Our founder and CEO, Bob Lynch, shared insights on TikTok’s impact in the sponsorship world:

The Supreme Court deliberations on TikTok will have a huge ripple effect on the college athlete creator economy, as well as athletes overall. Here's why:

It plays a massive part in deals and exposure: 22% of NIL deals and 40% of all social media engagements for high school and college athletes originate on TikTok this year and that's increased by 73% YoY in terms of engagement!

Some athletes will feel the pain more than others - there are more than 700 with deals - but here's few notable athletes thriving on TikTok:

- Ilona Maher: 14 brand deals, 5M engagements.

- Paige Bueckers: 9 brand deals, 2.2M engagements.

- Angel Reese: 17 brand deals, 1.9M engagements.

- Jake Paul: 3 brand deals, 2.9M engagements.

A handful of industries dominate the space, here are 3 that make up over half all all posts:

 1. Apparel & Accessories: 20% of all posts.

 2. Food & Beverages: 18%.

 3. Consumer Products: 14%.

Marketers would have to shift their athlete content strategies, including these most active brands:

 1. adidas: 46 athletes.

 2. Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers Cane’s: 37 athletes.

 3. Red Bull: 31 athletes.

 4. VKTRY Gear: 23 athletes.

 5. JBL Professional: 21 athletes.

So what's next? 

A ban would trigger an industry-wide recalibration, with athletes and brands leaning much more into Instagram or YouTube, which would also likely lead to diminished engagement as that as TikTok's strength (5% of athlete followers on average engage with their endorsement posts!)

The question is going to be how quickly marketers and athletes can evolve to maintain engagement and ROI in a potential post-TikTok world. We'll be following closely should that happen.

Featured in Front Office Sports, Bob Lynch shared, “about 40% of all social engagement on brand-promoted posts for high school and college athletes come via TikTok.” Read more insights in the full article: Front Office Sports article

See Bob’s LinkedIn post here.

As mentioned in this social media post from our founder and CEO, Bob Lynch, social media remained a powerful platform for athletes to connect with fans and grow their influence in 2024. According to SponsorUnited’s analysis of 10,123 athletes, Cristiano Ronaldo led the charge, gaining an incredible 34 million new followers across his platforms. Notably, when including new channels like YouTube, his growth soars to an unparalleled 100 million followers. He has deals with brands like WHOOP, Herbalife, and Therabody. Following closely were Mike Tyson (+18.9M), whose deals include BYLT Basics, NAGA, and iHerb, Vinicius Jr. (+17.7M), who partners with Pepsi, Nike, and Playstation, Jude Bellingham (+13.5M), and Kylian Mbappé (+13.3M). Interestingly, the top two athletes on the list—Ronaldo and Tyson—have a combined age of 98, highlighting that age is no barrier to global digital appeal. In contrast, younger stars like Bellingham and Vinicius Jr., who are half their age, are capturing the hearts of a new generation.
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Football and cricket dominated the rankings, accounting for over half of the athletes on the list. The global appeal of these sports continues to shine, with football stars like Lionel Messi and Neymar Jr. and cricket players such as Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma standing out. Beyond traditional sports, unconventional entries like Jake Paul, a YouTuber-turned-boxer, and David Goggins, a former Marine turned endurance athlete, showcased the growing influence of diverse personal brands in the sports landscape. The battle between Formula 1 legends Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen remained as close online as it is on the track, with Hamilton edging out Verstappen by just 18,000 followers.

Representation in women’s sports also saw a breakthrough, with Angel Reese (#24) and Caitlin Clark (#42) making the top 50. Their inclusion highlights the growing popularity and influence of women’s basketball. Notably, two big names—Travis Kelce and Shohei Ohtani—just missed the list, coming in at #54 and #75, respectively. While athletes from traditional sports dominated, the hypothetical inclusion of a cultural juggernaut like MrBeast would eclipse them all, with his 153 million new followers proving that content creation remains the undisputed king of digital growth.

View the full post here.

From 2020 to 2021, here are the National Football League (NFL) teams with the largest % increase in total social following year-over-year:

5) Jacksonville Jaguars (+8%)

4) Los Angeles Rams (+9%)

2T) Kansas City Chiefs (+10%)

2T) Buffalo Bills (+10%)

1) Tampa Bay Buccaneers (+22%)

Four out of the five teams above made the playoffs during this season. The Jacksonville Jaguars led in total branded posts with over 2,500 which included 95 different brands. The Kansas City Chiefs had the least amount of posts with just over 500 which only included 45 brands, but do have the highest average rate at .83% and highest total engagement over 8.5 million.

Let’s take a look at how these teams stack up in terms of sponsorship deals:

5) Kansas City Chiefs

4) Los Angeles Rams

3)Tampa Bay Buccaneers

2) Buffalo Bills

1) Jacksonville Jaguars

The Jacksonville Jaguars not only are the top team on this list, but according to SponsorUnited data, they have the most sponsors in the NFL by over 40 brands more than the Indianapolis Colts who come in second with 136 deals followed by the Dallas Cowboys with 128. Ranked by sponsorship assets, the venue naming rights partner for the Jags, TIAA Bank, is tied with Dream Finders Homes for being the most active sponsor with the team.

In an article published by Forbes earlier this month, the two top earning TikTok influencers in 2021 came from the same family. Charli D’Amelio took the #1 spot with 134M followers earning nearly $18M and older sister Dixie D’Amelio has 57M followers earning just about $10M over the course of last year earning her the #2 spot.

Reported by SponsorUnited own data, Charli has partnerships with 10 brands including Dunkin, Cerave, Takis, and Simmons Sleep. Utilizing not only TikTok, Charli posts here endorsements on all of her social media channels including Twitter, Facebook and Instagram brining her total following to nearly 200 million overall. Rather than having static images for her endorsement deals, Charli creates TikTok videos which incorporate her partners into them, most notably with Dunkin’ and Takis.

Simmons Sleep tapped into both of the D’Amelio sisters followers partnering with both influencers providing their fans the opportunity for a bedroom makeover. Dixie has 9 deals, one less than her sister while partnering with higher end brands such as Versace and Valentino. These partnerships differ from her younger sis, as they are more centered around a "high-end photoshoot" v.s the videos created by her sister. With Dixie approaching the age of 21 later this summer, makes us wonder what other brands will leverage the her massive social following of over 86M.