ADWEEK Brand Advantage: Celebrity Endorsement Enters Its Equity Era, With Strings Attached

ADWEEK Advantage is part of a series where every month, our top editors interpret what happened in each vertical and what it means for the future.Sydney Sweeney's nude ad for sports betting site Novig got people talking in September, clocking over 65 million views on Instagram and sparking backlash from female athletes across the globe. Whatever you thought of the ad, the more interesting detail was behind the camera, where Novig’s CEO Jacob Fortinsky described the Euphoria star as "driving a lot of the visuals and the messaging.” That influence was backed by Sweeney’s status as an equity partner in Novig, a deal Fortinsky told Front Office Sports had been initiated by the actor herself before the campaign launched. “We're very excited to have her on the cap table,” he said, without revealing her ownership stake or how much the business paid her to appear in the spot. “I don’t like to just put my face on something,” Sweeney told Complex last month. “I really want to be able to get into the weeds of it with an amazing team.” Sweeney is far from the only celebrity seeking a stake in the brands they front, and a hand in how they’re sold. In the short term: Equity endorsement moves upmarket The equity ambassador model isn’t new (see: 50 Cent’s stake in Vitaminwater in the early 2000s), but it’s no longer just a startup tactic either. In the last few months alone, buzzy challengers like canned British wellness drink brand Trip and supplement brand IM8 have signed model Kendall Jenner and actor Lily Collins, respectively, to drive growth as equity partners and ambassadors.David Beckham-backed IM8 is well-versed in this type of partnership, having already inked similar deals with podcaster Jay Shetty, tennis star Aryna Sabalenka, and F1 driver Ollie Bearman.IM8 co-founder and CEO Danny Yeung told ADWEEK this way of working results in “genuine partners” who feel free to offer feedback and ideas, rather than simply putting their faces on billboards. “The traditional celebrity endorsement is rented credibility. We’re not interested in renting anything,” he said. Athletic Brewing, which already counts ex-NFL player J.J. Watt and tennis champion Naomi Osaka among its athlete investors, added quarterbacks Dak Prescott and Drake Maye as athlete-owners in September. $11 billion Swiss sportswear brand On has pushed this new playbook further than most. It made 20-time tennis Grand Slam winner Roger Federer an investor and “co-entrepreneur” in 2019. Last month, The Athletic reported that World Cup record goal scorer Kylian Mbappé joined On in a 10-year equity-inclusive deal. On said the deal included cash and equity components, and that the soccer star would work directly with its product teams to develop and test football footwear and apparel, alongside his global ambassador role. The move followed the expiration of Mbappé’s 20-year deal with Nike, with The Athletic’s Adam Crafton writing that his departure from the Oregon-based sports giant was “symbolic of a trend among leading athletes who appear to crave greater input and ownership of their relationship with a brand.” As celebrities and creators across the board seek more than a quick payout, expect to see more brands test the equity-for-endorsement model before 2026 is out. In the long term: brands, and stars, inherit more risk For brands, equity is a way to stretch marketing budgets while signing talent who are literally invested in making the partnership work. But paying less cash up front can mean taking on risks a standard endorsement fee doesn’t carry.When the face of a campaign is also an owner, brands give up some control over the message—and the option of a clean break if it backfires. Novig showed how that can play out. Sweeney's ad drew sharp criticism from Olympic athletes, from Australian swimmer Ariarne Titmus to British sprinter Amy Hunt. In the aftermath, she also lost more than 200,000 Instagram followers. A brand can drop a paid ambassador, but it's much harder to walk away from a part-owner who has worked behind the scenes to develop a campaign or product. Adidas learned the hard way that even deals without equity can be tricky to untangle when it ended its Kanye West Yeezy partnership in 2022 following a series of antisemitic outbursts from the star. The split left the business with a warehouse of unsold sneakers and a $246 million short-term hit. The ROI of celebrity equity deals is also harder for brands to pin down. Polymarket, for instance, is reportedly paying LeBron James $15 million to endorse the brand, a fee it can budget for upfront. In an equity setup, neither side knows what the deal is really worth until the business is sold, goes public, or raises more money. Even at a public company, that value moves with the share price. On's stock, for example, has fallen sharply this year, meaning Mbappé's stake may already be worth less than when he signed (though the slide began before that). If the attention a celebrity can bring does translate into a payoff for the brand, then there’s an upside for everyone. Novig said its trading volume nearly doubled around its campaign launch and is reportedly raising investment at a valuation of up to $2 billion. Whether that holds once the discourse around Sweeney fades will tell marketers if equity deals are a lasting shift, or just a pricier way to rent attention.

ADWEEK Advantage

ADWEEK Brand Advantage: Celebrity Endorsement Enters Its Equity Era, With Strings Attached

Stars like Sydney Sweeney and Kylian Mbappé are increasingly becoming shareholders in the brands they promote, and sharing the risks that come with it

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Rebecca Stewart

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