Strategic NIL Partnerships for March Madness

March Madness is finally here. One of the biggest sporting events in America. College basketball’s postseason tournament is a golden opportunity for brands to leverage massive attention into business revenue.

Here’s four brands with NIL partnerships set for March Madness:

SKIMS is powerful clothing brand founded by Kim Kardashian that focuses on underwear, loungewear, and shapewear. Jens Grede, SKIMS CEO, announced in 2023 annual revenue was $750 million (50% increase from 2022). Currently, the company is worth $4 billion.

The NIL partnership is called March All-Stars and features college basketball players Hunter Dickinson (Kansas), Caleb Love (Arizona), Donovan Clingan (UConn), Jared McCain (Duke), Robert Dillingham (Kentucky), and Paxson Wojcik (UNC). Other athletes from Houston, South Carolina, Utah State, and Illinois also participated in the deal. The clothing advertised men’s terry and jersey loungewear priced from $54-$88 that will be live on Thursday morning.

From what we see, SKIMS is requiring the athletes to post on social media (in-feed and/or story) about the new clothing and uses the athletes’ NIL on SKIMS social media accounts. Kim Kardashian also personally posted about the NIL collaboration on her social media accounts.

Marriott Bonvoy has been the official hotel partner of the NCAA for 8 years. This year, they launched an NIL campaign called “Scoring Big on Marriott Game-Day Rituals.”

The advertisements aim to showcase the passion and excitement from fans, mascots, and athletes. TV spots will start March 19 and continue throughout March Madness. Content will also be featured on TikTok.

For instance, part of this NIL deal involved North Carolina’s Elliot Cadeau. A pivotal scene from an ad has Cadeau walking out of a Marriott hotel with the UNC marching bad. In effort to promote the NIL deal, a social media post on Cadeau’s Instagram account went over some of his game day rituals.

Morgan & Morgan is the largest personal injury law firm in America. They’ve done NIL partnerships in the past, but wanted to make a splash for this year’s March Madness. This NIL deal features billboards and other media ads.

As you know, USC men’s basketball did not get a bid for March Madness. I’m sure Morgan & Morgan was expecting a better season with the Trojans. But the USC women’s basketball team secured the No. 1 seed and have good odds to win it all. From social media, we see joint Instagram posts with both athletes and managing partner, Dan Morgan, to further spread the word on “finding a winner in the courtroom.”

Jim “Mattress Mack” McIngvale reportedly won $75 million for correctly betting on the Astros to win the 2022 World Series. This year, he put $1 million down on the Houston Cougars to win the 2024 National Championship. His payout (if he wins), will be $7.5 million.

As Houston continues to build a strong basketball brand, they have embraced NIL to help their student-athletes succeed. Their NIL collective is called LinkingCoogs and is more than just a transactional marketplace.

McIngvale is specifically giving NIL deals to Houston basketball players so they can in turn pay for their families to travel and watch them compete in March Madness. These student-athletes are likely participating in charity and other deliverables on behalf of Gallery Furniture and other companies tied to the LinkingCoogs collective.