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Testing New Revenue Streams by Stefanie Rapp (SVP, Revenue Strategy, Bleacher Report)
- 1. TESTING NEW REVENUE STREAMS
- 2. MAKE IT EASY TO BE A SPORTS FAN
- 3. B/R DEFINES THE MOMENTS THAT MATTER B/R connects multiple passion points to inspire meaningful conversations B/R allows fans to architect their experience with a product that suits their needs B/R serves our fans across platforms via real time, cultural and thought-provoking content PERSONAL COMMUNITY-DRIVEN EMPOWERING
- 6. 40% OF OUR DAILY DESKTOP VISITS 1/3 OF OUR DAILY APP VISITS 57% OF SOCIAL ENGAGEMENTS ACROSS ALL PLATFORMS THROUGHOUT THE DAY
- 10. HOUSEOF HIGHLIGHTS HOUSE OF HIGHLIGHT S IS THE INDUSTRY- LEADING BRAND FOR GEN Z. 16.2 MM SPORTS BRAND ON IG SOCIAL FOLLOWERS MOST ENGAGED BRANDED VIDEOS ON IG AMONG ALL PUBLISHERS #1 8/10 Source: Social Platforms (TW,IG,YT), Brandtal
- 11. B/RFOOTBALL B/R FOOTBALL IS THE DEFINING VOICE FOR THE MOST POPULAR SPORT IN THE WORLD 15.2MM SOCIAL FOLLOWERS 4/10 OF OUR MOST ENGAGED STREAMS IN APP ARE WORLD FOOTBALL Source: Interana (T12 months), Social Platforms (FB,TW,IG,YT), CrowdTangle (Instagram, T3
- 12. B/RKICKS B/R KICKS IS THE MOST AUTHENTIC DESTINATI ON FOR THE MODERN SNEAKER AND STYLE COMMUNIT 2MMSOCIAL FOLLOWERS 69%MORE TIME SPENT IN-APP B/R KICKS VS. AVERAGE USER Source: Interana (T12 months), Social Platforms (FB,TW,IG,YT), CrowdTangle (Instagram, Nov 2019)
- 13. B/R GRIDIRON UN-MASKS PLAYERS AND PERSONALI TIES IN PROFESSIO NAL FOOTBALL. B/RGRIDIRON 1.3MMSOCIAL FOLLOWERS 84MMONTHLY IN-SEASON VISITS NFL IS MOST TRAFFICKED SPORT IN-APP Source: Interana (T12 months), Social Platforms (FB,TW,IG,YT), CrowdTangle (Instagram, Nov 2019)
- 14. B/R BETTING COMBINES INTERACTI VITY AND COMMUNIT Y FOR THE CASUAL AND AVID SPORTS BETTOR B/RBETTING 3.2%ENGAGEMENT RATE 29%YOY GROWTH IN UNIQUE USERS ACROSS B/R APP BETTING STREAMS Source: Interana (T12 months), Social Platforms (FB,TW,IG,YT), CrowdTangle (Instagram, Nov 2019)
- 15. SOCIAL FOOTPRINT & REACH 31.6M 16.2M 2M 27 25 SOURCE: unmarked data via Social Platforms (FB,TW,IG,YT), *comScore Media Metrix (Oct 2019), *Instagram only 25 15.2M 23 1.3M 26* 33.5M 43 O+O FOLLOWERS MEDIAN AGE
- 18. BRANDED CONTENT AND INTEGRATED STRATEGY VIA OUR BEST-IN- CLASS CREATIVE TEAM PLAYMAKER
- 19. EXPERIENCES THE BIGGEST MOMENTS IN SPORTS & CULTURE, BROUGHT TO LIFE
- 21. E-COMMERCE UNIQUE MERCHANDISE CREATED IN COLLABORATION WITH THE WORLD’S MOST COMPELLING TALENT
- 22. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?
Editor's Notes
- Hello - I first want to thank the World Disrupt Forum for putting on such an amazing day of programming. My name is Stefanie Rapp and I’m the CRO of Bleacher Report - the #1 sports media brand for young - mobile-first - sports fans. I’m going to first take you through a little background of B/R, what we do best, what separates us, and then dive into our approach in finding new revenue streams in an increasingly competitive market. When people ask me who are your competitors - it’s an easy answer, but speaks to an extremely complicated business. We’re in the attention economy - so our competitors are literally anyone out there today taking the time and hearts of young, mobile-first sports fans. And there are a lot of them out there. So we need to be smart, nimble, data-driven, and authentic to keep our audience on board.
- The modern sports fan is much more complex than their predecessor. Their path to fandom is no longer solely based on birthplace and family heritage. There are so many more factors now. Like free agency, fan loyalty is fluid. They are drawn to players and personalities more than teams and leagues. And in some cases, today’s sports fan didn’t even realize they were a sports fan. Maybe they’re a Travis Scott fan and saw him sitting courtside at a Rockets game, one of the 14 million people who watched the US Women win the World Cup this summer, a numbers geek who read or watched Moneyball and are now a baseball fan, saw Russell Westbrook and Carmelo Anthony sitting front row next to Anna Wintour at Paris fashion week, are passionate about social justice and follow Kaepernick & Rapinoe, Are the reigning champ of their fantasy football league, One of A. Boogie’s 4.6M followers, Fans of B/R’s award winning, hilarious animated series, A 12 year old girl who idolizes Elena Dela Donne or maybe they are a born and bred hardcore Steelers fan looking for the latest news on their team All these are examples of people who can have their needs met by B/R Everyone is a sports fan and B/R shows them why - our mission is to make it as easy as possible to be a sports fan
- B/R adapts and evolves to create the best experience for the modern sports fan and satisfies their every need B/R empowers interactivity + takes a live sporting event / action in a game and extends it - stories become moments; the fan becomes the architect of their personal experience and impacts the larger fan community By being everywhere, B/R empowers our fans to consume their content when and where it is most convenient to them - in the app, on social channels, B/R Live The diversity of the B/R app enables our fan to customize their experience to their unique interests As a company, we don’t rest on our laurels. B/R adapts and evolves to create the best experience for the modern sports fan.
- The B/R app is the foundation B/R is built upon. Its success is dependent on four promises that we make to our users: personalization, interactivity, community and safety. Personalization - No matter what kind of sports fan you are, you can tailor your experience in the B/R app to your unique interests Interactivity - The B/R app functions as a social platform, allowing users can engage and comment on content. We introduced AMAs this summer, enabling B/R users to interact directly with athletes and celebrities. They have been incredibly successful - surpassing prior AMA’s on Reddit - with each one growing every turn. Fan / Brand safe - we have a dedicated QA team to ensure your brand is never placed beside compromising content Community - Finally, the most recent evolution of the B/R app - and the most important as we move our business forward - is that it allows users to build a meaningful community with which they can share content, message, react in stream to content.
- B/R ignites conversation across social and mobile by defining the moments that matter
- When news breaks, fans rush to B/R to learn what’s going on and join the conversation. Because B/R owns the moments that matter - our audience is tuned in to all B/R platforms throughout the day. Here’s a look at the typical user journey - over 40% of our desktop visits occur in the morning. By the afternoon, B/R fans are flocking to the app The evening is our primetime with peak usage for both app and social - 40% of app usage and 57% of social engagements between 6pm - midnight
- We’ve become THE sports brand for the next generation of fans, because we know that serving those fans means doing it differently B/R broke through the clutter as a multi-modal brand that was founded on the idea of best serving our fans wherever they are via the following tenets We look at the content we’re creating in 3 buckets: Real time - UGC / Highlights Cultural - Voice Thought provoking - story telling Because of these efforts B/R and HoH rank as #1 and #2 in engagements respectfully among all sports and culture publishers. And it’s not even close, we’re nearly double our closest competitor.
- As we look ahead, technology, media consumption habits, and sports are evolving, converging in a way that was not imaginable three years ago. To wit, 90% of Gen Z now keep up on sports through social media with only 33% watching on Live TV. Gen Z is looking for highlights when they’re searching for their sports fix. By comparison, Millennials gravitate towards breaking news and expert analysis. This is a massive change. But this isn’t a time to sound any alarms - to the contrary, we see it as an amazing opportunity ahead. Consumer archetypes have started to disappear, and there’s no longer a plug-and-play formula for scaling an audience. While sports are still an important interest for teenage boys, it’s not necessarily something that defines them like past generations. In order to connect, you have to be immersive, inclusive and innovative so that your voice rings true and the conversation is broader than just one category of interest. When we look forward, we as brands have to be comfortable with the consumer having some level of control over the way in which they want to connect to us, in a space that makes sense for their needs. For example, Gen Z is increasingly taking control of their own style, deliberately avoiding legacy name brands that have defined past generations’ style musts. In fact, 3 in 4 agreed with this statement: “I don't care about fashion trends; I just wear what I like” and 60% of Gen Z say they’d rather stand out than fit in. And this is a generation we need to pay attention to; they already control at least $50 billion in spending power, this year will make up the largest bloc of consumers in the world. According to a recent study commissioned by WP Engine, marketers only have seven seconds to get the attention of Gen Z before they move on to something else—with millennials, it's 12 seconds. So how do we do it.
- How do we build upon that? How do we forge connections with our fans and create channels that open up new opportunities? In order to maintain the founding principles, we are diversifying our portfolio to better serve their interests and creating individual brands that focus on specific subject matter, appealing to hyper-loyal fandoms - House of Highlights, B/R Football, B/R Kicks, B/R Gridiron, and B/R Betting. These brands allow us to cover a variety of topics in a way that are even more endemic to the community and audience that seeks them out. They engage our diverse communities with personalized and interactive cross-platform experiences.
- House of Highlights has grown from a simple basketball Instagram account of a few hundred thousand followers, to one of the most powerful media brands in sports reaching 20 million fans across the globe. Its evolution includes an expansion across multiple platforms - YouTube, TikTok, Twitter - and across a diverse set of sports and youth culture passion points, only 40% of posts on average are basketball-related with many being UGC-based. HoH is one of the strongest delivery channels for branded content in the world today with 52 OF THE TOP 100 MOST-ENGAGED SOLD VIDEOS ON IG IN 2019. This feeds the engine but as we look to build the brand we look at experiential. The HoH brand is built on the core values of camaraderie, competition, and celebration. Any monetizations efforts we explore need to be authentic to the brand and its community. One of the efforts we’re most excited about is a House of Highlights Camp. These FREE, co-ed experiences for 10-13 year-olds, connect community with NBA stars in celebration of sport. The first two we’ve hosted were outstanding successes, supported by sponsors, and illustrate a natural to bring the brand to life.
- We have seen tremendous growth from the B/R football franchise since we launched it a couple of years ago and are the #1 in engagement reaching more than 142 million engagements at the end of last year. This is due to the news and content we deliver along with an amazing franchise like The Champions - B/R’s most viewed show of all-time.
- We know that the tunnel is the new runway, and that we are all sneakerheads. We launched B/R Kicks based on those insights, and have grown into the most authentic voice, reflecting the modern sneaker community. The brand gave birth to a fresh experiential event - The Drop Up - which we’re able to monetize through a variety of sponsors while connecting directly with fans. This year we’ll see the brand reach a major inflection point thanks to synergies with our Turner Sports partners through the integration of the B/R Kicks Cam - a live shot from Inside on NBA games that feature hot styles on the court - and a weekly B/R Kicks Fit Watch segment with Dwyane Wade. With B/R Kicks we can tap into style and fashion and other endemics opening new doors.
- B/R Gridiron set out in June to un-mask players and personalities in the NFL. Through franchises like Ditch the Playbook, Untold Stories and Gridiron Heights, they’ve done just that. We quickly amassed over 1M followers and have an incredible engagement rate of more than 8% on our content. This past Super Bowl we activated for the first time alongside partners providing a new space for NFL athletes to visit and interact with the B/R brand amongst fans. This gave us claim on the most popular sport in the U.S. and defined our place within it.
- The adoption and legalization of sports betting in the U.S. is one of the most important stories in sports today and we were all-in on our role early. The purpose of B/R Betting is to entertain and educate those around the subject of sports betting - and the audience is huge. 82% of our B/R App users are current bettors or are interested in betting and they are 5 times more engaged than our casual user. With the launch of our B/R Betting franchise, we’re removing the stigma commonly associated with gambling. We’re creating lighthearted, fun content out of our Vegas studio, in addition to the latest lines and weekly picks to service casual and avid bettors alike. In just a year we saw our followers grow 64% with B/R Betting video views increasing by 4x averaging 13.3M per month across all platforms
- Here’s a topline look at our performance and who diversifying across these portfolio brands is paying off.
- Although the majority of our content is intended for our O&O it’s essential to diversify distribution. This not only helps access incremental revenue opportunities, but it establishes the B/R brand beyond our current ecosystem.
- The need to evolve as a media company is essential. Earlier last year we appointed a new Chief Content Officer, Sam Toles, who has brought a focus of pumping the heart of B/R into longer form content offerings. This is with an eye toward licensing this content either within the AT&T/WarnerMedia ecosystem or to other distribution platforms across the digital, OTT, linear landscape. We are not pursuing this blindly though. We have developed a live piloting program that dives deep into our powerful analytics engine to determine how content is performing. This is an essential tool that allows us to put forward content opportunities with confidence they will drive the audience intended. The approach - test, refine, distribute.
- There is no doubt that we are experts in our field and speaking to our loyal audience. We had for years created branded content as a means to drive revenue to this audience and became one of the best in the world at it with 51 of the top 100 branded content posts in 2019. So when looking at the potential for new revenue streams there was no need look any further than within. In the fall of 2019 we launched a new in-house creative marketing agency - Playmaker. Playmaker is fast becoming a preferred agency for today’s athletes who see value in developing their own brands and exploring incremental opportunities for creative work. The ability to connect brands to the right athletes allows Playmaker to facilitate authentic relationships between fan communities, the athletes they love, and the brands that seek to reach them. To date, Playmaker has developed and produced numerous long and short format video creative featuring athletes including Patrick Mahomes, Donovan Mitchell, and Karl-Anthony Towns.
- 93% of consumers claim that live events have a larger influence on them than TV ads. It is a way for them to connect with brands and each other while also providing a platform to share across social. Over the past year we launched a series of experiences that brought our portfolio brands to life in meaningful ways. The Drop Up - aforementioned B/R Kicks event that turns sneaker culture on its head with a focus on community B/R Gridiron House - the first event we created for B/R Gridiron brand to introduce our coverage of football during the Super Bowl Jump Off - annual event tied into NBA Summer League spotlighted by headline performance House of Highlights Camp - as discussed above B/R Football Viewing Parties - stand-alone events to galvanize B/R Football fans around biggest matches. Hosted one for Women’s World Cup and have events planned for Champions League
- Once again it’s important to look within. We have an audience of brand ambassadors that . We have an impressive roster of more than two dozen influencers that brands can leverage to create and amplify content. These members have had a direct impact on sold content for B/R and also allow us to earn top of funnel user acquisition to build the app.
- When you have brand loyalists and know your audience you’re leaving money on the table if you don’t look to merchandise upon it. We look at our ecommerce efforts different from most I think. Because B/R lives at the intersection of sports and culture we develop programs that reflect this sensibility. We seek to align ourselves with top artists who want to have voice in creative process and express themselves through original product designs. Stand out collabs include: - NBA Remix - Future (for Atlanta Hawks), Schoolboy Q (for Los Angeles Lakers), Big Sean (for Detroit Pistons), DJ Khaled (for Miami Heat), The Diplomats (for New York Knicks), No Limit (for New Orleans Pelicans), E-40 (for Golden State Warriors), and Wale (for Washington Wizards) - Women’s World Cup - Billie Eilish designs Soccer Kits among others - D Wade World Tour - final send off for D Wade career - Travis Scott NBA Remix
- As mentioned at the start, audience tendencies are evolving rapidly and it is essential to not only stay on top, but also stay ahead. Just when you think you have the formula down - a TikTok arrives shaking up all preexisting notions. That said, you can’t just jump in with your eyes closed. Testing, iterating and assessing audience response will determine the best path forward. There is a lot we know and even more that we don’t for what lies ahead, but staying true to core brand tenets, having a north star as you navigate, and relying on informed data will help determine your success.