Content creation for today’s athletes is what owning a bar was years ago. An investment platform, hopefully managed by people who know what they are doing, which can yield a return and build a portfolio beyond the field. Colleague Tom Hoffarth had a recent piece in the Sports Business Journal detailing the vast efforts that athletes are now trying to build as “content creators.” 
The question still remains as to how many of these individual efforts will work, how much money can be generated and what the audience is. Going from posting Instagram stories and tweets to raising capital and creating legitimate storytelling is a reach for anyone, and the shelf life of some athlete’s visibility is sometimes tied directly to success on the court, field or ice. It’s also not for everyone, and the market, although vast for content, has its limits for investment. Still it is a great time for those who are thoroughly engaged and looking to create a voice that is a part, not the be all and end all, of one’s brand. Like success on the field it takes grit, hustle and the ability to accept and learn from failure as much as success. It isn’t for everyone and not everyone will be successful on the level of what Kobe Bryant has done to date. Ironically the other thing that’s needed is a team of qualified professionals and it seems quizzical that many big names, from Alex Morgan to Odell Beckham Jr., choose to go off on their own to build business, vs working with like-minded athletes. There will probably be a consolidation down the road for best in class, but for now, the athlete as brand continues to make its case, with success still to be determined.
One person athletes can look to who has built a cross platform brand after a career of success in one genre? Bruce Springsteen. The Boss continues to redefine his brand and storytelling in ways that athletes and artists should look closely at. Case in point; the recently released film “Blinded By The Light,” which is about the inspiration a Pakistani boy drew from the music of Springsteen appears on the big screen just a few seconds before a promo for a release of a film this fall done by Springsteen on his latest album, Western Stars.
It is multimedia storytelling at its best; an audience with interest getting a look at yet another project, one which followed the successful theatrical production and the special tied to that show, and which followed the book which detailed Springsteen’s life. Now Bruce doesn’t seem to be the social media star which younger athletes and celebrities could be; it is not part of his character and doesn’t authentically fit…he does have a Twitter handle with 1.2 million followers but it is certainly more of a promotional tool than a storytelling one.
What Bruce has done is take his own best practices and work with other professionals to build out a larger multimedia portfolio that reflects his image and his ethos; it is not a sellout, it is a sell up for a personality who has something to say not just to his existing audience, but to a larger one with casual interest, and he is delivering that message on every medium that fits.
Athletes take notice, a 70 something guy from Jersey continues to redefine multimedia storytelling in an authentic way. It’s a nice template for success, decades in the making, and one which those looking to build brand should watch and listen to. “The Boss” and his team seem to know a little but about brand.
