courtesy of snap
Snap
Anmol Malhotra (head of sports partnerships)
Nearly a decade ago, Anmol Malhotra was pursuing a career in finance and held an associate role at BlackRock. That was until he heard from a banking contact who had recently begun building out — and recruiting for — the revenue side of social media startup Snapchat. Malhotra began working on the company’s monetization strategy, specifically pushing brands to advertise on the platform around major events like the Oscars, Coachella, the Super Bowl and the Olympics. A subsequent focus on sports was a natural evolution.
“The average age of their fan or their viewer was going up. And this is still the explosion of mobile and multiscreen [viewing]; the people watching in a traditional format, just sitting there on your couch for three or four hours, was going down. We could solve both those problems,” said Malhotra of Snap’s early sales pitch to leagues and teams. “We had a super young and highly engaged audience that were spending all their time on mobile. So short-form content, made for mobile, highly engaging, highly entertaining, highly informative became the norm.”
Snap didn’t try to compete with traditional media outlets, but rather fill in the gaps they couldn’t cover with content from the crowds and locker rooms. User-submitted snaps would be curated and blended with footage from Snap staffers granted behind-the-scenes access. Malhotra now says there are three things Snap aims to provide for its sports partners: incremental reach, incremental revenue and cultural relevance.
Some sports properties were slow to join in the early days, but today Snap counts partnerships with nearly every major league, network and sports event. ESPN airs a more casual, short-form version of “SportsCenter,” and earlier this year Snap deployed a suite of augmented reality features for the FIFA Women’s World Cup. Even the highly restrictive Augusta National has signed on, and in recent years Snap has been the only platform allowed to bring phones on the course to provide users a behind-the-scenes experience of the Masters. Next up is a larger focus on international markets and a deeper dive with athletes who are increasingly the main touch point for young fans.
“Previously, the microphone was just held by the newscaster, the broadcaster, the interviewer. Now that microphone is held directly by the athlete,” Malhotra said. “So how do we do more fun and innovative relationships with athletes directly and help them kind of reach that next generation of fan, as well as tell their story across our platform?” — Chris Smith
