Bojangles went all-in paying 75 college athletes, all for promoting one menu item

Zada Porter began posting on TikTok a couple of years ago, when she was 16. She joined the social media app for the same reason most people her age join: To express some creativity and maybe earn some laughs or likes along the way. Her friends had told her she had a gift for humor, she said, and “so I just started making videos one day.”

Before she knew it, a couple of them went viral, gaining millions of views and hundreds of thousands of likes. Her followers grew, from hundreds to more than a thousand to tens of thousands. And that’s how Porter, now a freshman women’s basketball player at Appalachian State, came to land an endorsement deal before the start of her first college semester.

First, though, she had to accept that the opportunity was real. A representative from a sports marketing agency contacted her in July, after college athletes received the right to monetize their name, image and likeness, with an inquiry that shocked Porter: Would she have interest in endorsing Bojangles, the Charlotte-based fast-food chain known for its fried chicken and biscuits?

“At first, I was like there’s no way that this is real,” Porter said during a phone interview, before remembering the second question she had, which was: “Why would they want me?”

“But hey,” she said. “It turned out to be really real.”

Porter is among the 75 college athletes, as of last week, who have signed endorsement deals with Bojangles. The chain has long benefited from a cult following among people in the Carolinas — especially younger people, and especially those in college, and especially those in college who consume the food while tailgating before college football games, or the day after as a sort of elixir to cure the ills of other substances they consumed along with their three-piece combos or Supremes.

Indeed, when the company announced the news of the first college athletes it had signed to endorsement deals, it immediately referenced the symbiotic relationship between its offerings and the spectacle of college football in the South: “If there’s one thing better than college football in the South,” the first sentence of the press release went, “it’s Bojangles and college football together.”

The company released that statement July 20, when it announced that it had signed Sam Howell of UNC and D.J. Uiagalelei of Clemson to NIL deals. The reasoning behind them was clear enough: Howell and Uiagalelei are two of the most prominent quarterbacks in the country, a pair of Heisman Trophy candidates whose commercial value needs no explanation.

Those signings, though, were just the start. In the days and weeks since, Bojangles has employed an aggressive approach in this new world of college sports marketing, and while the company has focused on other well-known college athletes — a lot of them football players — it has also formed relationships with less visible athletes who nonetheless have sizable social media followings.

Other companies have embraced a similarly aggressive strategy of signing college athletes to NIL deals. Barstool Sports, the sports culture website aimed at the college-aged male demographic, made an open offer to all college athletes.

American Top Team, a mixed martial arts gym based in South Florida, earned a news cycle’s worth of coverage with its announcement that it would offer every scholarship football player at Miami an NIL deal. And earlier this week, TiVo signed 90 Georgia Tech football players to NIL deals that gave every player a $400 gift card in exchange for social media promotion, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Few companies, though, have taken as wide of an approach to NIL as Bojangles. The company has signed college athletes from 34 schools — South Carolina has the most, with nine — and seven sports. The rush of signings calls into question whether the company had been waiting with a plan for NIL legislation to pass. And while it was indeed waiting, said Jackie Woodward, the company’s chief brand and marketing officer, there wasn’t necessarily a definitive plan.

“College sports is in our DNA,” Woodward said, referencing Bojangles’ history as an advertiser and sponsor of college athletic departments throughout the Southeast. “And so we knew we were going to need to do something.

“We really had not planned anything, because we didn’t know (NIL) was going to shake out, or when it was going to shake out. And if you think about it, it really happened pretty fast. Lots and lots of conversations, but boy — when it happened, it happened fast. So we did not have some large master plan. We were watching it, and then just moved fast when we were able to do so.”

In addition to Howell and Uiagalelei, the company signed some of their teammates, including several Clemson linemen. A couple of them appeared in a promotional video alongside Uiagalelei, laughing and sharing a meal and appearing as if they’d gathered for lunch after Sunday church. Beau Corrales, the UNC receiver, signed a Bojangles deal — an apt relationship given his first name. The company also signed Bo Nix, the Auburn quarterback.

Among Bojangles’ 75 college athletes are 41 football players, according to a list a company spokesperson provided. And among those 41 football players are four from Alabama, two from Auburn, seven from Clemson, four from Florida State and one from Johnson C. Smith, an HBCU in Charlotte that competes at the NCAA’s Division II level.

The Johnson C. Smith player who landed a Bojangles deal is Ky’Wuan Dukes, a second-year receiver who, like Porter of Appalachian State, thought that somebody might be pranking him when he received an inquiry from a sports marketing agency. Dukes has more than 4,000 followers on Instagram and it was there, through the app, where a direct message popped up from an employee at VaynerSports, the marketing agency Bojangles has used to contact some athletes.

“It was definitely, like, mind-blowing,” Dukes said during a recent phone interview, searching for the right words. He paused for a moment while he recalled how it felt to receive his first NIL offer. Dukes became the first player from an HBCU to receive a Bojangles deal, an accomplishment that he has considered something of a milestone.

“At first I was like, is this like a fake page?” he said, referring to the message he received that began his relationship with Bojangles. “I thought it was a fake page at first. But I was just happy about it.”

Dukes began doing his research and learned quickly that he was in good company — that college football players like Howell and Uiagalelei had also become chicken pitchmen. That Dukes could join them, in a sense, “means a lot to me,” he said, “because especially with HBCUs, they don’t really get that much exposure.”

“So I’m glad that that happened, for myself, and it just shows that HBCUs can have some type of exposure and something positive going on with it,” he said.

Though Instagram is Dukes’ social media of choice, he said “I’m about to get a TikTok going, as well.” He said he has been “pretty active” promoting Bojangles on Instagram, he said, and has featured the brand in three or four of his Instagram stories per week.

On Aug. 21, after his deal with Bojangles became official, Dukes posted a photo of himself on Instagram. In it, he’s wearing his Johnson C. Smith jersey and flexing in front of a Bojangles-themed cartoon backdrop, replete with Bojangles-branded cups with googly eyes.

Neither Dukes nor Porter specified how much compensation they’ve received from the company and Woodward, the Bojangles brand and marketing officer, also declined to detail it. Both athletes, though, said their deals have helped alleviate some of the financial burdens that come with being a college student.

“It’s definitely helped financially,” Porter said. “I do get paid for making posts, but then also this being the first thing, other brands and stuff — I mean, if Bojangles and Vayner Sports can find me, other places like that can find me, and they can see that I’m being endorsed and I have a partnership with Bojangles, so that can start anything else down the road.”

Woodward said she “can’t talk about” the financial arrangements between the company and the athletes it has signed but “what I can tell you,” she said, “is that really, for the most part, what we’re focused on is social media.”

“And having these athletes leverage their audiences for, particularly, for the launch of the new Bo’s chicken sandwich, which we launched about three weeks ago,” she said. “So it really was quite a perfect storm of NIL becoming available, athletes having great social media followings, and us launching a new product that just played perfectly into how it all came together.”

The value of a social media post can be difficult to quantify though, based on its approach, Bojangles clearly believes in the benefits of having college athletes post about its latest sandwich. Few of the other 73 college athletes it has signed have the name recognition of Howell or Uiagalelei, but in a world of TikTok views and Instagram impressions, that matters less these days.

In a story The Associated Press published in late June, Blake Lawrence, the CEO of OpenDorse, estimated that an Instagram post is worth $20 per follower, and that TikTok posts are worth between $3 and $4 per follower. It’s the sort of math that Porter, the Appalachian State women’s basketball player, never thought about when she began sharing lighthearted videos for her friends.

“I was like, ‘Nah, there’s no way,’” she said, dismissing the notion that she ever thought she might develop enough of a social media following that a company would want to hire her to be an influencer. Even when Bojangles contacted her, she said, her first thought was “I’m not big” — at least not compared to other women’s basketball players she follows.

But that didn’t matter. The company sent her paperwork to sign, and soon after that, she was posting a video of herself opening a chicken sandwich, giving it a taste and imploring her followers to give it a try. She said her promotional work has consisted of posting one Instagram video, a couple of Instagram stories and one post on TikTok.

“I was like, really? That’s all I need to do?” she said with a laugh.

It brought to mind those days in high school when she said she worked next to a Bojangles and ate at the restaurant just about every day, or something that seemed like it. Like a lot of young people, Porter said, she and her friends had long been loyal to the chain.

“When I revealed that I had the partnership with them,” she said, “all of my friends from back home were like, ‘There’s no way — like, how did you do that?’ And I was like, ‘You know what — I don’t know, but I’m happy it happened.’”

College athletes sponsored by Bojangles

• DJ Dale, Alabama football
• Malachi Moore, Alabama football
• Slade Bolden, Alabama football
• Jordan Battle, Alabama football
• Zada Porter, App State basketball
• Bo Nix, Auburn football
• Zakoby McClain, Auburn football
• Tank Bigsby, Auburn football
• Austin Yowell, Belmont soccer
• Mikayla Boykin, Charlotte 49ers basketball
• Austin Knight, Charlotte 49ers baseball
• DJ Uiagalelei, Clemson football
• Bryan Bresse, Clemson football
• Tyler Davis, Clemson football
• MaKayla Elmore, Clemson basketball
• Kevin Swint, Clemson football
• Jaelyn Lay, Clemson football
• Walker Parks, Clemson football
• Ryan Linthicum, Clemson football
• Emory Lanier, Davidson basketball
• Chloe Welch, Davidson basketball
• Joey Baker, Duke basketball
• Wendell Moore, Duke basketball
• Courtney Moore, East Tennessee State basketball
• Ariana Nance, Elon basketball
• Brenton Cox, Florida football
• Jammie Robinson, Florida State football
• Joshua Burrell, Florida State football
• Keyshawn Helton, Florida State football
• Jayion McCluster, Florida State football
• James Cook, Georgia football
• Adam Anderson, Georgia football
• Kelee Ringo, Georgia football
• Stephen Reid, Georgia Tech baseball
• Evan Bergman, High Point baseball
• Bryant Randleman, High Point basketball
• KyWuan Dukes, Johnson C Smith football
• Dontaie Allen, Kentucky basketball
• Durrell Johnson, Liberty football
• Emily Kirby, Liberty Softball
• Samuell Williamson, Louisville basketball
• CJ Avery, Louisville football
• Kei’Trel Clark, Louisville football
• Morris Joseph, Jr. Memphis football
• Bailey Hockman, Middle Tennessee State football
• Anastasia Hayes, Mississippi State basketball
• Akeem Sirleaf, NC A&T track
• Emeka Emezie, NC State football
• Breon Pass, NC State basketball
• Cam Hayes, NC State basketball
• Madison Hayes, NC State basketball
• Jaxon Smith-Njigba, Ohio State football
• Jalen Tolbert, South Alabama football
• Mohamed Kaba, South Carolina football
• Kevin Harris, South Carolina football
• Zia Cooke, South Carolina basketball
• Destanni Henderson, South Carolina basketball
• Aliyah Boston, South Carolina basketball
• Saniya Rivers, South Carolina basketball
• Jabari Ellis, South Carolina football
• Colten Gauthier, South Carolina football
• Zaquandre White, South Carolina football
• Alontae Taylor, Tennessee football
• Jordan Walker, Tennessee basketball
• Beau Corrales, UNC football
• Sam Howell, UNC football
• Isaiah Miller, UNC - Greensboro basketball
• Reggie Raynor, UNC - Greensboro basketball
• Jamarii Thomas, UNC - Wilmington basketball
• Isaiah Thomas, Vanderbilt baseball
• Chris Newell, Virginia baseball
• Nicholas Grant, Virginia football
• Diana Ordonez, Virginia soccer
• Tre Turner, Virginia Tech football
• Jaquarii Roberson, Wake Forest football