Kroger offers department-wide NIL deals to Cincinnati female athletes

The annual, two-day Kroger Wellness Festival will be held Friday and Saturday at The Banks in downtown Cincinnati and Kroger offered every female athlete at Cincinnati an NIL deal to promote the event. Many athletes posted a graphic on Instagram promoting the festival.

The Kroger Co., a supermarket and department store chain, is headquartered in Cincinnati.

“We are excited to partner with Kroger in providing opportunities for student-athletes,” Cincinnati Director of Athletics John Cunningham said in a release. “We have a shared vision with Kroger on the importance of promoting health, wellness and nutrition to our Cincinnati community. We are looking forward to seeing Bearcats fans at The Banks for our pep rally on Friday!”

The Kroger Wellness Festival will “raise awareness of Kroger and the products the company offers, while also sharing a vision of physical and mental health for all,” according to the release.

Cincinnati will also host a pep rally at 4 p.m. ET Friday at the Kroger Wellness Festival prior to its home football game against Indiana at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday. The pep rally will feature Cincinnati athletes, coaches, cheerleaders and band members.

Cincinnati joins trend in department-wide NIL deals

Over the summer, several companies used the 50th anniversary of Title IX to sign 50 women to NIL deals.

Bumble, the self-described “women-first dating and social networking app,” signed 50 female athletes to yearlong NIL deals as part of a campaign titled “50for50.” Artist Marlene “Motion Mami” Marmolejos created a custom video and digital trading card for each athlete who signed an NIL deal with Bumble.

Sprouts Farmers Market, which is the official grocer of the Big 12 and Pac-12, also signed 50 women from the two conferences.

“I think if you can’t do that in this day and age, when you’re understanding that brands don’t just want to do one or two deals, they want to do 50 or 100 deals, that’s how you can really make a mark for yourself in what’s gonna be a really awesome Year Two of NIL,” Drew Butler, EVP – Collegiate at Icon Source, which connects athletes and brands and helped facilitate the Sprouts Farmers Market deals, told On3 in June.

Kroger’s department-wide NIL deals show the NIL value and marketability that female athletes have.

“You couldn’t be more wrong if you said NIL is only for football and basketball players,” Butler said. “Of course that might have been a general thought heading into the new age of NIL but we see female student-athletes crush it every single day.”