Bold Athlete campaign ideas that you can steal.

Cross Sport Collabs

Bringing together athletes from different sports to create engaging and unexpected content that captivates audiences.

How to Do It:

1. Pair athletes from different sports, like a basketball player and a golfer.

2. Have them try each other’s skills or create a mash-up of their sports.

3. Film in locations that creatively mix their environments, like a baseball diamond with a basketball hoop.

4. Focus on natural interactions and personality to keep the content authentic.

Why It Works:

• Captures multiple perspectives in real-time.

• Feels raw, authentic, and engaging for audiences.

• Perfect for showcasing both your personality and your environment.

Here’s how our team brought this concept to life

Brand loyalty (or at least brand interest) is the key to getting a response.

Brands receive a ton of emails, and the people who work there take pride in their work and the brand they represent. The best way to get them to care about your outreach is to show that you care about what they do.

Reach out without making an ask and show genuine appreciation for something their department accomplished.

Did they release a cool commercial? Did they execute an impactful influencer or athlete campaign? Tell them if they respond, it’s an opportunity to build a relationship.

Remember, you’re looking to create a connection. The timing may not always be perfect, but don’t miss the chance to establish a foundation for future opportunities.

What’s worked for us?

Brands never know if athletes actually like their product, so going the extra distance to show your athlete using/enjoying your product can go a long way whether you have a deal confirmed or not.

I’m friends with NBA Player, Gary Harris and he loves LMNT. I sent them this photo of him using their product and got him some free product.

Next week, we'll add to this by talking about point of contact loyalty, which is just as important, if not more.

Gut Check: NIL x Gut Health Brands

The gut health market is exploding, with hashtags like #GutHealth and #GutTok racking up over 6 billion views. This already booming $51.56 billion industry is expected to double to $105.48 billion by 2030. Gen Z is leading the charge, driving a shift in consumer behavior and making gut health a lifestyle priority.

Yet, these brands—like Olipop, Seed, or AG1—seem to be sleeping on the NIL market. Most stick to wellness influencers or professionals. Why? Probably because they don’t see the creative path forward with athletes. That’s where the opportunity lies.

If gut health brands partnered with athletes who genuinely prioritize health and wellness, they could build trust, create a lifestyle narrative, and stand out in a crowded market.

Here’s How We’d Approach It

Two Ideas to Get Started

1. Athlete Weekly Gut Check
   Have athletes share weekly updates on their gut health journey. Think progress check-ins, energy levels, or performance boosts. The content becomes a mini-series: “Gut Game Strong,” offering transparency and relatability to an audience that craves authenticity.

2. Snack-Sized Gut Hacks
   Athletes are busy—just like your target consumers. Show them sharing quick tips or recipes featuring the product, like a pre-game smoothie or a post-workout recovery snack. Bite-sized content for a bite-sized solution.

Big Idea: The Athlete Gut Health Story

Find one athlete who’s already talked about gut issues—someone who’s struggled with performance due to their stomach acting up. Partner with them to tell their story of how your product transformed their gut health and, ultimately, their game.

Take fans on a journey:

• Document how gut health improved their energy, performance, and recovery.

• Showcase real, ongoing use of the product as part of their lifestyle.

• Highlight the authenticity of an athlete solving a personal problem with your product.

Consumers love transformation stories, especially when they feel relatable and grounded in real-life problems. Find athletes who have posted about struggling with their gut health. Then have them post about their positive transformation by using this product. By tapping into an athlete’s genuine struggle and pairing it with your solution, you’re not just selling a product—you’re selling hope, trust, and results.

Brands used to play it safe, not anymore

There are just a ton of normal, boring marketing campaigns out there. And while most brands are still playing it safe, more brands are starting to pop off with an edgier, IDGAF attitude. Liquid Death showed us 1.4 billion reasons why this approach works.

Consumer Packaged Goods (CPG) brands are in a crowded space and need to stand out. So you’re seeing more launch or pivot into being brash and even controversial.

And then you’ve got Sorry Nonna and Not Beer who…yeah take a look.

They lean heavily on influencers to promote their campaigns, but they should be working with athletes. They just don’t know how to work with them yet!

So we took one of these newer, “controversial” brands and are sharing how we’d approach getting an athlete a product, brand deal or even equity.

Let me introduce you to Sport Drink. It’s refreshingly straightforward and they’re using unique, David vs Goliath style marketing strategies to stand out.

Sports Drink isn't actually a drink. It’s a powder. It's obvious which brand they're going after based on this tweet.

While most products are looking to remove sugar, Sport Drink is embracing it.

This is from their website:

"In the past few decades, the establishment and its foot soldiers have waged war on sugar. It has been demonized beyond imagination."

Brands like Sport Drink keep things fun.

Here's how our agency would pitch or work with Sport Drink.

Nowadays we see so many manicured training sessions by social media workout stars. It seems to be more about the post than the actual work. This would be a great opportunity for Sport Drink. 

Create a campaign that has zero visuals. Just the sounds of the gym. You could even take it to another level and partner with athletes who aren’t afraid to stir the pot and call out/make fun of these social media stars. The message: you don’t need a camera to prove you’re putting in work.

Sport Drink is all about going after “big sport drink” – the Gatorades and Powerades of the world. Sport Drink can lean into it even further by upping the ante and directly targeting them, taking a page out of Liquid Death’s playbook by referencing an old campaign from a company that everyone loves.

Everyone remembers Gatorade’s “Is it in you?” campaigns. What if Sport Drink took this and flipped it from a positive to “Is it in you? If you drink Gatorade, then yes” and then show all of the unnatural, unnecessary ingredients that Gatorade has.

Then that serious game-face that made those Gatorade campaigns famous could be the “oh sh*t” face of an athlete who just realized what’s inside of a drink that everyone loves.

Lean into the trash talk. Partner with an athlete who is known for their, let’s say, competitive banter, and pull together some clips of them doing their thing in a game…and then backing it up. Show the unfiltered confidence and edge that comes with being at the top of your game. 

Some good headlines around this would definitely get some attention from sports media who jump on anything that gets people riled up: "Not afraid to give words encouragement” or “Big talk, bigger game” or simply “Sport Drink. Because you can’t fake confidence.”

Imagine the headline:

 “Sport Drink partners with the biggest trash talkers in the NCAA.”

Again, in the spirit of going against the establishment, find the athletes who are going against the status quo. There's a new type of player in basketball. We're seeing some basketball players with the body type of an offensive lineman, choose to be guards in basketball.

Take Marcus Johnson at Bowling Green. He’s not a slight-framed distributor who is meant to manage the game. He has a bulky build and doesn't get going anywhere quickly. He’s changing the narrative of what a guard is. And that’s exactly what Sport Drink is doing.

Sport Drink could take a similar route to the Dairy Alliance’s deal with college football players. But rather than a lazy “Milk’s got Game” creative, it would be more aligned and show why this player is breaking the barriers. And whether you like it or not—this is what the future looks like.

A new category of player. A new category of drink.

Duke’s superstar freshman Cooper Flagg caught a few cramps earlier in the season, and people were freaking out. Now would be a great time to use this as a campaign push.

Scope out a player on X who has tweeted out about getting a cramp during a game, and approach them to do a campaign with Sport Drink, “The solution to never cramp again.” Have them do a follow up tweet talking about how they haven’t had a single cramp since switching from “that other sports drink.” Great way to get people thinking about the consequences of not switching (or at least re-evaluating) their normal choice.

Not only are the marketing ideas more fun with these, there’s much higher upside from early partnerships. This is a brand so new, they could even consider equity in addition to giving away product. Get creative and don’t be afraid to get a bit weird.