast on national television.
Then there’s their NIL value. Clark, who became the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer last month, had the fourth-highest NIL rating of any college athlete at the top of her time playing for Iowa at $3.4 million, in keeping with the College Sports Outlet On 3is the NIL 100 list. She has worked with a dozen brands lately, including Gatorade, Nike, State Farm, Gainbridge, Xfinity, H&R Block and Buick.
There is little doubt that Clark is a star on the court and maybe among the finest college basketball players in history. But her performance and personality off the pitch have made her a hot commodity amongst brands wanting to be in her highlight – and the brands which have already signed deals together with her can consider themselves lucky, to say the least.
“I can’t imagine how much business she sees,” said Minji Ro, chief strategy officer for all times and retirement insurance at financial services firm Gainbridge, which began a multiyear partnership with Clark in March and has been in existence since 2021 We right to the Fever Arena. “We are thrilled, feel beside ourselves; Make your selection.”
Outside the traditional measurement values
The marketers’ enthusiasm is best seen within the records Clark is breaking not only within the NCAA but in addition together with her brand partners.
When Gatorade signed a NIL take care of Clark in late 2023, the brand’s “You Can Too” campaign quickly became probably the most viewed social content across all platforms, in keeping with Brandi Ray, the brand’s head of consumer engagement. And in mid-March, Gatorade released a limited-edition water bottle and towel co-designed by Clark on its membership platform, which Ray said sold out inside a day.
“She is literally one of the most dedicated athletes we have on our squadacross our channels,” Ray told Marketing Brew.
Gainbridge also sees impressive social statistics related to Clark. The day their partnership went live to tell the tale the corporate’s social media platforms in early March, Ro said Video The announcement received 112,000 views and a month later it was as much as 1.8 million. Working with Clark was “a different game,” Ro said.
Small screen
Brands that advertised at University of Iowa games this season also saw “insane performance results,” in keeping with Elliot Rifkin, associate director of the media buying team at TV promoting agency Tatari.
“It was astronomical, the leads or visits that we got for the price we paid for those units,” he said.
Dave Solomon, director of sports partnerships at TV promoting sales company Ampersand, said his team tried to assist advertisers understand Clark’s significance even before she approached the NCAA scoring record since it’s “hard to go against cultural odds.” Selling moments” as they occur.
Clark’s success has encouraged some brands to speculate more in women’s college athletics overall, said Larry Mann, a former sales executive at ESPN and founding partner of sports marketing agency rEvolution. It’s a change from previous years, when he said some marketers expressed interest in promoting women’s sports but were unwilling to “spend so much money on it” once they saw the asking price.
“I feel that narrative has modified with Caitlin’s successes [and] with the successes of the Women’s soccer programsaid Mann. “It’s not, ‘We’re just doing it to check the box.'”
Seal the deal
For some brands which have signed deals with Clark, the deals have been an extended time coming. It was during last yr’s March Madness title game when Kristyn Cook, chief agency, sales and marketing director at State Farm, first became aware of Clark as a possible brand partner, she said, particularly after an interview during which Clark discussed her Hopes spoke your legacy could be.
“She said a couple of things: She desires to make the state of Iowa proud, she desires to bring joy to people, but she wants every young girl and each little boy to look up and say, ‘I can try this.’ I can achieve that. “I can dream big,” Cook said. “I think that’s when we realized right away that she would be a great partner for State Farm.”
Cook and her team reached out to Clark and her family after which traveled to Iowa to have a meal with them and speak about shared values and goals, Cook said. A multi-year contract was announced in October – State Farm’s first NIL contract and its first contract with a female athlete.
Gainbridge, in turn, first identified Clark as a sponsorship candidate late last yr, Ro said, before the Fever won the draft lottery, giving them the highest pick within the WNBA draft for the second yr in a row.
Sweet soul
Clark’s overall attitude and her passionate fans — lots of whom are younger — make her an excellent brand partner for a lot of corporations, executives told Marketing Brew.
“Caitlin is not only one of the best college basketball players of our time, but her character and high standards of excellence on and off the court make her a perfect fit,” Ray said, adding that “she means so much to young athletes. “ and young consumers today, which is why it was so effective for us.”
Clark’s star power amongst young viewers is more clearly reflected in some brand arrangements. As a part of her partnership with Gainbridge, Clark is promoting a retirement product designed specifically for younger customers, Ro said. For State Farm, Clark embodies “what it means to be a good neighbor,” Cook said, and he or she has State’s brand mascot Jake Farm’s Approval stamp.
“You make a lot of commitment to a brand, and you’re clearly coming across someone that a lot of young athletes look up to,” said Joe Caporoso, president of sports and entertainment media company Team Whistle , which recently partnered with Xfinity Advertisement starring Clark. “They’re trying to emulate their style of play, and that’s exactly what you want as a brand.”
Shining future
Now that Clark’s college profession is over, a few of her sponsors are hoping to follow her to the large leagues – something that will not be unusual on the earth of NIL. Some sports marketers have predicted that there are NIL deals could help boost women’s sports and other area of interest leagues as college athletes advance into skilled sports.
Executives from Gatorade, Gainbridge and State Farm were all pretty tight-lipped concerning the way forward for their contracts with Clark when she joined the WNBA, but all of them have multi-year deals with the athlete, and State Farm is already including her in its draft campaign. The insurance brand, the presenting sponsor of the WNBA Draft, plans to focus on Clark’s college profession through a digital installation in Times Square shortly before the draft begins, and is sending Jake from State Farm to attend the draft and congratulate her in person.
Even without Clark, the work of all three brands extends to the skilled league: Gatorade and State Farm are each WNBA partners, and Gainbridge has a relationship with the Fever through Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
As Clark enters the world of skilled basketball, brand marketers consider there’s much more room for her — and girls’s sports basically — to grow.
“She has proven to be a change agent,” Ray said. “She has ushered in a new era of basketball and is driving women’s sports forward…We have no doubt her influence will continue as she moves to the WNBA.”
This report was originally published from Marketing brew.
