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When a beauty brand wants to launch a campaign to promote a new product in 2025, where does it turn?

To sports, of course.

In this instance, the brand in question is Topicals, the popular beauty industry disruptor founded by Olamide Olowe in 2020.

The LA-based brand, which raised $10 million in a Series A funding round in 2022, quickly built up a reputation for its masterful storytelling and super-identifiable products, which double as marketing and brand discovery tools (see Topicals’ ubiquitous pink eye masks, as an example).

I’ve long seen Topicals akin to a brand like Aimé Leon Dore — equally adept in product development as it is in marketing.

Not only Topicals’ products compelling, but the brand has an aspirational aura of cultural relevance that oozes from everything it touches, from its billboards to its digital campaigns to its sold out fashion week pop-ups to its proud connectivity to Black and West African diasporic culture to the carefully curated list of friends of the brand it frequently works with or brings on its famous influencer trips.

It was only a matter of time, therefore, before Topicals dipped its toes into the world of sport, which has been the single most alluring cultural arena to beauty brands over the past year.

I’m often asked by brand leaders or marketers how they can activate in sports if they can’t afford/don’t want to pay ridiculous money for an official team or league sponsorship.

This is how.

Sport provides myriad storytelling opportunities that brands can leverage in their favour. One thing that increasingly drives consumers mad is when brands are lazy. A brand knows sports bring positive associations, so they release a tacky sports-related product like a football jersey or some imitation sports equipment and think they have done their job.

But the smartest beauty and fashion brands enter sports with intention. Topicals decided to use sports to help launch its latest new product, a bar of body soap under its “Slather” product line, which is a “retinol-infused exfoliating body bar which scrubs away dry skin, texture, and bumps associated with KP, revealing softer skin after just one use,” according to the brand.

Who better to market this skincare product than professional athletes, whose skin and bodies are continually on show, being pushed, tested, scratched, bruised and stretched on the floor, night in and night out.

Topicals tapped WNBA star Lexie Brown of the Seattle Storm, already a well known fashion and beauty lover, along with Jarred Vanderbilt of the LA Lakers (a fashion cool kid in his own right), for a campaign rollout to spread awareness for the new product launch, titled Smoothest In The Game. I like both of these picks because they’re not necessarily the first basketball players who come to mind when you think of the NBA and the WNBA. But they are both players with cultural relevance and natural fits in the Topicals ecosystem.

The brand also decided to go a layer deeper, including college hooper Rian Forrester (USC Trojans) in the campaign rollout, in a post that showed before-and-after images of the product in action.

College basketball remains such a fertile marketing environment which beauty brands still haven’t seemed to fully crack effectively. Certain schools (like USC, Duke or UConn) have such avid fanbases for their women’s programmes and have teenage players who are genuine global stars and social media phenomena in their own right that it seems odd how underutilised they are as marketing partners by beauty brands.

Topicals waited to enter sports until it had a good launchpad to do so. I wish more brands — across beauty and fashion — would consider doing the same.

Sports like basketball now represent a critical marketing arena for beauty brands to compete in.

Up until recently, professional sport was a completely untapped market as far as beauty companies were concerned. All of a sudden, brands woke up to the fact that athletes were indeed some of the most compelling and versatile ambassadors when it comes to marketing the appeal and effectiveness of a range of beauty products.

Whenever I discuss the role the beauty industry plays in sports, particularly basketball, I always draw attention to Glossier, which was an early mover in partnering with the WNBA in 2020 (the league’s inaugural beauty sponsor) and later with USA Basketball Women’s National Team. The brand has activated those partnerships in thoughtful and innovative ways, which I have previously explored in this newsletter.

Since then, there has been an influx of brands, including Sephora, Il Makiage, CeraVe, e.l.f. Cosmetics and NYX Cosmetics, following in their lead with partnerships of their own across different sports, though some of these brands have struggled to cut through the noise in an increasingly congested marketing environment.

It’s not just other beauty brands they’re up against either: fashion brands continue to flock into the sports sponsorship market, as do a range of other corporate entities, all looking to cash in on sports’ booming cultural relevance. Naturally, beauty’s role in all of this has been covered on SportsVerse in previous newsletters, too.

As mentioned earlier, I’m excited to see beauty brands explore the opportunities presented by NIL in the college sports landscape, in a way that goes beyond gifting athletes products. I want to see the next generation of college stars (women and men) show up in campaigns and help brands craft products and marketing efforts that align with their audiences.

This is still a space in sports which is ripe for a disruption.

I’m not surprised that Topicals is the brand at the forefront of this push.

That’s all for today, friends. Thanks for being here.

See you Thursday,

DYM

Less than two weeks after terms of a multibillion-dollar college sports settlement went into effect, friction erupted over the definition of a “valid business purpose” that collectives making name, image and likeness payments to players are supposed to have.

The new College Sports Commission sent a letter to athletic directors last week saying it was rejecting deals in which players were receiving money from collectives that were created solely to pay them and don’t provide goods or services to the general public for profit.

A lead attorney for the players responded by saying those instructions went against settlement terms and asking the CSC to rescind the guidance.

“This process is undermined when the CSC goes off the reservation and issues directions to the schools that are not consistent with the Settlement Agreement terms,” attorney Jeffrey Kessler wrote to NCAA outside counsel Rakesh Kilaru in a letter obtained by The Associated Press.

Yahoo Sports first reported details of the letter, in which Kessler threatens to take the issue to a judge assigned with resolving disputes involved in the settlement.

Kessler told the AP that his firm was not commenting on the contents of the letter, and Kilaru did not immediately respond to the AP’s request for comment.

Yahoo quoted a CSC spokesman as saying the parties are working to resolve differences and that “the guidance issued by the College Sports Commission … is entirely consistent with the House settlement and the rules that have been agreed upon with class counsel.”

When NIL payments became allowed in 2021, boosters formed so-called collectives that were closely tied to universities to work out contracts with the players, who still weren’t allowed to be paid directly by the schools.

Terms of the House settlement allow schools to make the payments now but keep the idea of outside payments from collectives, which have to be approved by the CSC if they are worth $600 or more.

The CSC, in its letter last week, explained that if a collective reaches a deal, for instance, for an athlete to appear on behalf of the collective, which charges an admission fee, that collective does not have a “valid business purpose” because the purpose of the event is to raise money to pay athletes, not to provide goods or services available to the general public for profit.

Another example of a disallowed deal was one an athlete makes to sell merchandise to raise money to pay that player because, the CSC guidance said, the purpose of “selling merchandise is to raise money to pay that student-athlete and potentially other student-athletes at a particular school or schools, which is not a valid business purpose.”

Kessler’s letter notes that the “valid business purpose” rule was designed to ensure athletes were not simply being paid to play, and did not prohibit NIL collectives from paying athletes for the type of deals described above.

To prevent those payments “would be to create a new prohibition on payments by a NIL collective that is not provided for or contemplated by the Settlement Agreement, causing injury to the class members who should be free to receive those payments,” Kessler wrote.

MANY WASHINGTON STATE FANS have heard of the Cougar Collective but in the world of NIL, a crimson entity called the Crimson Champions Club is on the rise and it’s favorable to your taxes because it’s a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

“NIL Is Not Optional,” the organization said in an executive summary distributed earlier this year. “The Name, Image, and Likeness era has redefined college sports. Success now demands more than performance, it requires brand building, community impact, and professional growth. NIL gives student-athletes the platform to grow, give back, and gain real value.”

The CCC is taking a unique approach to how it supports WSU athletes, writing, “Crimson Champions Club is non-profit reshaping the NIL landscape at WSU. CCC connects Cougar student-athletes with charitable organizations across the Pacific Northwest, blending athletic excellence with meaningful community service.

“We empower athletes to create impact beyond the field, promoting leadership, personal growth, and a culture of giving back. Our mission is rooted in service and lasting community engagement.”

Unlike the Cougar Collective, whose motto — “mighty by the many” — is reflected in its minimum monthly membership fee of $18.90, the Crimson Champions Club begins its solicitations at a $5,000 per year minimum (or $416.67 per month).

The CCC was launched last year by long-time WSU partisan John Glass of Spokane and others. The organization so far has kept a fairly low profile — so much so that repeated attempts by Cougfan.com to land an interview have been unsuccessful.

“WSU doesn’t need to be among the nation’s elite in NIL,” the CCC writes, “But it absolutely must lead the way in NIL for the new Pac-12.”

The organization is bullish on the Cougs. But there is a window and Cougar Nation must act before it closes.

“The path to the College Football Playoff and NCAA Basketball Tournament has never been clearer for Washington State,” reads the executive summary. “With the right resources in place, success isn’t just possible — it’s inevitable. This is WSU’s time to shine. With dedicated alumni support, WSU is in a great position to lead the new Pac-12

“The next few years will determine WSU’s athletic legacy and national standing,” says the CCC.

THE CCC’S GOAL WITH WSU ATHLETES is to build lasting community engagement by connecting them with Pacific Northwest charities.  “We focus on building futures, not buying performance,” the organization says.

In addition, the CCC plans to offer athletes programs in financial literacy, leadership, and business skills, and is partnering with the Carson College of Business in that quest. “We’re building champions on the field and in life,” the CCC says.

THERE ARE SIX donation levels, all named after the stadiums and arenas on WSU’s campus.

• Mooberry – $416.67 per month or $5,000 per year
• Fieldhouse – $833.33 per month or $10,000 per year
• Bohler – $2,083.33 per month or $25,000 per year
• Bailey-Brayton -$4,166.67 per month or $50,000 per year
• Beasley – $6,250 per month or $75,000 per year
• Martin – $8,333.33 per month or $100,00 per year

Donations can be made HERE and also via checks sent to 8030 Bracken Pl SE, Snoqualmie, WA 98065, and also via the 1890 Foundation on Benevity and through a bank deposit via QuickBooks. More information is available on the CCC website HERE.

CLICK THIS IMAGE TO GET YOUR WSU SEASON TICKETS TODAY!

NORMAN — The University of Oklahoma Athletics Department and Learfield announced Tuesday that Sooner Sports Properties will now be the exclusive, centralized Name, Image and Likeness (NIL) marketing partner for Oklahoma Athletics. Sooner Sports Properties, Learfield’s local team managing multimedia rights for Oklahoma Athletics, and 1Oklahoma, OU’s current NIL partner, are merging all OU NIL operations into a single entity backed by Learfield.

This combined team will continue under the 1Oklahoma brand and builds upon the momentum that Sooner Sports Properties, 1Oklahoma and OU Athletics have realized with innovative Learfield Impact NIL programs. Streamlining NIL operations into one organization will allow Oklahoma Athletics to maximize NIL dealmaking efforts for its student-athletes.

“As the landscape and rules governing college athletics continue to evolve, we are constantly looking for innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve and create significant NIL growth opportunities to our student-athletes,” said University of Oklahoma Vice President and Athletics Director Joe Castiglione. “Centralizing efforts through our trusted partner, Learfield/Sooner Sports Properties, allows us to immediately expand what we already have in place and deliver pioneering NIL opportunities that build long-term value for our athletes and our program.”

Consolidating NIL operations will deliver organizational efficiencies for all involved. The integrated team will enable streamlined marketing and communications efforts and standardized processes for NIL partners, fans and athletes. All the highly successful 1Oklahoma initiatives, including the membership program and Inspiring Champions Fund events hosted in partnership with OU’s Sooner Club, will continue to support OU Athletics through the merged organization.

Under the leadership of Kelly Collyar, Vice President and General Manager of Sooner Sports Properties, Oklahoma Athletics has experienced significant NIL momentum, including groundbreaking programs with Fowler Automotive, State Farm, Devon and Planet Fitness. Sooner Sports Properties helps brand partners integrate student-athlete storytelling with school intellectual property, including OU marks and logos, leading to next-level brand engagement with Sooners fans.

Sooner Sports Properties will leverage Learfield Impact NIL services centered around three foundational pillars: people, content and technology. The culmination of these pillars delivers Oklahoma Athletics the greatest NIL opportunities for its organization and athletes. Sooner Sports Properties will further tap into extensive existing partnerships and leverage Learfield’s Compass NIL platform to facilitate NIL dealmaking with brand partners.

“Oklahoma Athletics and Sooner Sports Properties have implemented best-in-class NIL marketing campaigns over the past four years with Fowler Automotive, State Farm, Devon Energy and many other brand partners positively impacting hundreds of Sooner student-athletes,” said Solly Fulp, Executive Vice President, NIL Growth and Development at Learfield. “Our new centralized partnership with Joe and his team will allow Oklahoma to maximize student-athlete marketing opportunities through our industry-leading people, content and technology solutions.”

With this expanded partnership, Sooner Sports Properties will add more dedicated NIL resources to its award-winning team. Bobby Nash, an accomplished college athletics executive, will join the Norman operation as Director of NIL Revenue and Activation, cultivating new partnerships and generating incremental NIL opportunities for the Sooners. Nash earned his undergraduate and master’s degrees at the University of Oklahoma and held various, external positions at OU and the University of Colorado, and most recently served as Deputy Athletic Director of External Engagement at Utah State University. The centralized team will continue delivering powerful student-athlete storytelling campaigns through on-campus Learfield Studios personnel who develop custom NIL content with brand partners. Creating these original content campaigns for OU student-athletes helps to build their brands by connecting them with more fans through social media and digital channels.

“It’s an incredible honor to return home to the University of Oklahoma with Sooner Sports Properties,” said Nash. “OU has played a deeply meaningful role in my life and career, and I’m thrilled to contribute to the unified NIL strategy that will create long-term value, for our student-athletes, brand partners and the university. Oklahoma’s tradition of excellence is unmatched, and I look forward to building impactful, authentic partnerships that elevate the NIL experience.”