Blog – FanWord Launches New Product, FanWord Boost
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FanWord Launches New Product, FanWord Boost — an NIL Directory for Athletic Departments
By FanWord
Today, FanWord announced the launch of FanWord Boost — an NIL directory for athletic departments. This product is going to help student-athletes get discovered and promote their NIL business opportunities.
FanWord Boost complements the company’s existing Name, Image, and Likeness products by focusing on the importance of marketing and discovering student-athletes.
“The number one question our partners and other institutions have asked us since July 1st is how they can support their athletes’ NIL pursuits, especially of the ones that may not have large audiences on social media,” said FanWord CEO, Christopher Aumueller. “As the market has already shown, there’s clearly an abundance of NIL opportunities for all student-athletes, regardless of sport, gender, or social media audience. It’s just a matter of helping athletes reach the right audience.”
Currently, FanWord works with approximately 25 athletic departments and 6,000 student-athletes nationwide, including institutions like the University of Alabama, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and the University of Kansas.
FanWord Stories, a product to help student-athletes tell their stories, was first introduced in 2019. At the beginning of last year, FanWord then launched FanWord Coach to help educate student-athletes about all things NIL through online courses, live workshops, and other educational materials from industry experts.
“There are fantastic resources out there for student-athletes to monetize their brand,” said Aumueller. “But in order for most athletes to take advantage of those resources, they need to market themselves and get in front of the right people. And that’s what we’re doing with FanWord Boost.”
HOW IT WORKS
Athlete Profiles
Every student-athlete pursues NIL opportunities differently. Some sign up on booking platforms like Opendorse Deals, some launch their own entrepreneurial ventures, some create their own Spreadshop to sell merchandise, some offer virtual coaching lessons through apps like Mojo, etc. Because all athletes are different, it’s important to give them access to a tool that embraces their individuality and enables them to promote everything in one place.
On FanWord Boost, each athlete has a profile that highlights all of their NIL opportunities in a single spot. This includes the various booking platforms they can be found on, the entrepreneurial ventures they’re working on, the products & services they’re offering, and much more. By aggregating everything, we make it easy for student-athletes to push their brand.
Custom School Directory
All of your athletes’ NIL data is compiled into one public school directory that makes it easy for businesses, fans, and other supporters to quickly browse through all things NIL. If your fans, for example, want to know which athletes sell personalized video shoutouts on Cameo or which women’s basketball players offer local discount deals, they can easily filter the directory and find the information they’re looking for. By pooling all of this data together, you’re now helping all of your athletes, including the ones with smaller audiences, increase their reach and exposure, and hence drive NIL business.
Booking Platform Database
There are many resources for student-athletes to monetize their personal brands. From marketplaces like Opendorse and Marketpryce to coaching apps like CoachUp and CoachTube to content platforms like Patreon or Koji — the opportunities are endless. But, with more than 150 existing platforms already, it can be quite overwhelming. As a result, we offer your student-athletes a database of the most credible and trustworthy platforms to not only help them understand which ones align best with their needs and wants, but also help them avoid the ones that could cause compliance issues.
“It’s important to understand that FanWord Boost is not a marketplace,” said Aumueller. “It’s a marketing and discovery solution. You can think of FanWord Boost as the Yellow Pages for your athletes. Your community will use our product to connect with and find your athletes. The actual deal facilitation will then happen on other platforms.”
FanWord Boost is currently only available for college athletic departments but will soon be accessible to high school sports organizations, professional sports teams, and individual athletes, too. Because of FanWord’s pricing model that scales with athlete adoption, FanWord Boost is an affordable solution for institutions of all sizes.
Reach out today if you want to learn more, discuss pricing, or see a demo of FanWord Boost.
Ready to learn more?
ABOUT FANWORD
FanWord is an athlete storytelling and branding company that builds solutions to help athletes grow, protect, promote, and monetize their personal brands. FanWord was recently named one of 13 companies that shape the future of NIL marketing and is located in Lincoln, NE. The company currently works with more than 25 athletic departments and 6,000 student-athletes nationwide.
Visit fanword.com to learn more.
