This Week's Winning NIL Brand Creative

Each week, we’ll be rounding up some of our favorite NIL creative campaigns from athletes having success in NIL, and breakdown what other athlete content-creators can learn from them.

By: Lauren Huttner (Northwestern Medill ‘24)

CVS X Sedona Price (TCU WBB) 

CVS is a household name, and Sedona Price did a great job connecting the brand to her personal experiences in an authentic way. Beyond the narration and commentary, the visual framing of her video makes the viewer feel like their shopping alongside her.

The Takeaway: There are ways to make a highly-produced video feel unstaged and real. From keeping casual commentary in the final cut to a closer framing of the subject, authentic does not have to mean unpolished.

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Doordash X AJ Henning (Northwestern Football) 

The “recovery day” narrative worked in AJ Henning’s collaboration with DoorDash. From an opening shot of Henning sitting in a comfy chair with his dog to a demonstration of him ordering Epsom Salt on the app, Henning showed how the app enhances his day– making the content more persuasive.

The Takeaway: Make sure that your storyline carrys throughout the content, even in the product placement. Henning could have easily shown an order of food, but decided to demonstrate that Doordash can be used for even the most essential requests.

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 Smoothie King X Allison Berent (Alabama VB)Allison exemplifies showing rather than telling with this content for Smoothie King. The cuts on beat of her going to the restaurant and ordering demonstrate how the restaurant integrates with her lifestyle. A call to action in the thumbnail and caption further aid in the persuasiveness, but the bulk of the message is conveyed in her video.

The Takeaway: Words aren’t everything. When creating video content, challenge yourself to compose shots that demonstrate what you’re doing so you don’t have to overcompensate with narration (that people might mute anyways).

Lauren Huttner (Northwestern Medill ‘24) is a journalist and strategist for creators and brands. Lauren has written for Inc. Magazine, worked with Dorm Room Fund and was VP of Community at AMA, a youtube data-analytics firm acquired by Jellysmack.