Camden cashes in on social media for NIL perks

UNIVERSITY PARK, PA. (WTAJ) — Penn State senior basketball player Anna Camden is a master of social media. In less than two weeks, one of her Tik Toks has more than 415k views.

“Any normal student could capitalize off of their gifts,” said Camden. “If our sport is a gift that gives us a platform, we should be able to capitalize off of that as well. I mean, it’s a full time job, right? Like, I don’t have a job, this is this my job. So it’s, it’s amazing to be able to finally profit off of that.”

In the NIL era, a strong social media following can mean big bucks. For Camden, it is Instagram and Tik Tok.

“A lot of my NIL things are endorsements,” said Camden. “Posting in a brand’s clothes or showing where I get my favorite food and whatnot.”

With 241k followers on Tik Tok and another 19.5k on Instagram, Lady Lion Camden is one of the most recognizable student-athletes at Penn State. She’s made deals with Moolah Kicks, Caseify, Paramount Pictures, Kroger, Urban Outfitters, JBL headphones for Giannis Antetokounmpo.

“One of my ongoing ones is Roots Natural Kitchen which is downtown State College,” said Camden. “I love them I actually reached out to them on the first day that and I hope pass because they’re my favorite food spot on campus. And they came back and they said, ‘oh we’re actually not ready for like NIL but we’ll keep you in mind.’ Couple months later they reached out a couple months after that they had a Camden Bowl on their menu right so it kind of like came full circle.”

NIL deals have birthed NIL agencies including one run by Penn State’s Sean Clifford called LimitlessNIL. Camden has put her trust in one of the biggest names in Happy Valley.

“He reached out to me last spring and just said, ‘Hey, I have like, an opportunity for you,’” said Camden. “And I had no idea where he was going with that. And when he actually told me about Limitless, I was not gonna sign with them. I was in a situation where I knew I wanted an agency, I needed some help handling all the business stuff. But,after I heard their pitch, and got to connect with him and his team, I just felt very comfortable. I felt like I trusted them. And then obviously, the rest is history.”

Camden was one of Limitless’s first athletes. Myles Dread, Ji’Ayir Brown, Parker Washington– and even a Buckeye, Zach Harrison– followed suit. Limitless’s and Clifford’s presence on campus is part of the appeal. Camden and Clifford can grab a quick bite, talk business, hoops and football.

The fact Limitless is run by student-athletes, for student-athletes makes the agency stand out.

“They’re never going to ask something of you that you’re not comfortable with,” said Camden. “They can work with you on a flexible schedule. And that’s really important. And then I would say, honestly, number two is how hungry the company is like, Sean and Trevor [Robinson,] who are the co-founders of it, are incredibly hungry. They’re ambitious, they’re working nonstop. And it’s pretty hard to solve a mindset like that.”