The University of Texas is leaning into partnerships to bring fans greater rewards. Here, the Shopback gate at the Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium.
COURTESY of UNIVERSITY of TEXAS
Drew Martin, executive senior associate athletic director for external affairs at the University of Texas, was having a good day. “We’re doing an activation,” he said recently. “We’ve got ESPN College GameDay outside setting up, and we have a Chris Stapleton concert tonight. We’re modernizing sponsorship worlds and that kind of gets me to my happy place.”
The University of Texas partnered with ShopBack for game day activations, rewards and savings. Shopback wanted fans to experience products, not just see logos, and share in the excitement of a $25,000 “Take It to the House” sweepstakes. There were also other partnerships that turned fandom into participation and an ongoing conversation.
Shopback took the idea of tentpole games and made them cashback events. For example, on game day at the stadium, fans got a higher cashback rate for brands such as Nike, Adidas and Finish Line, labels that resonated with the student audience. There was a sense of urgency for the cashback rate, which was shown on the Jumbotron, said Megan Gaffey, senior director of Rakuten advertising, which is one of Shopback’s investors.
College sports offer engagement well beyond game day, spanning shopping, merchandise, travel, food and entertainment, but game day for Texas, was huge. The university rebranded one of three entry gates of the Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium as the Shopback gate, ahead of the big game on September 12 when Texas came up from behind to beat Ohio State, 24 to 23.
Most important for Texas was rewarding, prizing, merchandising and building its community online where fans could shop for both Texas-licensed products and other products and get rewarded for doing so, said Martin.
The University of Texas has about 12,000 students who attend football games. Besides the football season ticket holders, there’s men’s basketball and a slew of other sports. The college communicates with its fans through its social media base of over 10 million users.
“We’re the number one leading licensed brand in the college arena,” Martin said. “We’ll do almost $100 million worth of merchandise and branded merchandise at retail in 2026.”
Data shows fans seek brands and Shopback can bring them together into one space, rewarding them with cash back on their spends. “It was a no-brainer, partnering with them,” Martin said. “Fans are looking to buy brands directly and this gives them the opportunity to do that.”
Carolina Paradas, Shopback general manager for North America, said the company, which has been in existence for about 12 years, started in Singapore and today has about 60 million users worldwide. Shopback launched in the U.S. just over a year ago.
“Athletes are not only used for traditional brand awareness anymore. It’s also a marketing channel,” Paradas said. “With brands needing to prove return on investment, and consumers focused on saving money, it’s an important marketing channel that’s been developing for a few years.”
“It’s really interesting how Shopback is giving athletes a platform, but also rewarding users at the same time,” Paradas added. “The users really want tips and to know how the players live their everyday lives.”
The state of Texas is one of Shopback’s top geographic focuses, which makes the University of Texas its biggest partner for 2026 and beyond. In terms of gross merchandise value, merchants will have the opportunity to drive sales up to triple digits in millions, and advertisers, double digits in millions, Paradas said, adding, “It’s a big opportunity both for the advertisers and for us.”
Paradas said Shopback decided to create the 360 degree partnership with the University of Texas because it’s an opportunity to acquire new users and connect with “the right users.” It will be showcasing brands such as Uber and eBay, which did an eBay Live activation with signed memorabilia on the 12th.
Shopback was intent on differentiating itself from its competitors so it created hydration and sunscreen stations for students who were queued up on line for seven hours on game day. There were also brand ambassadors making the rounds, discussing Shopback and its attributes with students.
Gaffey said Shopback has “a massive global scale and outsize opportunity. We’ve seen them be so successful in the APAC market. It’s been a really exciting time to see what they do next.”
Rakuten is focused on helping Shopback grow and gain visibility across North America, especially across its list of brands, which include Sephora, Urban Outfitters, and H&M, Gaffey said.
The Rakuten Rewards side of the business is a loyalty cashback site, and Shopback is also a cashback site, but there are some key differences. Shopback has branched into sports marketing and is working with influencers. It’s very mobile app-focused and skews a bit younger, appealing to a Gen Z audience.
The two sites differ in the way they speak to audiences. “We’ll surface Shopback as an opportunity to the retailers we work with and let them know the type of campaigns they could do and the type of GMV they might see,” Gaffey said. “Rakuten helps bridge relationships between brands. We’ll list all the capabilities of our partners, like Shopback, which can help them scale in certain audience demographics, and help them match. ”
Leave a comment