The Objective
Increasing engagement with influencer marketing
Foot Locker approached Later about a name, image, and likeness (NIL) program for its Champs Sports brand in the summer of 2021. Since brands couldn’t work with student-athletes on sponsored collaborations until July 2021, Champs Sports had previously partnered with “lifestyle” influencers. However, with a niche target demographic, it wanted to transition into the NIL space.
Initially, this transition proved challenging as many influencers did not align with Champs Sports’ demographic, with creators focusing on the “lifestyle” content the brand was moving away from.
Additionally, this program needed to find creator partners with a high average engagement, specifically for video views.
The Solution
NIL Campaigns for “Weekend Warriors”
Champs Sports had a specific audience it wanted to target through this NIL program, to broaden its consumer base and appeal to a more inclusive group of 16 to 34-year-olds who identify with the “weekend warrior” persona.
This persona type included those who have a habit of going to the gym in between living their life as a parent, for example — people who have an active lifestyle and buy running shoes to walk in. Alongside this weekend warrior, student-athletes within the millennial demographic were, of course, a focus for the brand.
How we collaborated
Given the target demographics and program goals, Champs Sports and Later worked together to carefully curate the applicant pool to prioritize influencers with higher engagement rates.
The teams also limited partnerships with influencers who posted more generic lifestyle content, since they wanted to ensure all partners represented the brand’s products authentically through sports-specific influencer-generated content (IGC).
The working relationship between Champs and Later was strong, with the teams splitting responsibilities and owning certain aspects of the program. The Champs team led the charge for the campaign concept and brief creation, final selection of creator partners, product distribution, posting schedule organization, approval of content, and some of the influencer communication. Meanwhile, the brand looked to Later’s team of experts to own the campaign creation, influencer sourcing and negotiation, agency communications, and campaign reporting.
The 4 campaigns
Within the overarching NIL program, there were four Champs Sports campaigns activating athletes and fitness-focused influencers, each with varying content requirements united through the chosen #WeKnowGame hashtag:
- Champs Sports x Pembroke Pines, who focused on TikTok, Reels, and Instagram Stories;
- Champs Sports x Crocs, who focused on Tiktoks/Reels, Instagram Stories, and Instagram feed posts;
- Champs Sports x Legends, which focused on Reels and high-res images; and
- Champs Sports x Converse, which focused on high-res images and Reels.
For each campaign, every creator needed to use original audio, to avoid copyrighted music or music from popular artists. In addition, Later needed to source influencers whose quality of content was very high, with a particular preference towards creators who hire photographers and videographers when producing their IGC. Creators were carefully selected and compensated in cash payment along with Champs Sports products.
The Results
A Champion Campaign
353.1K
Total Engagments
11.8%
Average Engagement Rate
$0.16
Average Cost Per Engagement (CPE)
$19.14
Average Cost Per Thousand Impressions (CPM)
As a result of the program, there were 24 creators activated across all four campaigns, generating 91 pieces of content, 3 million total impressions, and 353.1K total engagements — with an average engagement rate of 11.8%.
This overall average engagement rate — incorporating Pembroke Pines: 2.9%, Legends: 10.2%, Converse: 14.2%, and Crocs: 9.7% — was right on par with Later’s benchmark for the retail/eCommerce vertical, which is 13.7% as of Q4 2022.
In addition, the program achieved an average cost per engagement (CPE) of $0.16 and an average cost per thousand impressions (CPM) of $19.14 — greatly exceeding Later Q4 2022 benchmarks for retail/eCommerce, which were $0.52 CPE and $69.54.