NIL Edge
What Brands Still Get Wrong About NIL
Allison Iverson, Campaign Manager at Postgame, joins Sterling Randle to explain the misconceptions that can keep brands from entering NIL, what most athlete deals actually look like and how companies can build campaigns that produce better results.
Presented in partnership with Digital Sport by Hot Paper Lantern ↗
The biggest NIL deals may dominate headlines, but they are not representative of what most athlete marketing partnerships actually look like.
For brands trying to understand NIL, that disconnect can create unrealistic expectations about budgets, athlete compensation and what it takes to build an effective campaign.
In this episode of The NIL Edge, host Sterling Randle sits down with Allison Iverson, Campaign Manager at Postgame. Drawing on her experience at Utah State, Boise State, the University of South Florida and Postgame, Allison explains what NIL actually looks like for most college athletes, why brands need clearly defined campaign goals and how genuine athlete-brand connections can lead to stronger content and better results.
What This Episode Covers
✓ What NIL actually looks like for most college athletes
✓ Why most NIL deals look nothing like the multimillion-dollar agreements in the headlines
✓ How brands should establish campaign goals and budgets before selecting athletes
✓ How brands should think about athlete quality versus campaign quantity
✓ Why genuine athlete-brand fit can produce stronger and more authentic content
✓ How revenue sharing has affected third-party NIL activity
✓ The biggest friction points between brands, athletes and universities
✓ Where NIL marketing could be headed over the next several years
Allison Iverson
Campaign Manager, Postgame
Allison works with brands and college athletes to help execute NIL campaigns through Postgame. Her background includes experience at Utah State, Boise State and the University of South Florida, giving her perspective from both the college athletics and brand activation sides of the NIL ecosystem. She explains how Postgame helps brands identify athletes, navigate compliance requirements and execute campaigns at scale.
NIL is often portrayed through the biggest contracts, highest-profile athletes and largest national campaigns. But those examples represent only a small portion of the overall market.
For many brands, successful NIL marketing can involve smaller budgets, targeted athlete groups and highly specific campaign goals. The challenge is understanding which athletes make sense for the brand and what success should actually look like before a campaign begins.
Allison's perspective also highlights the importance of alignment between brands, athletes and universities. The strongest campaigns are not simply transactions. They give athletes the ability to create content that feels natural while giving brands a clear strategy, defined expectations and the infrastructure needed to manage compliance and execution.
The NIL Edge
The NIL Edge is NILNewsstand's interview series featuring the athletes, brands and college athletics leaders shaping the future of NIL, revenue sharing and the new era of college athletics.
The series is hosted by Sterling Randle and produced by Digital Sport by Hot Paper Lantern in partnership with NILNewsstand.
