We love disruptive platforms that look to storytell and challenge the norm. We love them even more when they are not just a good idea, they are becoming a good business model. Meet World’s Greatest.
The video content platform is of, by and for the World’s Greatest athletes, most with Olympic sports ties, and their fans. From funny and entertaining videos to intriguing bios and documentaries to travel, food and culture content as well as how-to/training tutorials they produce original series for television, digital and social distribution; all guided, focused and inspired by proprietary research, “Olympian Connection Points Study”. With over 700,000 data points, they are able to match the right Olympian to the right content on the right platform with the right brand. All content is built for brand sponsorship, brand integration and original branded content. They are a powerful marketing platform for brands as well. Most importantly, they share net revenue 50/50 with the athletes.
The driving force behind “World’s Greatest’ is Bob Ciosek. Bob began as a copywriter and creative director at agencies BBDO, Saatchi & Saatchi and DMB&B, and launched Bold Studios in 1995 with ESPN as its centerpiece client (producing over 1,000 TV commercials). Other clients included Capital One, Subway, Kellogg’s, WWE and more. In 2003, Bob invented an online consumer research process leveraging a patented tool. He shaped TV programming, acquisitions, marketing as well as digital and social content development and marketing. Clients included ABC, American Express, CNBC, ESPN, Food Network, Fox Sports, Golf Channel, Initiative Media, MSN, New York Magazine, New York Post, People Magazine, Refinery 29, Tribeca Film Festival, Turner Entertainment (TNT, TBS, Turner Digital), Yahoo Sports and more. Bob also founded a short-form, social video app called BlipHit (2012-2014). For the last two and a half years, he was Chief Creative Officer at Whistle Sports where he built them into the #1 social engagement platform in sports garnering over 1 billion views monthly with global social reach of 375 million. Bob helped drive quarter-over-quarter revenue growth exponentially and was a key player in securing $78 million in investor funding. Now he is on to his next project, which has taken off and continues to grow more support every day.
We caught up with him to get the scoop. Watch the video here as well.
Tell us how World’s Greatest came about?
I’ve worked in and around sports and athletes for my entire career. I produced over 1,000 promos for ESPN. Seemed to always gravitate to sports clients when I worked in the ad agency world. And when I started my own ad agency that’s all we went after. What struck me over the years as I compared the Olympians I knew to pro athletes in the NBA, NFL, etc. was Olympians were all sole proprietors essentially. As a viewer you think of them as on a team. Team USA, Team Norway, etc. But the reality is unless they play a team sport it’s a solitary endeavor. Also, there is no players union for Olympians. And I saw how much they had to hustle to keep their dream going. Then I discovered that the average Olympian makes $15k per year. When I discovered how engaged their fans were in social media outside an Olympic time period that’s when I knew I was onto something.
What is the audience? Is it a niche audience? Global?
It’s an inherently global audience because Olympians are everywhere. And they compete all over the world. So it’s a natural global audience. We are targeting 25-34 year olds, 15-24 years old and their parents. I don’t think there is any brand in the world like this. Our athletes are all 18-34 years old but their appeal is 8-80 year-olds, all genders, all ethnicities, all income levels, all education levels, all regions of the world. Very unique!
What has been the response?
Universal interest! No athlete has turned us down. We are sharing net revenue 50/50 with the athletes so that’s big. We deliver high-quality, premium content for their social channels and feature them in content we license to others, and of course on our digital and social. Brands and agencies are very intrigued as well. We give official sponsors a new vehicle for optimizing their Olympic investment. We give non-officials a chance to get in the “game”. Our platform offers a brand safe media option and a fresh voice in the cluttered world of branded content, brand integration and brand sponsorships. And we deliver a trusted way to leverage social marketing channels and influencers.
Why do you think platforms like this have failed in the past, and why will this work now?
It starts with… sports is different. Put it this way, my brother, who is not an emotional person, cried when the Detroit Pistons raised Isiah Thomas’ jersey to the rafters on his retirement. Grown men cry over sports and athletes. Secondly, we have a secret weapon… my research. Everything we produce has been quantified. We quantify the right content ideas for the right Olympian on the right linear, social or digital channel with the right brand. And our POV is unique. Olympians are a white space waiting to be leveraged as a collective. The Olympics is an amazingly valuable asset. Look at the numbers NBC Sports gets every 2 years. Viewers connect with these athletes over three weeks then it seems like they disappear. But they don’t. Check out their social channels. They work day in and day out and compete year-round for all the years between the Olympics.
You have been selective in the social channels you are using to storytelling. How have you selected them and why?
We love Instagram because it’s celebrates individuality and it’s visual. And platform usage keeps growing with our demos. Youtube is great for longer and more consistent digital series (and easily monetized). Facebook is a juggernaut for marketing and distribution of our content. We’re not launching on Twitter at the moment simply because that platform is more about breaking news and day-to-day topical content. That’s not what we are producing. We are also talking with OTT platforms and are pitching TV networks.
What has been the biggest surprise with the platform thus far?
The biggest surprise is how excited the athletes are. I knew this was a great idea from day one. But the universal excitement has blown me away. I really feel like we are solving a problem for these athletes and truly helping them build their brands.
The path to success in a year looks like what? Is there a pay model is it driven just by traffic?
We are creating a premium brand. Success will always be around creating and producing great, premium content that is highly engaging. On the revenue side this year we are focused on licensing our original content to linear, digital and social content distributors. We are also very focused on activating branded content and sponsorships with official Olympic sponsors and non-officials. We are also building a subscription model around how-to/training video content.
What’s the biggest challenge you face for growth?
Given all of the decades the Olympic brand has been around promoting three weeks every two years, a lot of people see Olympians being only relevant then. So there is a learning curve for some.
How and where is content coming from?
We’re producing all of the content you see. Everything is done in-house. Over the course of my long career, I have built a talented network of producers, directors, editors, designers, etc. People who work with us enjoy the informed creative direction we give and ultimately the creative freedom we allow. And we have high standards. The company is called World’s Greatest after all!
The”athlete as brand” age seems to just be starting. How are you positioned to take advantage of that now, and going forward?
The on-the-nose positioning is The Road to Tokyo 2020 begins now. Audiences are already deeply engaged with our athletes in social 24/7/365. And our engagement rate is 3-10 times greater than any sports media platform, including ESPN and Players Tribune. Going a little deeper we feel there is an authenticity and relatability about Olympians that pro athletes in traditional sports can’t deliver. The average salary for NBA players will be $10 million by 2020. How do brands get them to do anything for them. Most won’t even do a branded post on their Instagram channels. And the further down the long tail of Olympians you get the more they are doing it for the right reasons, simply for the love of the sport.
