5 Reasons why Adidas’ affiliate program for 50,000 D1 college Athletes is awesome.

𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗽𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗯𝗿𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗲𝗮𝗺𝘀 𝗼𝘂𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲! 👊

@SportsPro.Media reported yesterday on Adidas' (genius) move to create a new affiliate programme that will allow Athletes to earn income from social media posts and by driving DTC sales.

𝗪𝗵𝘆 𝗶𝘀 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝘀𝘂𝗰𝗵 𝗮 𝗴𝗼𝗼𝗱 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮?

Well, put crudely they grab a collegiate sports kid (𝙣𝙖𝙩𝙪𝙧𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 𝙜𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩 𝙤𝙧𝙜𝙖𝙣𝙞𝙘 𝙐𝙂𝘾) when he's a micro-influencer (𝙝𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙣 𝙖𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙖𝙜𝙚 𝙚𝙣𝙜𝙖𝙜𝙚𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩) and get him to shift product for a smaller hit to margin than wholesale would cost.

Then as the kid grows and becomes superstar they've got an existing relationship and their audience has grown up with being fed Adidas branded content throughout! 👟

Many brands lead with this Athlete Marketing model.

𝗔 𝘀𝗼𝗰𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗺𝗲𝗱𝗶𝗮 𝗯𝗮𝘀𝗲𝗱, 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝘁 𝗴𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗱𝗮𝘁𝗮 𝘀𝗵𝗮𝗿𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗲𝗺𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗱𝗿𝗶𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗽𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗻𝗲𝗿𝘀𝗵𝗶𝗽 𝗺𝗼𝗱𝗲𝗹.

This is a brilliant way to work with Athletes to create unbreakable relationships with would be brand fans and also drive incremental revenue.

Ultimately shifting cost from agency/production/media to a much less expensive Athlete x Brand model.