By Jason Stein (@jasonwstein), CEO @247ls
How we became a media company…
Athletes have become media entities, with influence far beyond their field of play. They deliver news, entertainment and inspiration to millions of people with every new post. Today, we announced that we are adding over 1,500 professional athletes to Cycle, our global network of premium content creators and influencers, and spinning it out as an autonomous entity. By aggregating everyone’s channels in one global media network, and providing the tools to produce premium content at scale, we will deepen the relationship between athletes, consumers, and brands.
We launched Cycle in 2014 to solve a need for efficient content creation and distribution. We brought on Liz Eswein (of Instagram fame) as Executive Director, and with her came hundreds of talented influencers. These individuals are famous because they create amazing content; known not by name but @handle. In less than 12 months, Cycle became a multi-million dollar company, partnering with over 100 brands and publishers. In that time, we helped launch the careers of many talented creators—seeing them go from creatives with day jobs (a UPS truck driver, in @Fursty’s case!) to highly sought after social celebrities reaching millions of people.
This year, after we were acquired by Wasserman Media Group, the world’s top sports management agency, Cycle quickly began partnering with athletes. It’s been a true privilege to work with gifted people like NBA superstar Anthony Davis, skateboard icon Ryan Sheckler, and Rio-bound gold medalist Alex Morgan. They are performers, in front of the camera.
By pairing the most talented creators with the most talented performers, we are able to produce highly sharable content. Every month, across the network, Cycle publishes well over 50,000 pieces of content, delivering more than 3 billion views. In the last two months alone, Cycle has created and published 200+ videos for its advertising partners, including this video starring Sheckler with well over 15 million views across the web. What started as a content creation solution is now a global media company.
Looking forward, media partnerships should really aim to deliver reach, engagement, cultural relevance, and a high volume of compelling content. That’s the only way to keep up with the pace of the Internet, be relevant, and achieve business objectives. That’s what Cycle is here to do.
Hit me @jasonwstein on Twitter.