By Mauricio La Plante – Reporter, Jacksonville Business Journal
As many college students are more glued to their phone than their textbooks, one Jacksonville logistics company is finding a way to draw those eyeballs to job opportunities – through University of North Florida athletes.
Through a grassroots name, image and likeness program, Corporate Traffic Logistics is partnering with UNF athletes to recruit new talent. The company already has deep roots at UNF, unveiling a naming rights deal for the field at Hodges Stadium earlier this Spring, but was looking to expand their recruitment presence at the university beyond in-person recruitment by their own staff.
Unlike other companies seeking to make people drink more smoothies or energy drinks through athletes at bigger institutions such as University of Florida and Georgia, a marketing strategy around NIL seemed far-fetched for an asset-based logistics provider like CTL, said Keith Lechwar, CTL’s Director of Marketing.
“So we’re scratching our heads saying, ‘OK, we’re a logistics company, how does that fit into the NIL world? We don’t have a product for them to tout,” Lechwar said. “They don’t know what logistics is. They don’t really understand how it all works, but really, what we’re looking for is more or less student ambassadors.”
The athletes, turned recruiters, are assigned to promote CTL on their own time via Instagram and other social media, and also do in-person recruitment.
Students are paid based on social media posts they make, showing up to job fairs in-person and even one-on-one recruitment for classmates that need an internship or entry-level job.
CTL seeks all types of recruitment, as it is willing to take in students studying transportation and logistics or graduates desperate for a job in a scarce job market.
“The thing that’s most appealing with corporate traffic is you don’t have to be a graduate in the School of Business, a graduate with a transportation and logistics degree,” Lechwar said. “We had people with marketing degrees, we had somebody who had an engineering degree that started out here. So we train them once they come in here, we know you’re not going to understand the ins and outs of the logistics industry. So we go through a pretty extensive training and mentee-mentorship program when they come in here.”
For the student athletes, flexibility and having an immediate method of doing their job via their phone for CTL, is one of the most appealing parts.
“So I can, like, do as much as I want or as little as I want, and I will see that in return,” said Madi Espy, a Beach Volleyball player for UNF. “If I know I’m going to be, like, traveling a bunch, and need maybe an extra bit of income. I can post an extra post, so it’s very flexible with that.”
Espy said if she mainly does recruitment over Instagram during one month, posting a feed, Instagram picture and two stories, she can make up to $200 for that time period, but if she wants to do more, by showing up to career events or job fairs representing corporate traffic, she can make up to $700 to $800 by showing face at more events.
With lots of travel, she said flexibility is needed.
“It’s super hard to have a job and play D1 athletics,” Espy said.
The UNF senior is saving up the income to help with plan post-graduation.
Lechwar said while the program is not making headlines like other universities with multi-million dollar NIL programs, he said it still helps students have an extra income and also reaching sports that are not in the spotlight as often such as tennis and beach volleyball.
“Nobody’s really talking about the small schools and the really kind of grassroots NIL campaigns,” Lechwar said. “We’re not making students millionaires by any measure, but you know, it certainly helps them financially with making ends meet.”
Article: Corporate Traffic Logistics runs unique hiring strategy via UNF NIL – Jacksonville Business Journal