Unofficial Partner

<New Pod Alert> Bryson Dechambeau heads to next week’s Open Championship at Troon as the reigning US Open champion, having beaten Rory McIlroy down the straight at Winged Foot in New York three weeks ago, confirming the American’s position as one of the very best players in the world today. But this is a conversation about what he’s done off the course over the last three years, that has changed his public image by becoming one of the most followed creators on social media. Brand Bryson is a masterclass in sports digital media strategy, a playbook as to how best to use YouTube, TikTok, Instagram and Twitter to build long term value, both for himself and by extension the sport of golf. The bigger question is what the Dechambeau case study means for traditional rights holders such as the PGA TOUR, DP World Tour and the The R&A. Our guests are Carsten Thode and Rich Johnson Welcome to Wedge Issues, an Unofficial Partner Production.

The creation of Brand Bryson and what it means for every sports rights holder. The second episode of our golf business series, Wedge Issues, produced by Unofficial Partner. Carsten Thode Rich Johnson dissect one of the best athlete as creator case studies of the last two years. Channel strategy, content management, audience analysis, Dechambeau is giving us a masterclass in how to build value across the big social platforms. He's also asking big questions of the exclusivity-first mentality that underpins the sports media and sponsorship rights business. (If you're up at Troon next week for the Open Championship, give me a shout, I'm there Monday to Wednesday. Going to be busy...) Listen by searching 'Unofficial Partner' on your favourite podcast app. Max Hamilton Mark Cornish Eva Rieder Fiona Harold Stuart Moffatt MCIPR Guy Kinnings Mark Darbon Jed Moore Alex Balfour Adam Kelly Gareth Balch Blake Wooster Omar Chaudhuri Nic Coward James Francis Richard Bunn Iain Carter Nathan Homer Alison Lomax Thomas Beahon

In his latest Unofficial Partner guest blog post, Eddie May shares his thoughts on football clubs and branding, with a focus on SSC Napoli new ‘brand manifesto’. https://lnkd.in/dhQxXbiP

In his latest Unofficial Partner guest blog post, Eddie May shares his thoughts on football clubs and branding, with a focus on SSC Napoli new ‘brand manifesto’. https://lnkd.in/dhQxXbiP

<New Pod Alert> FIFA+ is the global football governing bodies own media platform, created in 2020 and launched two years later. It’s one of sports biggest and most ambitious and expensive direct-to-consumer projects, and so brings together many of the threads we talk about often on Unofficial Partner; a debate that runs across the sports industry, as governing bodies, leagues and teams spend billions creating owned and operated channels as a mitigation against volatility in the media rights marketplace and the money made from their content by the big social media platforms. The conversation is peppered with phrases such as walled gardens, creative tension in the bidding process, owning the customer relationship, long tail audiences, build and they will come. FIFA+ is a poster child for these theories. But this is a conversation that goes beyond the mechanics of D2C. It’s about what the leaders of big sports governing bodies want to be and the role they will seek to play over the next decade or more. Guests: Dave Roberts was one of the architects of FIFA+ in the run up to launch and in its early iterations. He’s now CEO of @XCel Broadcast. Hugo Sharman is CEO of StreamAMG, one of the leading players in video content and distribution for sports rights holders. Carlo De Marchis is today known as a business media creator, The Guy with the Scarf but previously led strategy and innovation over a 34 year career at Deltatre. Michael Broughton is co-founder of @Sports Investment Partners and was an advisor to FIFA on innovation and commercial strategy. We are really pleased to be working with Loughborough University London & Institute of Sports Humanities Humanities again to promote their excellent Leadership in Sport MA 2024. Applications for the next intake on the 2024 Leadership in Sport Masters are open. The Leadership in Sport Masters is designed for sports industry executives to study part-time alongside their careers. The programme is co-delivered by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports Humanities (ISH), experts in leadership education. Loughborough University is ranked best university in the world for sports related subjects (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017-2023). For more details, check out the links in the comments below.

<New Pod Alert> FIFA+ is the global football governing bodies own media platform, created in 2020 and launched two years later. It’s one of sports biggest and most ambitious and expensive direct-to-consumer projects, and so brings together many of the threads we talk about often on Unofficial Partner; a debate that runs across the sports industry, as governing bodies, leagues and teams spend billions creating owned and operated channels as a mitigation against volatility in the media rights marketplace and the money made from their content by the big social media platforms. The conversation is peppered with phrases such as walled gardens, creative tension in the bidding process, owning the customer relationship, long tail audiences, build and they will come. FIFA+ is a poster child for these theories. But this is a conversation that goes beyond the mechanics of D2C. It’s about what the leaders of big sports governing bodies want to be and the role they will seek to play over the next decade or more. Guests: Dave Roberts was one of the architects of FIFA+ in the run up to launch and in its early iterations. He’s now CEO of @XCel Broadcast. Hugo Sharman is CEO of StreamAMG, one of the leading players in video content and distribution for sports rights holders. Carlo De Marchis is today known as a business media creator, The Guy with the Scarf but previously led strategy and innovation over a 34 year career at Deltatre. Michael Broughton is co-founder of @Sports Investment Partners and was an advisor to FIFA on innovation and commercial strategy. We are really pleased to be working with Loughborough University London & Institute of Sports Humanities Humanities again to promote their excellent Leadership in Sport MA 2024. Applications for the next intake on the 2024 Leadership in Sport Masters are open. The Leadership in Sport Masters is designed for sports industry executives to study part-time alongside their careers. The programme is co-delivered by Loughborough University London and the Institute of Sports Humanities (ISH), experts in leadership education. Loughborough University is ranked best university in the world for sports related subjects (QS World University Rankings by Subject 2017-2023). For more details, check out the links in the comments below.

Each month, I get a PhD lecture in sports media from Yannick Manuel Ramcke and Murray Barnett in The Bundle, Unofficial Partner's regular deep dive in to the rights and streaming economy. Now you can get their homework notes too...See The Bundle Bulletin here, listen to the podcast and subscribe to get it every month. https://lnkd.in/emzETeKA

We've all seen the WHOOP graphic of Ronaldo's heart rate data during extra time of the Portugal v Slovenia match. I'm not convinced it's CR finding a 'flow state' but it is interesting data and it is driving conversations, but it wasn't live. We Are Sweet is pushing boundaries in processing athlete heart rate in challenging conditions to tell compelling stories for fans and getting it to broadcast, all in real time. I've written a piece with our friends at Unofficial Partner that outlines how to capture, process and output engaging narratives using Live Data for rights holders: https://lnkd.in/e97rQkKn

In the latest Unofficial Partner Personal Best column, is with Jules Hilson, co-founder of new outfit See You At Jeanie's. Some of Jules's selections include: * Best agency - Blurred * Best young talent - Anna Golding * Best brand ambassador - Naomi Osaka * Best industry event - PUMA Group’s Conference of the People by MSL For Jules's full profile go here: https://lnkd.in/eiQFqE84

Are you Big FIFA+ or Small FIFA+? Where are you on the value of women's club football? Are you with Sir Jim or Bob Iger? Is Elon Musk right, that AI is coming for creative? (he is, btw) Get the Unofficial Partner Newsletter every Thursday, direct to your inbox.