So, you did the work—found the brand, reached out, got the meeting. And now? They’re actually interested. Huge. But here comes the part that trips up a lot of people: What do you pitch? How much is it worth? What should you even offer?

Freezing up here is normal, but once you do it a few times, it’ll start to feel second nature. The good news? Most brands will give you clues about what they’re looking for. Some come with an offer ready, some want your ideas, and some put the ball completely in your court.

So how do you build a sponsorship package that makes it impossible for them to say no?

Here’s the playbook:

Make It Feel Like an Unfair Deal

You want them walking away thinking, Damn, we’re getting a steal here. This doesn’t mean underselling yourself or your talent—it means structuring it so the value is undeniable.

A few ways to do this:

 ✅ Overdeliver (without overextending)—Give them something extra that doesn’t cost you much but makes a big difference to them. One way we do this is by listing every single thing that would require time or action from us or the athlete.

✅ Keep it realistic—Only promise what your talent will actually do. We always run it by our athletes before putting anything in front of a brand.

✅ Show two paths—A one-time engagement vs. a long-term partnership. Brands hesitate to go all-in immediately, so we give them a smaller test option while planting the seed for bigger plays.

✅ Segment everything — To make it feel like we’re overdelivering, we break down every single thing we’re offering as a separate line item. This not only makes the value feel bigger but also gives us leverage when adjusting deliverables and pricing.

For example, instead of just saying we’ll pitch press interviews, we break it down like this:
🔹 2 x 30-minute interviews
🔹 2 press placements secured

Framing it this way makes it easier to adjust scope, justify costs, and reinforce the work going into the deal.

What Can You Actually Offer?

If a brand gives you a blank slate, it can be overwhelming figuring out what to include, but a good rule of thumb is to tailor to your talent.

Here’s a baseline to start with that can affect the sponsorship price:

• Lead with short form video content (IG, TT, YT)

• Offer experiences (IRL events, live session)

• Add stipulations (If x happens, then y gets unlocked) For example, if talent does this celebration, fans get 25% off the next day and talent gets 5% of sales.

• Start a series (3 part video series with micro content in between) We did this with Tahj Washington. 

And since we’re a creative agency, we make it even easier for brands by handling the hard parts:

✅ We come up with the ideas.
✅ We produce the content.
✅ We pitch it to media.

This has easily been one of our strongest selling points of differentiation with partnerships. All the brand has to do is say yes. 

When it comes to putting in the ask for budget, this can be tricky because sometimes the price isn’t based just on the deliverables, but the inherent value of working with that athlete at that time.

We’ve had deals in the hundreds of $ and also in the hundreds of thousands of $. It can range so much.

See if the brand has a budget in mind. Pitch your athletes worth, it’s always better to work down than up.

The Takeaway

Your pitch shouldn’t feel like you’re asking for a favor. It should make the brand feel like they’re the ones winning. Structure it with clear value, make the deal feel like a no-brainer, and always leave the door open for bigger opportunities.

Brands don’t just pay for content. They pay for confidence. Make them believe you’re the right partner, and the deals will come.

Last year, the NCAA updated their language on how brands can work with athletes during games, creating a potentially massive shift in opportunities.

But, do brands realize the opportunity here?

There are definitely some hoops to jump through in order to make something like this happen, but we think big here. Big-money activations might not fit every brand’s appetite, but there’s still a huge potential to build unique, and viral partnerships with athletes.

Disclaimer: Always check with Learfield, Playfly, JMI, etc at the university before trying anything. Chances are, you need to already be a sponsor at the school for this to be possible.

The impact of in-game player moments

A player promoting a brand on their IG is one thing. Promoting a brand during the game, when millions of people are watching them on the biggest stages…well, that’s brand awareness on a level that the biggest brands in the world would love to have.

Back in 2023 we connected our client USC wide receiver Tahj Washington with La Victoria Salsa—each time Tahj made a big play and did a quick salsa dance, 16 lbs of food would be donated to the USC food pantry.

The campaign went viral, with media outlets everywhere talking about the partnership, and more importantly, raising a ton of awareness for the USC food pantry.

We had to be very careful with how we put together this campaign, due to how early it was and the logistics with compliance. But now with the NCAA’s new ruling, brands have an absolute goldmine at their fingertips—IF they can get creative and put in the time and effort needed to execute.

Here are a few ideas where a brand could easily step in and sponsor a viral moment:

“Caught in the act” sideline moments

AJ Brown’s viral moment reading on the sidelines skyrocketed the sales for the book Inner Excellence. With this on everyone’s mind, people are waiting for the next sideline moment so they can see what their favorite player is reading or thinking about between action.

You don’t even need to overthink this one: find players who have a unique sideline ritual and integrate your brand or product. Some examples:

Stefon Diggs x Oral-B
Stefon Diggs flosses during games. This is an opportunity for a brand like Oral-B to ensure that they’re the brand Stef uses whenever he flosses.

Peyton Pritchard x Carmex
Peyton Pritchard is the favorite to win the NBA’s 6th man of the year award right now. Carmex should partner with Peyton to use their product when he is on the bench.

AJ Brown x Barnes & Noble
This isn't necessarily a sideline moment, but reading needs a rebrand. It’s cool to read actual books. If AJ Brown does it, you should want to do it, too. Barnes and Noble should utilize AJ to get people back in the stories buying books.

Capitalize on the moment through social media campaigns with a "Did you spot it?" angle to amplify the reach.

Big Plays, Big Impact

A new theme in football is a turnover (what). GLD has taken the lead with turnover chains and Pitt has the turnover hoop.

Steph Curry’s Night Night celebration should’ve been immediately jumped on by mattress brands. 

Robbie Avila x Warby Parker

This is Robbie Avila.

I don’t know if Warby Parker makes goggles, but they should, and they should make Robbie the face of the campaign.

NERF x Turnover Hoop

Nerf should partner with Pitt’s Football team this season. The turnover hoop is one of the best turnover props in the NCAA. 

Jaycee Horn x Boring Phone 

Boring Phone is bringing back the flip phone, no endless scrolling, no pointless apps, just a phone that does what a phone should.

Joe Horn had one of the most iconic touchdown celebrations ever, pulling a phone from under the goalpost. Now, imagine his son, Jaycee Horn, doing the ultimate throwback, but this time with a Boring Phone.

All you need is Jaycee to grab an interception at Bank of America Stadium… and a phone waiting under the goalpost.

These player-specific celebrations are no-brainers. But you don’t need a player to have a signature celebration to find brand opportunities. Similar to what we did with Tahj, you can work with players during the moments they shine:

• Blocks for Security: Partner with a rim-protecting center, and everytime he/she records a block and does a finger wave, donate one security system to a local family.

• Dropping Dimes: Partner with a star point-guard, and for every assist they record (where they do the “cha-ching” sign motion) donate money to a local kid’s scholarship fund

• Stank Face: A deodorant brand partner with the bench player known for the dramatic reactions to dunks and crossovers. Every time the player does a stank face, the brand makes a donation.

“Wait…what did he just say?”

Mid-game player interviews at basketball games are a potential goldmine for brands. Jimmy Kimmel had MLB all-stars randomly slip in weird phrases into their interviews. A brand could easily do the same with a player with a cheeky personality. But instead of just a random code phrase, the player could actually say something about the brand they’re working with.

“How were you able to prevent their team from scoring in the paint?”

“Probably because of that ridiculously good meal from Chipotle I had before my nap.”

It feels organic, and it’s likely to pick up a lot of press and Twitter activity just for (seemingly) random these are. Brands can have a lot of fun with these.

Creative Logo Plugs

Teams have a ton of established sponsorships that likely prevent branded arm sleeves, headbands, etc…but there are still tons of low-key spots that’ll get eyes. A few ideas to get the ideas rolling:

• Logo haircuts

• Pimple patches

• Mouthguards

• Hand signs

• Water bottle grip tape

• Nail polish

Bonus: Pay the Salvation Army Fine

This one doesn’t need much explaining. If you’re a brand, reach out to the Salvation Army and offer to pay the damn fine for any player that jumps into the kettle for this upcoming Thanksgiving game.