Brands Are Wasting Money Partnering With Athletes

Reaching out to 100’s will get you worse results than reaching out to 10 and being strategic. Show that you did your research and personalize the email.

In this industry, people can tell when you didn’t try.

We’re all busy. But blasting the same generic message to 100 brands, agents, or athletes isn’t “efficient” — it’s lazy.

And it’s why your outreach isn’t landing.

The people you’re pitching can tell when your message could’ve gone to 50 other inboxes.

Send 10 messages. Thoughtfully. Strategically. Personally.

Mention something real.

Call out a recent move they made.

Be intentional. Be specific.

Connect what you do to what they care about.

It doesn’t take long — but it makes your message feel like it came from a human, not a playbook.

In sports, relationships still matter.

And no one wants to work with someone who sees them as a line on a spreadsheet.

Show you actually want them, not just “someone.”

That’s how deals start. That’s how trust is built.

You spend all this time thinking about a campaign.

You put it into a budget proposal.

It gets approved, amazing.

You find the athletes.

They agree to terms.

Now its time for them to post…

Falls flat. No one cares. Money wasted.

This happens most of the time, unfortunately.

So why are most athlete brand campaigns not worth the money? Let’s talk about it.

Almost every athlete campaign lacks positioning

Your campaign vs every forgettable one. Is it indistinguishable? Or is it just a template used by everyone else?

Most campaign creatives come together in one of two ways:

In-house: You found an athlete through one of the marketplaces and send a brand brief, hoping they’ll figure it out (they won’t).

Outsourced: You hire an agency to handle creatives. And they threw their B-team at you because they’re too focused on scaling to the next client. They bamboozled you with a pitch that ended up being just another version of “Look at this athlete doing a day in the life with this product.” No one cares to see that again.

Here are the steps to putting together a campaign that isn’t terrible.

Step 1: Think of a human-centric campaign idea

Ideally something specific to the athlete. The kind of idea that couldn’t just be copy-pasted onto someone else.

Ask:

• What’s something this athlete believes in that overlaps with our brand values?

• What’s a moment in their life or routine where this product could show up naturally?

• What kind of content would their audience actually watch or share?

If your campaign could work with any athlete or any brand, start over.

The “defender of decay” campaign with Kentucky’s Josh Paschal is a great example of this.

Not any dentist could’ve pulled this off—Dr. Steckler’s team already established themselves as an office that loves to have fun. And they couldn’t have used any athlete—Josh has the personality that makes this hilarious and shareable.

And it’s got the human aspect…even if it’s swatting candy away from kids. What’s not to like?

Step 2: Create buy-in from the athletes

Athletes (and people) perform better when they care. A couple ways to build buy-in:

• Show them why you want to work with them. (don’t just say “we think you’re great”)

• Ask questions about how they’d actually use the product.

• Let them pitch content ideas—it’s often better when it comes from their world.

Step 3: Come up with the content that’s going to win attention in a crowded newsfeed

This is where most campaigns die. Don’t force a storyline that doesn’t fit. Using step 2 as the foundation, spend time coming up with ideas for each of these must-haves:

• Hook – to stop the scroll

• Story – tap into a moment, feeling, or problem

• Product Fit – figure out where the product can naturally appear

• Shareable Angle – make it something someone would actually want to share

Here’s a fun example from @pyfpointracing:

You’ve got the clear hook (you want to find out what he he’s training for), the story (taps into a situation many parents can relate to of living life with a toddler), product fit (shows him using the product with the focus on the story rather than just the thing), and its shareable (there’s a cute baby involved).

Steal from culture. Not competitors.

Step 4: Coach the athlete through the content creation process (or find a better production agency)

Don't assume the athlete knows how to light a shot, set a hook, or script a voiceover. That’s not their job.

• Provide a content brief with visual examples.

• Jump on a call to co-plan the shoot.

• Partner with a production team that gets athlete culture (not just product beauty shots).

Step 5: Launch

Think about rollout: timing, sequencing, how the athlete introduces the brand, how their audience reacts. Build a little runway around the moment. A few things to try:

• A teaser or behind-the-scenes post the day before

• IG Stories/Q&As to let the athlete talk about the product in their own voice

• A comment strategy to drive early engagement

Tennessee’s Bru McCoy’s partnership with Moonshine Mountain Cookie was a good example of how to launch a partnership.

It wasn’t the craziest campaign ever, but they did a great job of announcing it before the season and letting Bru talk about the partnership to drive engagement. Execution doesn’t have to be complicated.

Most athletes aren’t content creators. But that doesn’t mean you can’t help them create great content.