Per GoBearcats:
The University of Cincinnati Department of Athletics announced the launch of IMPACT, powered by Opendorse Ready, the market-leading Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) readiness program.
Available to all Cincinnati student-athletes, IMPACT is a comprehensive student-athlete development program designed to prepare Bearcats student-athletes to positively influence their brands and platforms in the Name, Image, and Likeness world.
As an additional component of the IMPACT program, UC will engage Empower, a national creative media agency with Headquarters in Cincinnati, for group educational sessions on impactful topics and direct, 1-on-1 personal-brand coaching and brand building with a select group of student-athletes.
“It’s an exciting day for us to launch IMPACT in conjunction with our new partners, Opendorse and Empower,” Director of Athletics John Cunningham said. “As a department, we’ve been fully supportive of the rights of our student-athletes to capitalize on their Name, Image and Likeness. This comprehensive program will allow us to put the needed education, safeguards and guardrails in place to allow our student-athletes to maximize their NIL rights.”
Opendorse, a leader in maximizing endorsement values for thousands of professional athletes over the last decade, established the Ready program to apply its proven social media solutions to prepare student-athletes for coming changes to NIL rights. Cincinnati ‘s partnership will enable the Bearcats to provide the program to all of its more than 450 student-athletes.
UC prides itself on innovation and the Bearcats are again at the forefront as the first American Athletic Conference institution and one of the first nationally to announce a department-wide NIL solution. UC joins partner schools from the ACC, Big Ten and Big 12 to sign on to use the Opendorse Ready™ platform. Specific programs and topics include:
• Athlete perspective
• Business and financial literacy
• Content creation
• Endorsements
• Entrepreneurship
• Opportunity management
• Social media
• Comprehensive Social Media Audit and Analysis
• Opendorse Best Practices
• Personal Branding
Opendorse Ready provides student-athletes the opportunity to understand their NIL rights and receive hands-on assistance from experts to maximize their value while on campus. The program offers three core pillars to student-athlete success: Assessment, Education, and Performance – tailored to assist each individual athlete.
UC student-athletes will be empowered with a custom assessment of their current brand value and a roadmap with ways to maximize it. The program includes live consultation sessions with industry leaders and provides on-demand access to the NIL Masterclass, a video series featuring experts on brand building, monetization, and financial literacy from leading brands including Instagram, Twitter, the Players’ Tribune, and Overtime.
QUOTES ON IMPACT LAUNCH
WOMEN’S BASKETBALL COACH MICHELLE CLARK-HEARD
“The IMPACT program is a great opportunity for our student-athletes to grow and understand their brands and the platforms available to them. Social media is a part of our everyday life, and it continues to get bigger every year. My staff & I are constantly challenging our student-athletes to grow and influence our community on both a local and global level. The IMPACT program will allow our players to be at the forefront of the changing social media climate while also promoting themselves, their brands and our program. I am excited to see what possibilities lie ahead for our student-athletes. I am thankful our administration is giving our players empowerment and education through the IMPACT program.”
FOOTBALL HEAD COACH LUKE FICKELL
“We are excited to launch the IMPACT program and make it a benefit to our players and football program. As a team, we want to be the best at whatever we do and this is no different. We appreciate the administration putting together a cutting-edge solution which will educate our student-athletes and allow them to put their best foot forward in this new age of Name, Image and Likeness.”
MEN’S BASKETBALL COACH WES MILLER
“It’s great to see something we have spent a lot of time talking about become a reality. A new era is starting in college athletics and it’s a great feeling to be at the head of the class with IMPACT. We have a responsibility to prepare our players for life after the University of Cincinnati and we appreciate the efforts the University and our department are putting towards this goal.”
EMPOWER CEO JIM PRICE
“Having many UC Alumni at Empower and being a supporter of the UC Women’s Excellence Fund, we are excited to add an additional layer of coaching to their talented and influential student athletes. When executed in a best-in-class way, we see incredible opportunity for brands to leverage UC athletes and the equity of the University.”
ABOUT OPENDORSE
Opendorse was founded by former student-athletes and currently counts more than 15,000 users of its platforms across all levels of sports. In addition to its collegiate partnerships, Opendorse has also partnered with the NFLPA, NBPA, NHL, PGA Tour among other sports properties. Hundreds of brands including Pepsi, Procter & Gamble, and EA Sports also use the platform to execute endorsement campaigns with professional athletes.
The platform is purpose-built for athletes make the most of their moment and to capture the massive opportunity at-hand with the organizations they’re connected to. From All-Americans to All-Pros – when athletes maximize endorsement value alongside their partners and organizations – they do it with Opendorse.
ABOUT EMPOWER
We are Empower, The Un-Holding Company. Our advantage is simple. Clients first – not shareholders.
From the day we opened our doors in 1985, Empower has challenged the media status quo.
Empower is recognized as one of the top independent agencies by Campaign US, a two-time Ad Age Agency A-List Standout (2021 and 2019) and was crowned MediaPost’s 2016 Media Agency of the Year.
Our integrated team of experts in Media, Creative, Analytics, and Word-of-Mouth Marketing outperform expectations. Celebrating two Adweek Media All-Stars back-to-back while also being honored by the Webby Awards, The One Show and ANA REGGIE Awards proves the eclectic talent at Empower is no one-hit wonder.
Empower’s client and employee tenure rate is unmatched – 3X the industry average. Some of our biggest fans include Tempur Sealy, Fifth Third Bank, Gorilla Glue, TriHealth, Brooks Running, Jack Link’s, V-Tech, Bush Brothers, Wendy’s, GNC, Famous Footwear, Ashley HomeStore, Rust-Oleum, The Body Shop, RoC Skincare and Newell Brands.
Empower is headquartered in the historic Over-the-Rhine neighborhood of downtown Cincinnati. Our Chicago office is located in the city’s bustling River North neighborhood, just steps from the Merchandise Mart.
While much has evolved in our 35-year history, we remain independent with plenty of hustle…
Find us on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and online.
