Opendorse co-founders Blake Lawrence and Adi Kunalic as Nebraska football teammates. (Courtesy of opendorse)
University of Central Florida linebacker Shaquem Griffin lost his left hand when he was four. Nevertheless, Griffin emerged as a star in his junior season when the American Athletic Conference named him Defensive Player of the Year. Hoping to equip him with the ability to build his brand, the Knights athletic department turned to social marketing firm Opendorse.
UCF began a trial last fall with Opendorse, which specializes in collegiate athletics. At the time, Griffin had about 1,000 Twitter followers. By the time UCF completed its undefeated season and he was selected by the Seahawks in the fifth round of the NFL Draft, however, Griffin had more than 110,000 and was a media darling with widespread name recognition.
“His story deserves to be told, and nobody in the world knows Shaquem Griffin’s story better than Shaquem Griffin,” Opendorse co-founder Blake Lawrence said, before later adding: “Opendorse is a catalyst for that as a tool—that’s great, I love being a solution for it—but the outcome is what’s really valuable. More people were able to get closer to Shaquem as they went through the undefeated season and started to find their favorite student-athletes on the roster.”
Opendorse is building off its trial last fall with a series of high-profile schools like UCF, Auburn, and TCU, as well as a league-level partnership with Conference USA, by expanding the availability of its software platform to more universities. More than 400 student-athletes took part in the beta launch, generating 16.6 million impressions across Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, with an average 22.9 percent increase in followers. The Opendorse platform also supports some pro athletes, such as tennis players on the WTA circuit, and has received financial support from Lawrence’s former Nebraska teammate, Bears cornerback Prince Amukamara.
Few understand the power of social media like Lawrence, who was the first Nebraska football player to join Twitter back in 2009. By opening up about himself and the Cornhuskers, Lawrence drew more media attention. That ultimately set him up for a post-football world that came far more suddenly than he ever could have imagined.
“Student-athletes never know how long their careers are going to last,” Lawrence said. “I was a starting linebacker at Nebraska one day and had to stop playing the next—I had concussion issues. I was done in an instant.”
Lawrence used his five years on athletic scholarship to earn two degrees, an undergrad marketing diploma completed in two and a half years and then an MBA. But his social media work was important, too. That led to a weekly television gig hosting a Nebraska football show, Big Red Wrap Up—and a new career. Lawrence and teammate Adi Kunalic started Lincoln-based Hurrdat Social Media which they ran together until B2 Interactive acquired the company in 2014.
Nebraska’s athletic department spent considerable resources helping prepare its student-athletes for life after college athletics, Lawrence said, with time devoted to résumé creation, job interview coaching, seminars on financial responsibility, and the like.
But he saw a gap in social media. The NCAA, of course, prohibits compensation for athletes, but Lawrence saw an opportunity for the universities to make media content—photos and videos from their athletic careers—available for use by student-athletes. Building a social following can open doors professionally in all areas. Lawrence said he presumes most of the meetings he and Kunalic initially received for Hurrdat were because they played football at Nebraska.
“If the universities can empower them to [build a social platform], they can gift them with a group of passionate followers that will be with them long after their careers are over,” Lawrence said, adding: “I knew the fact that I had worn the N on my helmet—that I had played at Nebraska—was an asset for me, and I could leverage that to really jumpstart our first business.”
UCF assistant athletic director for #content Eric DeSalvo—yes, the hashtag is part of his title—added in a statement, “I believe that it’s important to assist their development beyond the field or court, and helping them build their personal brand on social is one aspect of that.”
Opendorse strives to make the highlights and images from each athlete’s playing career immediately accessible from the athletic department with its tap-to-share solution. There can by thorny issues of rights ownership, but Opendorse seeks to bring the invested parties together.
“The athletes want to control their channels, and the rights holders want to control their content,” Lawrence said. “So you’ve got to give them a safe place to play, and that’s kind of what we’ve become.”
