Over 50 Oklahoma athletes in NIL campaign for Fowler Automotive through Learfield

For years, Fowler Automotive Group has sponsored Oklahoma Sooners football.

The automotive dealership with 11 locations throughout Colorado and Oklahoma is now adding a twist to its support of Sooner athletics in the 2024-25 academic year. Working hand-in-hand with Learfield’s Sooner Sports Properties, Fowler has kicked off an NIL campaign with over 50 Oklahoma athletes. TV commercials will air throughout OU games this fall.

Fowler has more than doubled its sponsorship from the previous year with a major investment, On3 was told. The dealership is giving 22 athletes cars for the year, too. Football players’ appearances were facilitated through NIL collective agreements.

“Our general managers and our salespeople and our activation are getting better and better at incorporating student-athlete influencer marketing into the deal-making process,” said Solly Fulp, Learfield’s executive vice president of NIL. “This is probably one of the best examples right now of humanizing the partnership with our student-athletes, from softball student-athletes to football student-athletes, and the stories that they can bring out in these campaigns, in their personalities provide deeper engagement with the university community.”

Oklahoma football players star in commercials

Football players involved in the campaign include Gavin Sawchuk, Jacob Sexton, Joshua Bates, Eddy Pierre-Louis, Nic Anderson and Damonic Williams. Softball, gymnastics and basketball will all be featured.

Sooner Sports Properties’ Rodney Anderson, Matt Archibald, Kelly Collyar ran point on the campaign, with Archibald taking charge of producing the commercials that have a “This is SportsCenter” theme. In an ad for one of Fowler’s Toyota dealerships in Oklahoma, Sawchuk, Sexton, Bates and Pierre Lewis provide car safety to a new customer. That includes the offensive linemen protecting the vehicle from its blind side.

“With the entrance into the SEC coming, and this being the first year of that, the ability to pull this campaign off with these athletes has just been incredible,” Fowler Automotive president Jonathan Fowler told On3. “You talk about guys like Nic Anderson and Damonic Williams, these are big names that are going to be big-time players this year. It’s incredible. And then being able to tie in some of the other athletes from the other sports as we roll out the campaign, we’re excited to see what’s ahead.

“I’ve got a lot of trust with the people at Sooner Sports and have worked with them for a long time. They’re great people, and they do great work.”

Fowler purchases liner, cable ad buys for Oklahoma ads

Fulp told On3 that last year, Learfield totaled 512 deals which incorporated an NIL activity into a sponsorship agreement. Only two months into the multimedia rights company’s 2025 fiscal year, they’ve already executed 532 deals tied into sponsorships.

Fowler Automotive’s partnership with Oklahoma’s Sooner Sports Properties is one of the most expansive to date, with the dealership going all-in on linear and cable ad buys. Because Fowler worked with Learfield, athletes will wear Oklahoma jerseys in every commercial which is invaluable for brand recognition.

“What I can tell you is the question that we got asked most my first 10 years here was, ‘Can Baker Mayfield come and talk to our leadership group?'” Collyar said. “‘Can we get Kyler Murray?’ No, we can’t. I sure wish we had NIL in 2017 and 2018, it was hard because the line was drawn so clearly. We’re fortunate to have [athletic director] Joe [Castiglione]. Our administration is not afraid to go up to the boundary.

“We’ve worked closely with Solly and the team at Learfield to say, ‘We feel like this is within the guardrails. We feel like this is something that we can do.’ And we’ve continued at Oklahoma, truthfully, to try to be on the forefront of being out there on what we can do.”