Women and video wins the content creation war. Top four NIL earners include Oregon’s Sedona Prince, Texas’ Sam Hurley, Auburn’s Sunisa Lee, and California’s Camryn Rogers
Curastory, the content creation DPA that allows for creators and brands to automate the video marketing process, today released a report showcasing the earnings of NIL’s top college athletes. Curastory, top creator advertising tool trusted amongst brands including Launchpad, Calm, Flexia, analyzed data from over 75,000 students from 166 schools to highlight the content creators with the highest earning potential per video. With top earners making more than $80,000 per ad-enabled video post, this report is set to drive transparency in influencer marketing for both brands and creators.
Why is video creation important? Video is the most important indicator of earning potential in the creator economy. According to past predictions, 82% of the internet would be video traffic by 2022. Meanwhile, Gartner recently stated that content influences every stage of the customer journey yet only 42% of B2C and 41% of B2B marketers have a documented content marketing strategy. For brands seeking to stay relevant, Curastory’s report provides unique insights to help power and drive upcoming content marketing campaigns.
Curastory is the great equalizer in influencer marketing, selling reach not biases. With Curastory, brands can run powerful influencer marketing campaigns that drive sales. Curastory allows brands to programmatically obtain ad reads in videos from the most powerful content creators based solely on content keywords, audience demographics, performance and reach versus gender, race, and more.
Key takeaways from Curastory’s first annual NIL earnings report include:
- Schools with the highest aggregate earners per ad-enabled video?
- Oregon, $108K – driven by Sedona Prince
- UCLA, $57K – driven by Dorian Thompson-Robinson
- Texas, $49K – driven by Sam Hurley
- Auburn, $35K – driven by Sunisa Lee
- Florida, $31K – driven by Riley McCusker
- What sports make up the top earners list? Topping the heavy earners list were not the sports we expected, instead these sports dominated:
- Women’s and Men’s Basketball
- Women’s and Men’s Cross Country & Track and Field
- Softball
- What cities produce the highest paid content creators? The home of the creator economy is the home of the most student athlete creators on this list – the west coast, more specifically Los Angeles
- 8% of the student athlete creators live in Los Angeles – the most of any geographical area listed with 49 student athletes hailing from USC and UCLA
- Women are top performers in this report. Meanwhile, men still hold a strong position. According to The Information, 84% of creators and influencers are women. That is no different for student athletes, but more equitable than the normal creator economy. Here are the facts we found to back this:
- 85% of student athlete creators are women
- 70% of student athlete creators are women in the top 10
“It’s exciting to see women dominating our list. Coming from ESPN, if it wasn’t men’s basketball or football being discussed in the programming, it was put on the backburner. With the boom of the creator economy empowering individual voices, that has since changed because women are dominating social media. The creator economy has forced sports media to take a serious look at where the money is going, in turn making the coverage more equitable.” says Tiffany Kelly, CEO of Curastory. “Media conglomerates are now forced to pay attention. There is buying power, there are financials to back growth, and these athletes are a driving force of revenue for brands.
Student athletes who do not find themselves on this list can use it as a resource to learn from top creators. Analyze the top creators, see what type of content is working for them, learn from their analytics and implement this into their own influencer strategies.
The methodology. The student athlete creators included in this report were based on the following aspects evaluated including viewership, content quality, frequency, storytellers vs trend followers, engagement, consistency, voice, and experience. More information on the methodology is available in the report below.
To download the full report visit: https://curastory.co/insights/curastory-ranks-the-highest-paid-college-athletes-in-nil/
