Prom Night NIL Deals

In the CleanKonnect NIL Certification Course, we have a section for the most creative NIL deal we've seen, which at the time of writing this was 2023 high school football player Nyckoles Harbor teaming up with Champs Sports to announce his college commitment.

That title could be in jeopardy after a slew of very creative NIL deals with high schoolers focused on prom night.

Let's dive into three athletes who used their social platforms to promote companies that supplied goods/services for the athletes' senior year prom night.

Nyckoles Harbor, Class of 2023, University of South Carolina Football

Harbor partnered with Suit Shop for some stylish prom apparel that he displayed on his social media account with a dedicated post and incorporated the caption: Prom Vibrations! It’s just business as usual on this side. Thank you for the threads @suitshopofficial. #Sponsored #Ad. into his post.

DJ Wagner, Class of 2023, University of Kentucky Basketball

Wagner partnered with Lex Exotics, which is a boutique private car club for auto enthusiasts, which provided him a Bentley for his senior prom.

Mackenzie Mgbako, Class of 2023, Indiana University Basketball

Mgbako partnered with shopgld for jewelry and INDOCHINO for his suit for his senior year prom.  Unlike Wagner and Harbor, Mgbako was much more discreet in his social media promotion by tagging the brands in his post in lieu of having a dedicated caption to the brands.

All three of the above posts performed very well for the athletes in terms of likes and engagements relative to their non-sponsored posts.  In fact for Mgbako, the post got 11,000 likes which was his second most liked personal post on Instagram, after his Indiana basketball commitment post which got 32,000 likes.

As athletes, parents, and brands have become more knowledgeable about how NIL works and how to successfully establish influencer marketing partnerships, we have seen more creative NIL deal types, like these prom focused deals.