Jun 09, 2024
Results From Zips Car Wash’s First NIL Campaign Lead To An Expanded One
UNC women's basketball athlete Alyssa Ustby was one of the athletes who inked an NIL deal with Zips ... [+] for Season 1 of "Car Wash Convos." Last year, Zips Car Wash worked through multimedia rights
UNC women's basketball athlete Alyssa Ustby was one of the athletes who inked an NIL deal with Zips ... [+] for Season 1 of "Car Wash Convos."
Last year, Zips Car Wash worked through multimedia rights holder Learfield to partner with 12 universities and 12 student athletes through name, image and likeness deals. Thanks to the results of that campaign, Zips is announcing an expansion to 14 schools and 22 student athletes for this school year.
The individual NIL deals inked with athletes at Arkansas, UNC and Tennessee last year was for an activation called “Car Wash Convos,” which featured interviews with the athletes while they experienced a car wash at Zips. Season 1 of “Car Wash Convos” received more than 4 million impressions and over 2 million video views.
Zips says the engagement rate on the videos was an impressive 48%.
The 22 episodes planned for Season 2 will air this season on social platforms including YouTube and Instagram, featuring interviews with male and female student athletes from football, basketball, baseball and Olympic sports like swimming and gymnastics from the universities of Arkansas, Georgia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Memphis, and Texas.
Confirmed athletes include:
“The selection process is quite detailed as we set out to find a wide array of male and female student-athletes covering the collegiate school year across major and Olympic sports from football to track & field at six universities in communities we serve,” said Mark Youngworth, COO of Zips Car Wash.
“We want to ensure we are partnering with student athletes that share our core values and are great brand ambassadors. We balance the student athletes' success on the court or field with their personality across social media platforms and try to get a strong sense of their personality and values based on what and how they share. We then work with Learfield and Opendorse to see if we are a fit from their perspective. Our approach to NIL is to have fun and be authentic, that only happens if both parties are excited about the opportunity.”
New schools involved this year include The University of Texas, Virginia Tech, and the University of Memphis.
Asked what the brand learned from Season 1, Youngworth said they’re planning several new things in Season 2.
“Season 1 was so engaging that we've expanded to feature 10 additional student-athletes and three additional schools in Season 2. We are also looking at ways to provide ZIPS fans and university fans with additional opportunity to meet their favorite player at one of our local washes.”
Former Tennessee quarterback Tayven Jackson (who has since transferred to Indiana) led the athletes in Season 1 with 13,312 impressions and a 21.4% engagement rate. UNC women’s basketball guard/forward Alyssa Ustby led the women in the campaign with 29,889 impressions and a 10.9% engagement rate.
Youngworth also said they’re hoping to get more mileage out of the content this year.
“We’ll leverage the video out takes more this season and celebrate student-athlete's individual accomplishments with highlight reels from their episode released on social throughout the year.”
The brand plans to have some shorter deliverables for formats like Instagram Reels, Tiktok and YouTube Shorts, with a maximum time of one minute. In addition, optimized cutdowns will drive traffic from athletics handles and athlete handles to full episodes on the Zips YouTube page.
There will be new opportunities this year to win tickets to sporting events, meet student athletes and mascots and receive free co-branded giveaways. The brand will also be hosting $10 Tuesdays to celebrate its school partnerships with discounted car washes associated with each university at participating locations.
ArkansasMemphisNorth Carolina: TexasTennessee