“We’ve focused on building our collegiate sports folio by scheduling big games in traditionally overlooked or underutilized windows,” said Mike Mulvihill, president of insights and analytics for Fox Corporation. “For women’s basketball specifically, we’ve absolutely embraced and celebrated the groundswell in popularity and showcased the matchups and athletes that viewers want to see on Saturday night in primetime on Fox.”
Big name brands
Throughout her collegiate career, Clark has entered name, image and likeness (NIL) rights deals with Nike, Topps, Goldman Sachs, H&R Block, Bose and Hy-Vee, among other brands. But State Farm—the presenting sponsor of Big 10 women’s basketball on Peacock, including Clark’s games—signed Clark to its first-ever NIL deal.
That placed her on an athlete roster next to Super Bowl champions Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce and in commercials with the NBA player Jimmy Butler and Basketball Hall of Famer Reggie Miller.
For her record-breaking moment at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City, the insurer partnered with Peacock on the Caitlin Cast by State Farm that focuses 40% on Clark’s performance and 60% on the rest of the game. State Farm sponsored an in-game points tracker on Fox Sports and Big 10 Network as it monitors Clark’s progress and integrated Fox/Big 10 personality Jenny Taft into Clark’s ads.
“We’re excited about her journey, and we’re gonna be right there with her, but it’s not just about her best in class [performance] on the court,” Kristyn Cook, CMO of State Farm, told ADWEEK. “She exhibits our good neighbor values—just listen to any interview that she has [given]—so we couldn’t be more proud.”
The tracker was part of the Peacock broadcast, but State Farm also flashed a graphic on the lower third of the broadcast screen when she broke the record, and aired a branded bumper focusing on Clark as the new record holder. The brand also had celebratory posts on social media, but doesn’t plan to stop there—as Clark prepares for Iowa’s Senior Day, the Big 10 tournament, March Madness and, potentially, the WNBA draft.
Nike also got in on the action, posting a now-viral image last night of Clark celebrating, with the tagline “You break it, you own it.” Immediately following the conclusion of the game, Clark’s teammates and coaches all donned Nike-branded No. 22 shirts with the same tagline.
