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Being a high-profile skilled athlete means residing underneath fixed scrutiny, with a billion-dollar business constructed round analyzing your each transfer. From tabloids to speak reveals to tweets, sports activities content material is sort of unimaginable to flee.
Have a nasty sport? Sure media members are licking their lips. A playoff dud? You may be dodging bar TVs enjoying ESPN for per week. However what occurs once you give athletes the tools to stage the enjoying discipline? What occurs once they get to reply?
That is the query Brandon Harris needs to reply with Playmaker.
Rewriting the playbook
Based in 2018, Playmaker has grown right into a globally acknowledged sports activities media enterprise, that includes video podcasts — or, as Harris calls them, reveals — with top-tier athletes like Angel Reese and Shaquille O’Neal. Harris based Playmaker after rising disillusioned together with his position in sports activities advertising and marketing.
“I used to be on the shopping for facet, and I all the time noticed folks on the opposite facet having far more enjoyable,” he says. “I used to be bored with simply getting folks to purchase merch. I needed to construct issues that followers may get pleasure from.”
For Harris, that meant creating distribution channels targeted on sports activities storytelling immediately from the athletes.
As soon as Harris outlined his content material technique, his subsequent precedence was setting Playmaker aside from the competitors. He did this by emphasizing video, in contrast to main gamers within the area who targeted on audio.
“Our pitch was easy,” Harris says. “We perceive the panorama, know learn how to have interaction on social, construct communities, and create partaking video.”
Since launching Playmaker, Harris and his crew have produced tens — if not a whole bunch — of hundreds of items of “graphic content material,” together with three- to six-minute breakout movies. He makes an effort to devour as a lot suggestions as doable, estimating he is learn thousands and thousands of feedback.
“I used to name myself the frequent man barometer,” Harris says. “I’ve learn sufficient and posted sufficient that I feel I perceive most sports activities followers.”
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One purpose an athlete would possibly hesitate is the danger of changing into a viral meme after a nasty sport or seeing main sports activities retailers report stats like, “Participant X has recorded extra podcast episodes this season than video games performed” whereas recovering from an damage. Whether or not it is jealousy, insecurity, or loyalty to a rival crew, some sports activities followers – and even conventional media – are inclined to react negatively to athlete-hosted reveals, typically for causes which have little to do with the precise content material.
“I feel it is ridiculous,” Harris says. “It looks like a ‘shut up and dribble’ mindset. Folks applaud athletes for constructing companies, and that is precisely what that is. They’re spending an hour or two per week on it—if that is taking away from their follow, then there are larger points at play.”
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Turning clips into clicks
In 2024, Playmaker’s unique content material generated over $25M in earned media worth from greater than 1,000 posts and articles shared by publishers. Earned media, which refers to publicity a model positive factors from third events with out paying for it, is taken into account a holy grail in digital advertising and marketing.
Harris likens this natural content material to a “funnel” that directs viewers of viral clips towards the complete present. He attributes Playmaker’s success in earned media to 2 key elements: its huge social distribution and dynamic expertise roster.
“We now have expertise that’s genuine and prepared to say issues some safer personalities keep away from for PR causes,” Harris says, highlighting figures like Shaq, Angel Reese, and Marshawn Lynch. “We have all the time prioritized expertise that’s genuinely entertaining and will not simply regurgitate PR messaging each episode.”
As a reasonably small firm, Playmaker does not have the posh of limitless sources. Due to that, Harris could be very specific about who he chooses to work with.
“There’s numerous expertise that I actually like and respect that I’ve needed to say no to,” Harris says. “We do not tackle tasks except we’re assured in our capacity to dedicate the time, sources, and a focus wanted to make them profitable.”
Not like a lot of their opponents, Playmaker permits athletes to retain full management of their property and IP.
“If you happen to’re an athlete, partnering with Playmaker means having a platform constructed for you that you would be able to take with you, monetize now, and use to develop your different manufacturers,” Harris says. “So why would not you do it?”
This turns into notably related with streaming giants like Netflix and Amazon eyeing the video podcast area. Whereas Playmaker is open to distribution offers, Harris insists any partnership have to be non-exclusive. That stated, he isn’t ruling out a collaboration with one of many content material kings.
“We might work with them to develop one thing new and non-exclusive,” he says, “however for us, the precedence has all the time been digital and social native.
Although Playmaker’s enterprise mannequin is comparatively new, Harris admits they aren’t the primary to do an athlete podcast. Nonetheless, quite than constructing an organization in an business with a long time of confirmed success tales to mannequin plans on, Harris began Playmaker at a time when athlete podcasts have been nonetheless seen as a novelty quite than a norm. As a substitute of balking, Harris embraced the uncertainty, believing he was onto one thing with huge potential.
“As an enormous sports activities fan myself, I take into consideration what I need to see extra of and what I need to see much less of,” Harris says. “And I might quite watch a top quality, genuine athlete podcast than something that is on TV.”
