UConn Athletes Grow Personal Brand with D’Amelio Huskies Collective
If anyone knows anything about growing a social media following, it’s social media influencer, Tik Tok father and UConn alum, Marc D’Amelio.
D’Amelio, launched the D’Amelio Huskies Collective in early May, a NIL collective exclusively for University of Connecticut athletes to help grow their social media following.
D’Amelio was very hands-on early in seeking to help boost the fandom at UConn and doing so with the athletes will help along the way.
“I owe everything to the UConn college,” D’Amelio said in an earlier interview, explaining how deeply the connection he felt with the college during the three years he was there. “Three years of your life fly by, except for those [years]. Those three years are so impactful because of the many memories.”
At least one athlete from each men’s and women’s sport at UConn will have the opportunity to be a part of the NIL collective. The athletes will fill out information such as age, grade, sport, position and interests on the website.
After they’re picked to be a part of the collective, D’Amelio will mentor the athletes in creating their brand and building their social media following. He will help connect student-athletes with the respective companies that fit their interests for brand deals.
If anyone knows a thing or two about social media, it’s D’Amelio, who has over 600,000 Twitter followers. His daughters, Charli and Dixie, both have a combined 190 million Tik Tok followers.
D’Amelio not only wants to help the athletes grow their following, but also make sure the athletes aren’t getting taken advantage of when partnering for brand deals, something he knows how to handle with his own daughters.
The UConn alum reached out to multiple brands that would be interested in working with student-athletes. Lightricks, a photo and video editing developer, and Step, a banking platform, are two of the brands that would work with the collective.
D’Amelio does not want to take any profit from the collective. His primary focus is on building the self-esteem of athletes and helping them generate revenue in the long run.
“I want to use my platform to let people know and connect with other fans and other people who might not know about UConn,” D’Amelio said. “With my platform, we can make a lot of noise and help the athletic department.”
