For brand marketers, creators and athletes are becoming interchangeable

If you’ve been paying attention, you’ll know McCain isn’t an exception. Over the last 12 months, football players and brothers Jason and Travis Kelce inked a $100 million podcasting deal with Wondery; soccer stars Cristiano Ronaldo and Jude Bellingham launched YouTube channels; and Angel Reese capped a breakthrough season in the WNBA by launching her own interview podcast.

Athletes aren’t waiting to retire from the field before pursuing a media career any more — and the businesses they’re building atop their public profiles look a lot like those constructed by social media influencers.

“We’re getting involved with more players earlier on in their careers,” said Daniel Gyves, head of media sales at Athletes First, a specialist NFL talent and production agency.

It’s a change pushed by brands, athletes and sports teams. And it shows no sign of slowing down in 2025, despite the Damocles’ sword hovering over TikTok, a key pillar of the American influencer economy.

“Younger athletes are recognizing the power of content creation early on, and athletes looking to transition from sport to the next chapter are doubling down on this strategy,” said Britt St. George, CEO at creator agency Smith&Saint.

Deals between athletes and brands are getting shorter in duration and are constructed with Instagram, YouTube or the podcast market in mind. In short, the influencer economy is absorbing the old business of sporting celebrity.

“The line between athlete and creator, in our opinion, is a vestige of a landscape that no longer exists,” added St. George.

This crossover is being driven by sportspeople themselves. “Athletes who aren’t active on social are basically leaving money on the table,” Jas Dhami, vp of sport at We Are Social, told Digiday earlier this year.

Following a landmark 2021 Supreme Court decision in 2021 that enabled college athletes to begin earning from brand endorsements before their pro careers began, an agency scene dedicated to name, image and likeness rights has built up.

That court decision “accelerated” brands’ social media involvement with athletes and heavily contributed to the crossover that’s happened since, according to Quinten Rosborough, senior director of content at creative agency Artemis Ward.

“The athlete-brand relationship has fundamentally changed. Athletes want to be active brand partners and bring an engaged fanbase to the table where their influence has serious value,” added Beth Sidhu, chief brand and communications officer at Stagwell. The agency group realized the trend early, bringing athlete influencers such as the Kelces to the heart of the ad industry via its Cannes “Sport Beach” event.

Talking heads

Podcasts have emerged as a key channel for athletes-turned-influencers. The format provides greater agency over topics than, for example, a broadcast media appearance, according to Matt Schwimmer, CEO of podcasting and production firm Playmaker HQ, which produces Angel Reese’s “Unapologetically Angel” podcast.

“We don’t view ‘Angel’ as a sports podcast. We view ‘Angel’ as a modern entertainment podcast that covers all topics and sports,” he said.

Teams and clubs are also pushing things forward. Their involvement highlights one element of the creator economy that athletes are less likely to adopt — DIY production.

Though they might offer greater reach or engagement than a traditional influencer, sportspeople are athletes first and creators second.

“A lot of these athletes aren’t content creators,” noted Nick Seymour, a former professional rugby player and co-founder of marketing agency Komodo. Editing an Instagram Reel is “quite far down the pecking order” relative to training, he said.

‘Teams are dumb if they’re not doing it’

Teams have a support role to play, then, in helping their athletes build out creator careers.

When football team the Los Angeles Chargers opened their new training facility last year, it included a large multimedia studio for content production. As well as serving the team’s own media needs, Jason Lavine, the Chargers’ svp of brand creative and content, said the studio would be made available for players wanting to produce video or podcast content.

“I think any team would love to have a Travis Kelce, right? Our hope is, by having something like this, players will feel more inclined to start their own podcast,” he told Digiday.

“It’s mutually beneficial to the teams to have these athletes be relevant outside of football,” said Basia Wojcik, vp of sports at creative agency The Marketing Arm. “Teams are dumb if they’re not doing it.”

Finally, the blurring distinctions between athletes and creators suits brand marketers.

Advertisers are keen to reach large audiences through authentic-seeming connections. Sports personalities can deliver both, which is why brands like insurer State Farm feature athletes, including WNBA player Caitlin Clark, so frequently in its ads.

“Those spots work harder when a basketball player is in [them],” Alyson Griffin, head of marketing at State Farm, said, citing internal research. “When that talent is in it, it just works harder.”

Even without the international sporting tentpoles that spurred media investment last year, creator agency executive St. George said she expected more athletes to take on more brand work over the next 12 months.

“While certain marquee brand moments … will not exist in this more conservative period of the four-year cycle, we do expect athletes to become more ingrained in evergreen brand marketing,” she said.

“The marketplace is rapidly expanding to meet this demand,” said Martin Blich, executive director of sports and live investment at GroupM U.S.

In 2025, he suggested that “we’ll continue to see talented athletes rise to stardom with compelling storylines that will resonate with advertisers and fans.”