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Caitlin Clark\u2019s college basketball career has come to a close, but her professional career is just getting started\u2014and fans and brands alike are buying in.<\/p>\n
Throughout her final college season, fans lined up to watch Clark lead the University of Iowa Hawkeyes to the women\u2019s NCAA Tournament championship game for the second year in a row, and games repeatedly\u00a0smashed viewership records<\/a>.<\/p>\n When Clark declared for the WNBA draft in early March, prices for tickets to see the Indiana Fever, the team with the first pick in the draft,\u00a0shot up<\/a>. The Las Vegas Aces\u00a0moved<\/a>\u00a0their July matchup against the Fever to a venue with nearly twice as many seats, and the CMO of the W said broadcasters were \u201cscrambling<\/a>\u201d for the rights to Fever games this season. Not long after, the league\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0that 36 of the Fever\u2019s 40 regular season games would air on national TV.<\/p>\n Then there\u2019s her NIL value. Clark, who became the all-time NCAA Division I scorer last month, had the fourth highest NIL valuation of any college athlete at the end of her time playing for Iowa, at $3.4 million, according to college sports outlet\u00a0On3<\/a>\u2019s NIL 100 list. She\u2019s already worked with a dozen brands over the past couple of years, including Gatorade, Nike, State Farm, Gainbridge, Xfinity, H&R Block, and Buick.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no question that Clark is a star on the court, and perhaps one of the best collegiate basketball players in history. But her off-court performance and personality have made her a hot commodity among brands looking to share in her spotlight\u2014and the brands that have already inked deals with her are feeling lucky, to say the least.<\/p>\n \u201cI can\u2019t imagine the volume of deals that she\u2019s seeing,\u201d said Minji Ro, chief strategy officer for life and annuity at the financial services company Gainbridge, which started a multiyear partnership with Clark in March and which has, since 2021, held the\u00a0naming<\/a>\u00a0rights<\/a>\u00a0to the Fever\u2019s arena. \u201cWe are thrilled, honored, beside ourselves; take your pick.\u201d<\/p>\n The excitement from marketers may be best evidenced by the records that Clark is breaking, not just in the NCAA, but for her brand partners.<\/p>\n When Gatorade inked an NIL deal with Clark at the tail end of 2023, the brand\u2019s \u201cYou Can Too\u201d campaign quickly became its most-viewed social content across platforms, according to Brandi Ray, the brand\u2019s head of consumer engagement. And in mid-March, Gatorade dropped a limited-edition water bottle and towel co-designed by Clark on its membership platform, which Ray said sold out in about a day.<\/p>\n \u201cShe literally is one of the highest-engaged athletes that we have\u00a0on our roster<\/a>, across our channels,\u201d Ray told Marketing Brew.<\/p>\n View this post on Instagram<\/a><\/p>\n A post shared by Gatorade (@gatorade<\/a>)<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n Gainbridge is also seeing impressive social stats associated with Clark. The day their partnership went live on the company\u2019s social media platforms in early March, Ro said the\u00a0video<\/a>\u00a0announcing it racked up 112,000 views, and was up to 1.8 million a month later. Working with Clark is \u201ca different ballgame,\u201d Ro said.<\/p>\n Brands that advertised during University of Iowa games this season also saw \u201cinsane performance results,\u201d according to Elliot Rifkin, associate director on the media buying team at TV ad agency Tatari.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was astronomical, the leads or the visits we got for the price that we paid for these units,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Dave Solomon, director of sports partnerships for TV ad sales company Ampersand, said that since \u201cit\u2019s hard to sell against cultural moments\u201d as they happen, his team tried to help advertisers understand Clark\u2019s importance even before she approached the NCAA scoring record.<\/p>\n Clark\u2019s success has encouraged some brands to invest more in women\u2019s college athletics across the board, Larry Mann, a former VP of sales at ESPN and founding partner at sports marketing agency rEvolution, said. It\u2019s a change from past years, when he said some marketers expressed interest in sponsoring women\u2019s sports but were not willing to \u201cput that kind of money against it\u201d when they saw the asking price.<\/p>\n \u201cI think that narrative has changed with the successes of Caitlin [and] with the successes of the\u00a0women\u2019s soccer program<\/a>,\u201d Mann said. \u201cIt\u2019s not, \u2018We\u2019re just doing it to check the box.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n For some brands that have struck up deals with Clark, the arrangements have been a long time coming. It was during last year\u2019s March Madness title game when Kristyn Cook, chief agency, sales, and marketing officer at State Farm, first took note of Clark as a potential brand partner, she said, especially after an interview when Clark spoke about what she hoped her legacy would be.<\/p>\n \u201cShe said a couple of things: She wants to make the state of Iowa proud, she wants to bring people joy, but she wants every young girl and every young boy to look up and say, \u2018I can do that. I can accomplish that. I can dream big,\u2019\u201d Cook said. \u201cRight then and there, I think that\u2019s when we recognized that she would be a great partner for State Farm.\u201d<\/p>\n Cook and her team reached out to Clark and her family, then traveled to Iowa to sit down to a meal with them and talk about common values and goals, Cook said. A multiyear deal\u2014State Farm\u2019s first NIL deal and its first deal with a woman athlete\u2014was announced in October.<\/p>\n Gainbridge, meanwhile, first clocked Clark as a fit for a sponsorship late last year, Ro said, before the Fever won the draft lottery, landing them the first pick in the WNBA draft for the second year in a row.<\/p>\n Clark\u2019s overall attitude and adoring fans\u2014many of whom are younger\u2014 make her an ideal brand partner for many companies, execs told Marketing Brew.<\/p>\n \u201cNot only is Caitlin one of the best collegiate basketball players today, but her character and her high standards of excellence on and off the court are what make her a perfect addition,\u201d Ray said, adding that \u201cshe represents so much for young athletes and young consumers today, which is why she\u2019s been so effective for us.\u201d<\/p>\n Clark\u2019s star power among young audiences is reflected more explicitly in some brand arrangements. As part of her partnership with Gainbridge, Clark is promoting an annuity product designed specifically for younger customers, Ro said. For State Farm, Clark \u201cembodies what it means to be a good neighbor,\u201d Cook said, and she has brand mascot Jake from State Farm\u2019s\u00a0stamp of approval<\/a>.<\/p>\n \u201cFor a brand, you\u2019re walking into a lot of engagement, and you\u2019re walking into, clearly, someone that a lot of young athletes are looking up to,\u201d said Joe Caporoso, president of sports and entertainment media company Team Whistle, which worked with Xfinity on a recent\u00a0ad starring Clark<\/a>. \u201cThey\u2019re trying to emulate how she plays, and that\u2019s exactly what you\u2019d like as a brand.\u201d<\/p>\n With Clark\u2019s college career concluded, some of her sponsors are hoping to follow her into the big leagues\u2014something that\u00a0isn\u2019t unheard of<\/a>\u00a0in the world of NIL. Some sports marketers have\u00a0predicted that NIL deals<\/a>\u00a0could help boost women\u2019s sports and more niche leagues as collegiate athletes graduate into professional sports.<\/p>\n Execs from Gatorade, Gainbridge, and State Farm were all fairly tight-lipped about the future of their deals with Clark as she joins the WNBA, but they all have multiyear agreements with the athlete, and State Farm is already including her in its campaign around the draft. The insurance brand, the presenting sponsor of the WNBA draft, plans to spotlight Clark\u2019s collegiate career via a digital installation in Times Square right before the draft kicks off, and is sending Jake from State Farm to attend the draft and congratulate her in person.<\/p>\n Even without Clark, all three brands\u2019 work extends into the professional league: Gatorade and State Farm are both WNBA partners, and Gainbridge has a relationship with the Fever through Gainbridge Fieldhouse.<\/p>\n As Clark steps into the world of pro basketball, brand marketers anticipate that there\u2019s even more room for her\u2014and women\u2019s sports in general\u2014to grow.<\/p>\n \u201cShe\u2019s proven to be a change agent,\u201d Ray said. \u201cShe\u2019s jump-started a new era of basketball, and she\u2019s propelling women\u2019s sports forward\u2026We have no doubt her impact will continue as she heads into the WNBA.\u201d<\/p>\n This report was initially published<\/a> by Marketing Brew<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\nOff the charts<\/h2>\n
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Small screen<\/h2>\n
Sealing the deal<\/h2>\n
Sweet disposition<\/h2>\n
Bright future<\/h2>\n