The next generation of recruits isn’t watching TV commercials or flipping through magazines – they’re scrolling TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube. For the U.S. military and other organizations competing for Gen Z’s attention, traditional advertising has lost its edge. To reach today’s digital-native audience, you need authenticity, relatability, and peer voices they trust. That’s why Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) athletes are quickly becoming the most powerful tool in recruiting Gen Z.
From Visibility to High-Quality Recruits
Our NIL campaigns do more than just build awareness; they attract higher-quality, values-aligned candidates. The success of this strategy starts with our selection process. We partner with student-athletes who are not just talented but are also role models in their communities with strong personal values. By choosing the right messenger, we gain access to their followers—a high-quality audience that is naturally receptive to a message of service and commitment.
When these athletes showcase authentic “day in the life” content, like riding in helicopters or training with soldiers, they provide a relatable and inspiring window into military careers. This approach has two major benefits:
This has two major benefits:
- Recruiters save time by connecting with candidates who are already motivated and aligned with the service’s core values.
- Attracting better-fit candidates leads to lower attrition, which reduces the overall cost per enlistment and boosts ROI.
The New Frontier of Recruiting
The military has already begun leaning into NIL and influencer partnerships—working with athletes like Paige Bueckers, DJ Uiagalelei, and teams like the University of Michigan football program. These collaborations expand visibility, tap into untapped audiences, and show what service really looks like.
As one U.S. Army recruiting spokesperson put it: “By participating in immersive army experiences alongside real soldiers, these influencers provide firsthand insights into military life and the possibilities of army service.”
For Gen Z, recruiting is no longer about big institutional messages or glossy ad campaigns. It’s about relatable, authentic voices showing what service means in real life. NIL athletes embody this shift, delivering unmatched engagement, credibility, and impact.
In a world where ads are skipped and scrolled past, NIL athletes aren’t just an alternative: they’re the future of recruiting.
NIL allows college athletes to monetize their personal brands by partnering with organizations. But beyond sponsorships, these athletes serve as peer influencers: blending the credibility of a trusted teammate with the reach of a social media influencer.
Four key advantages make NIL uniquely effective:
-
- Meeting Gen Z Where They Are: 54% of Gen Z spends 4+ hours a day on social media, making digital platforms the primary way to engage them.
- Authenticity Through Shared Identity: Athletes embody discipline, teamwork, and commitment: the same values at the core of military service.
- Hyper-Local Impact: College athletes have fiercely loyal, community-based followings, making outreach highly targeted.
- Building Trust with a Skeptical Audience: Gen Z is wary of institutions but trusts relatable, local voices. NIL athletes deliver authenticity ads can’t match.
Name, Image, and Likeness (NIL) is a revolutionary marketing tool that allows college athletes to monetize their 
personal brand through commercial activities. These activities include endorsements, event appearances, and creating compelling content for partners. Since its inception in mid-2021, the NIL market has seen explosive growth and has established itself as a legitimate and durable marketing channel. The market is estimated to reach a size of approximately $2.75 billion by the 2025-2026 season.
Advantages to leveraging the NIL landscape
Using NIL for military recruiting offers a proven and efficient model to connect with Gen Z, a demographic that is increasingly difficult to reach through traditional methods. Today’s marketing challenge is a “crisis of connection,” and NIL provides a strategic solution.
- Builds Trust: Gen Z values peer recommendations and trusts authentic voices over institutional messages. NIL partnerships leverage the credibility of local college athletes to share an authentic story of service, bridging the information gap for a generation with limited firsthand exposure to military life.
- Meets Gen Z Where They Are: This generation is native to social media, and an effective communication model must meet them on the platforms where they consume information. College athlete audiences are composed of 65-70% Gen Z, providing a direct line to the core recruitment demographic.
- Outperforms Traditional Media: NIL marketing has proven to be a more efficient path to recruitment. It generates approximately 17 times higher engagement than traditional media and achieves more than double the lead conversion rate compared to traditional advertising.
How Blackhorse Management Uses NIL for Recruitment
Blackhorse Management leverages its unique combination of deep military understanding and elite sports marketing experience to structure high-impact partnerships for long-term results. Our strategy is designed to maximize influence, flexibility, and measurable ROI.
We provide end-to-end execution—from athlete recruitment and compliance to content production and data-driven performance reporting. We structure these agreements to secure broad licensing rights, turning athlete content into a permanent library of high-quality recruiting assets.
This approach allows us to meet prospects at every stage of the recruitment journey. By using the right messengers, our campaigns generate awareness, create interest, educate prospects, and ultimately convert high-quality leads for recruiters. We track key performance indicators (KPIs) like audience reach, engagement, content performance, and lead generation to continuously optimize our strategy and maximize campaign impact.
Check out our NIL in military recruiting service page here to learn more about our service and how we can help your business, or contact us today!
