El Yucateco Fall Campaign Initiative

As the name, image and likeness (NIL) industry continues to evolve and grow, it has become imperative to show brands exactly what they get out of investing into college athletes. This allows them to evaluate whether NIL will be a long-term marketing strategy for their business going forward.

El Yucateco, a household name hot sauce brand, decided to jump into NIL with a game time tailgate campaign this November. The primary KPI’s of the campaign were reach, impressions and engagements from both organic content and paid media amplification. Ten athletes representing eight distinct Power Five Universities nationwide participated, crafting engaging content to promote the El Yucateco brand on Instagram. Notable athletes such as Ryan Watts, Alex Glover, Peri Brennan and Shaylee Gonzales were among those who joined in the initiative.

NOCAP’s account management and content team, led by former college athlete and influencer Sarah Fuller, worked closely with the athletes to help them create engaging content authentic to their personal brand. With athletes being so new to the influencer world, they need to be properly coached on navigating a campaign brief, following content do’s and don’ts, and hitting deadlines.

“Working with Sarah and the entire NOCAP team was a great experience,” said John Meyer, Vice President at Spin365 Marketing. The entire process was fast and easy, and they found some amazing athletes who made content-with-passion for the El Yucateco brand. I look forward to working with NOCAP again, soon.”

The results of the campaign were highly compelling. The athletes’ content reached 3 million people, hit 3.9 million impressions, garnered 291 thousand engagements, and had an overall engagement rate of 7.50%. When looking at the traditional influencer landscape, according to Fractl, influencers receive an average engagement rate of 3.5% on sponsored posts. Further, according to Hootsuite, sponsored food and beverage posts received an engagement rate of 1.45% in November 2023. The athletes in the El Yucateco campaign significantly outperformed those industry averages.

This small case study helps move the needle on the return on investment (ROI) conversation around NIL and shows why brands should really start looking into this as a real investment strategy in 2024. College athletes are already outperforming traditional influencers when it comes to engagement and they are catching up fast on the content quality front. It is only a matter of time before college athletes become the “go to” creators for brands to tap into.

If you are a brand interesting in getting involved in college athlete marketing, contact our team on our website: https://www.nocapsports.io or reach out to our sales team directly at sales@nocapsports.io

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