LUNCHBLOG: Casual Hoya’s First Foray into NIL is a Tremendous Success

In case you haven’t noticed, it’s LUNCH SZN and the #documentyourlunch has been trending for weeks this August. This year, in addition to the usual cast of casual characters joining the lunch blog’s food fun, fans of the Georgetown Hoyas may have seen some familiar names participate in the luncheon endeavor.

New transfer and exciting sniper Kaiden Rice (follow him on Twitter and IG) got the ball rolling with a delicious looking plate of various meats and fowl, along with some carbs and veggies.

Freshman center Ryan Mutombo (IG, snap: ryannkat) showed off a toasted sandwich and some fruit punch. I think we can guess the deli?

Victor Muresan (IG) followed up with a post showing off some scrumptious shrimp! Is that a po’ boy?

Transfer big Tre King (IG) posted some chicken and a pretzel roll. Someone in-the-know needs to share what “Cane’s Sauce” is.

Freshman guard Tyler Beard (IG) had a little fiesta with his taco salad. Do you feel like it needs more queso?

Of course, these fine young men really wanted to join in the fun we have at Casual Hoya, but as an added incentive, this #documentyourlunch activity is actually ... an NIL promotion!

That’s right, your favorite lunch blog has entered the world of NIL and actually paid college athletes to help promote the blog on social media. We invited as many members of the men’s basketball team that we could track down to participate in #documentyourlunch, in exchange for a small payment. The goal was to kick off promotional use and sponsorship of Georgetown athletes—and it was a great success!

The best part is that we are looking to facilitate more NIL deals! If you and/or your business are interested in sponsoring content with a Georgetown basketball player or other athlete, reach out and we’ll work to make it happen.

We understand that, at this time, advertising directly with college players may be a little daunting (and schools are not allowed to directly link up athletes and sponsors), so we figured we can help out with the transaction and help the sponsorship go smoothly.

• For instance, would your company like to sponsor an athlete appearing on a segment of Kente Korner? Hit us up!
• Would you like the blog to share a promo code for your new product or service for sale within an interview post of a new Hoya? Slide into those DMs.
• How about a multi-week engagement where we hire a GU athlete to write game recaps about his view from the court? You know where to find us!

There are several advantages to using Casual Hoya to help promote via a Georgetown athlete’s NIL, including that:

1. we are in contact with many of the men’s basketball players;
2. we have sample contracts ready;
3. we can promote over several avenues (e.g., social media, blog, podcast, and megaphone on the corner of 7th and F Streets NW, maybe); and
4. we can advertise goods and services that might not be optimal for direct promotion by college-aged kids (with college-aged followers) such as fine dining, bars and clubs, adult beverages, entertainment, financial advising, legal services, real estate, mortgages, insurance, funeral homes, etc.

If you’re interested, ask us, and we can generate some stats about our audience. I think.

Importantly, we aim to give the athletes 100% of the sponsorship money. We’re not the first college sports blog to use advertisements to offer NIL to athletes, but we’re hoping to get the ball rolling for Georgetown hoops. Also, while there may be an attorney or two contributing around here, there is no legal advice or legal service being provided.

Keep an eye out for future NIL endeavors. In the meantime, be sure to “follow” and “like” these every one of these fine athletes on social media to help them in their self-marketing endeavors.

And remember to #documentyourlunch!

Which athlete had the best lunch? HOYA SAXA!