Intentional Brands Can Drive Revenue Growth with Women Sports & NIL Sponsorships

Intentional Brands Can Drive Revenue Growth with Women Sports & NIL Sponsorships

Women’s sports and collegiate name, image, and likeness (NIL) are amongst the fastest-growing sports sponsorship categories. Brands are pouring tens –if not hundreds– of millions of dollars into both.

But given that these classes remain relatively new (particularly, relative to established professional men’s leagues), sponsorship executives are still trying to determine how investments will end up translating into tangible business outcomes and/or meaningful revenue growth. 

Chipotle Mexican Grill’s (NYSE: CMG) partnership with Juju Watkins and the University of Southern California (USC) women’s basketball team is as an example of how a brand can effectively monetize these relationships at scale–even after Watkins suffered a season-ending injury on Monday night.

Chipotle announced the creation of a new menu inspired by the Big Ten club on March 17th. The items on its aptly named ‘Fight On’ bill of fare can only be bought via the Chipotle app or on Chipotle.com.

Chipotle’s emphasis on digital sales is intentional. Leadership believes the data it gathers through the app, and the enhanced consumer experience it is able to deliver with it, will drive an increase in restaurant visit frequency and customer spend over time.

Digital sales have also helped to substantially improve CMG profitability.

But while in-app purchases comprised 35.1% of company revenue in 2024, that was a decline from the COVID-enhanced years earlier this decade (see: 45.6% of revenue in ’21). The presumption is a new digital menu will help spur higher-margin growth.

Chipotle’s decision to time the ‘Fight On’ menu launch with the start of the Women’s NCAA Tournament was deliberate too. Gen Z is the demo most likely to purchase food from restaurants digitally. Those born between 1996 and 2009 tend to be college basketball fans, particularly of the women’s game. And attention on the sport is at its peak in mid-to-late March.

As was its choice to partner with USC. 

Sports Innovation Lab analyzed credit card transaction data comparing fans of the program to the national general population over a 12-month period. It found that Trojans supporters are 5.5x more likely than the average consumer to be Chipotle customers, that they make 3.3x as many purchases, spend 3.2x more per year ($133 annually) and are 15.4% more likely to use online channels when making their Chipotle purchases.

Quick-service restaurants (QSR) have also found success with celebrity-inspired meals before, and Watkins is one of the most prominent athletes in college sports.  She has over 1.1 million Instagram followers and 254,000+ on TikTok.

For context, Travis Scott’s value meal was so popular that some McDonalds restaurants (NYSE: MCD) temporarily ran out of the ingredients needed to complete it. The offering was said to have played a ‘substantial role’ in driving a 4.6% same-store sales increase in Q3 ‘20. 

The fast-food giant had an even bigger hit with its BTS collab. MCD’s co-branded meal deal with the Korean pop group lifted same-store sales receipts by 41% in Q2 ’21. 

The increase represented tens of millions of dollars in incremental top line revenue for the publicly traded company.

The JuJu Watkins Bowl gives Chipotle a celebrity inspired meal that should drive sales. Zoomph found her Instagram post highlighting the partnership generated 40,000+ likes. 

But NIL deals with the remainder of USC’s team enables the company to spotlight its ‘Real Food for Real Athletes’ platform. The marketing campaign, originally launched in 2019, touts Chipotle’s ability to help athletes perform at their peak ‘by providing proper nutrition through real food and fresh ingredients’. 

If many/all the players on one of the top teams in the country are fueling up on Chipotle during the most important part of the season, the implication is the Mexican cuisine is contributing to that success. The ‘Fight On’ menu features each player’s specific order.

While Watkins’ untimely injury means the company can no longer tie offerings to her on-court performance, she should still command substantial attention given that the injury remains one of most compelling storylines of the women’s tournament.  And because Chipotle made the wise decision to partner with the entirety of the team, an NIL best practice, it will be able to continue activating on the campaign through at least next weekend.

USC has advanced to the Sweet 16.

Each of the players currently on USC’s women’s basketball team have already benefited individually from the Chipotle partnership. But the team-wide deal has the potential to serve as a tailwind for the program long after Watkins and her teammates are gone. 

Many partnership opportunities across the professional and collegiate sports landscape are only available to a few select stars. USC has now shown it is capable of generating NIL opportunities for the entirety of its roster. That could make it a more attractive destination for players to come in the year ahead.

Of course, the school won’t have a Watkins to anchor a deal every year.

But that doesn’t change the fact that Chipotle’s partnership with the USC’s women’s basketball team reflects how intentional brands can leverage timely opportunities in women’s sports and with NIL to drive profitable revenue growth and amplify core brand values in a crowed sports sponsorship landscape.

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