On3 NIL called it "one of the funniest NIL deals to date." Sports Illustrated declared it "a must-watch." The Drum Awards pronounced it a finalist. And thousands of Georgia and Tennessee fans rallied around their favorite college football players in the name of milk.
And it all started with putting milk's best benefit to a vote.
First, we inked NIL deals with beloved collegiate athletes from rival teams and assigned them to Team Strength and Team Hydration respectively.
Then, after drumming up hype on billboards in the cities they called home...
We invited fans through organic social media content to "milk" their voices heard on the athletes' Instagram pages—with hashtags we tracked on the official Milk Bowl 2023 website.
The pièce de résistance: two bespoke commercials we scripted and shot in Athens and Knoxville. One of them even made it to broadcast during the Georgia vs. Tennessee game on November 18th, 2023.
One of the first campaigns Emily Kurek and I concepted and brought to fruition together at The Partnership.
The brief: leverage NIL deals with college athletes, the social media buzz surrounding March Madness, and heated rivalries between college basketball teams to promote the nutritional benefits of milk on behalf of The Dairy Alliance and Tennessee Milk.
The campaign: a dairy-driven digital take on an old-fashioned dunk contest. Throughout the month of March, we invited Tennessee college basketball fans to tweet at us in order to dunk animated caricatures of beloved college athletes and friendly rivals Zakai Zeigler and Kendric Davis in milk. The more they tweeted, the more milk dunks we showed 'em.
The results: over 10 million impressions (paid and organic) in the first 18 days and more than 1,500 unique participants on Twitter.
So many people made these campaigns possible, but I would be remiss not to extend my gratitude here specifically to Emily Kurek, Lindsay Muncy, Golden Goose (Ryan Golden & Wes Kennison), CHOMP, creative directors Lindsay Zarczynski & Tyler Pierce—and, finally, our terrific partners at The Dairy Alliance.