NIL and High-School Athletes: What It Means for Influencer Marketing

Starting with the 2024-2025 school year, high-school athletes in more than 30 states can now earn money from their name, image, and likeness (NIL), something that previously would have put their athletic eligibility at risk. For many, including female athletes and those from lower-income families, the provision provides new opportunities to help earn college money and lessen the financial burden on their families, many of whom have made sacrifices to support their student-athletes.

So, what do the new allowances for high-school athletes’ NIL deals mean for brands engaged in influencer marketing? Here are some of the considerations for collaborations with high-school athletes.

Rules for influencer marketing

Brands looking to work with high-school athletes first need to understand the general rules around the new NIL deals. Broadly speaking, they include:

• Athletes can not use their school’s logo, mascot, equipment, uniform, or similar intellectual or physical properties. 
• Parents or guardians are responsible for negotiating their students’ NIL deals.
• Athletes can not make deals that promote certain types of products, services or organizations, including alcohol, tobacco, vaping products, cannabis or related substances, gambling, weapons, controlled substances, ammunition, prescription drugs, adult entertainment, or social or political activism.

As a general guideline, the National Federation of State High School Associations — the body that writes the rules for most high school sports—states that at the high school level, “the brand’s value is not linked to the school the athlete attends but is linked to the individual.”

 

In Florida, for example, where the State Board of Education will ratify the new rules in July, Adidas has already signed seven athletes to an NIL deal. 

Finding high-school athlete influencers

If your brand is looking to partner with high-school athletes on an upcoming influencer marketing campaign, start with these techniques:

Search your brand’s followers and customers

Finding a high-school athlete who already knows and likes your brand gives you a huge advantage when approaching them. By checking your customer database for high-school-aged teens and comparing the list to fans who follow your brand on one or more social media channels, you may be able to find potential brand advocates.

Search profiles for keywords

Like hashtags, keywords can provide some guidance as you search for high-school athletes for your influencer marketing campaign. Beyond searching for keywords and phrases like “high school athlete,” get more specific with sports, gender, or age-related terms. 

Need an example? 

• “Teen quarterback”
• “High school goalie”
• “Girls tennis”
• “Student-athlete”
• “Trackstar”
• “State champs”

Note the profiles or hashtags with sports keywords and the words “parents” and “mom life,” which will likely put you in touch with the parent or guardian of the student-athlete being showcased in the posts.

Reach out to us for help

If you’re looking to create effective Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) campaigns for high school athletes, the team at IZEA is here to help. We are well-versed in the regulations surrounding NIL and can guide you in creating campaigns that are not only compelling, but also fully compliant. Let us help you navigate this new landscape and maximize your brand’s reach and impact among high school athletes.

Create a Casting Call

For a do-it-yourself approach, we offer brands and agencies the ability to create customizable casting calls to find content creators for their influencer marketing campaigns. 

Casting Calls on IZEA allow you to choose from three distinct services:

• Influencer marketing: This option allows creators to produce various social media deliverables and post them on the corresponding social platform.
• Work for hire: Through this service, creators produce and deliver various assets to be used based on the licensing requested.
• Job listing: Brands and agencies can post short or long-term positions that you’re looking to fill.

Private Casting Calls will be hidden from anyone who is not logged into the IZEA platform. Public Casting Calls allow anyone to view them, even if they’re not members of the platform, and they may be picked up by search engines.

Search an influencer database

There are countless influencer databases—often called marketplaces—that allow you to search for individual content creators with whom you can collaborate. Some marketplaces allow you to search for creators with engaged audiences based on a variety of criteria, such as location, follower count, or demographics.

Influencer marketplaces, like IZEA’s Marketplace, also provide tools for campaign management and reporting through an end-to-end campaign process that allows brands to scale their influencer marketing efforts, measure the results, and optimize campaign performance.

Invest in an influencer marketing platform

While influencer marketplaces can provide affordable options for brands’ content with single-platform campaigns, savvy marketers often find that cross-platform efforts provide a wider reach.

Comprehensive influencer marketing platforms, such as IZEA Flex, can help brands find influencers on multiple social media channels, manage contracts, negotiate with creators, send payments, and track performance on one simple dashboard. With no creator markups and plans starting at just $130/month, brands can customize their tools to fit their needs.

Need help finding high-school athletes for your next influencer marketing campaign? IZEA can help. As the leader in the industry, we offer several solutions for brands to choose from, all of which can support your athletic collaborations.