Dentsu’s latest deal signals rising holdco interest in NIL creators

The deal grants Dentsu and its clients (which include 7-Eleven, American Express and T-Mobile) access to some 30,000 college athlete creators across 1,100 U.S. universities.

Cara Lewis, chief investment and activation officer at Dentsu, said the deal was a response to rising demand among brand marketers for access to sports audiences – and a sign that the borders between influencer, celebrity and sport are collapsing.

“Athletes are becoming influencers. And influencers are important to the overall story. They can bring a different perspective,” said Lewis. ”Sports is in higher demand than it ever has been,” she added, but NIL creators can “bring a different angle” to marketing activity than established sports personalities.

The NIL sector has grown rapidly in the last four years, following a U.S. Supreme Court decision that allowed college athletes to get paid for brand and sponsorship work. It’s spawned a host of specialist firms connecting those creators – who, by definition, must juggle college studies with athletic performance and have less time to manage their creator work than full time influencers – with agencies and brand marketers.

“Brands really need to reach next-gen audiences. You can’t go and just put a billboard up on the quad of the campus. This avenue offers [a] really targeted strategy to reach that audience with influencers that they resonate with,” said Ayden Syal, co-founder and CEO of MOGL. Syal estimated that MOGL’s roster of NIL creators represents 10% of the college athletes currently working as influencers today, and that 25% of the 30,000 creators are football players.

Both pro and college athletes have become must-have elements on the media plans of brands activating in and around American sports. Though the overall level of NIL-related ad spend is unclear – NIL platform Opendorse placed the total market at over $1.6 billion in 2024, which includes private donations to college teams – creator economy practitioners expect their presence in campaigns to grow further. “We’re just reaching the tipping point,” said Brian Pham, vp of strategy, media and production for North America at Influencer.

Marketers recognize that athletes, and NIL athletes in particular, enjoy key advantages over “regular” influencers in the same age bracket – namely, access to a loyal fanbase eager to embrace the next star player.

“They have this built-in trust, local or regional influence and cultural relevance,” said Joey Chowaiki, co-founder and COO of Open Influence. “They [have] deep community roots, they’re hometown heroes, campus icons.”

“One of the most compelling aspects of NIL athletes is that their influence is hyper-local. It’s rare to have access to partners that have such a concentrated fan cohort, which unlocks some really unique opportunities for brands,” Jas Dhami, head of sport of We Are Social’s North American business said in an email. “Gen Z – the key audience for most of our brand partners–places a premium on authenticity, relatability, and community over polished, traditional advertising. NIL athletes embody all of that.”

Furthermore, marketers are aware that NIL creators can be a relatively cost-effective way of investing in sports marketing. Creators in the space are often at the beginning of their athletic careers, so a NIL deal gives a brand a chance to get in at the ground floor with a future NFL draftee or basketball household name (and means that if things don’t work out, less cash is ultimately wasted). “It’s a good bang for your buck,” said Chowaiki. When creator rates are otherwise on the rise, that’s attractive to brands.

Though it’s possible for a brand to manage such relationships directly, large advertisers often work with scores of creators on each campaign. Managing those relationships at scale – writing and distributing briefs, monitoring engagement and effectiveness, processing payment – can be a labor-intensive activity. As such, demand for creator agencies-of-record, and middleman businesses like MOGL and Open Influence, is rising.

“It takes brands a long time to find the right influencers, to ultimately align on contracts and campaign briefs, to facilitate payments, [and] verify fulfillment of complete deliverables,” said Syal. “We enable them to build awareness for their products and services amongst next-gen audiences, at scale and with precision.”

Zooming out from the NIL space, Dentsu is not the only major media firm trying to secure closer access to sporting creators. Broadcast company Sinclair signed a deal last week with talent and creator agency Athletes First to exclusively broadcast media content made by talent on its roster.

Meanwhile, the creator and influencer sector continues to be an area of particular interest for holding company M&A teams. In the first half of 2025, 52 M&A deals were completed – a 73 percent year-over-year increase, according to Quartermast Advisors.

This year, Publicis Groupe has acquired Captiv8 and BR Media Group, following its takeover of Influential last year. WPP bought influencer agencies Village Marketing in 2022, and Obviously and Goat in 2023; while Stagwell purchased Leaders in 2024.

In 2025, the global influencer market is expected to reach some $33 billion, more than tripling in size since 2020, per Statista.