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Marketing Symposium

Athletes, Storytellers Continue To Disrupt Sports Media Scene

Current and former pro athletes, as well as up-and-coming media companies, have more platforms than ever to disrupt the sports media scene, and few exemplify that better than former NFLer Andrew Hawkins. In his six years in the league, Hawkins made time to earn a degree from Columbia Univ.’s business school in between catching passes for the Browns. He now hosts “SportsCenter on Snapchat” for ESPN and also works for LeBron James' Uninterrupted platform. He addressed the Octagon Sports Marketing Symposium by saying, “I had to get through every backdoor to get to the NFL. I tried to retire after my first year once I was in the stat book. I wanted to take the NFL opportunity to maximize everything I wanted to do. As an NFL guy it was easier to get call backs, to get email responses. I wanted to make sure in the end I could control my own destiny.”

SUCCESSFULLY CRASHING THE PARTY: Twitter Head of U.S. Sports T.J. Adeshola said he views their platform as having a unique ability to amplify the existing conversation around a significant game. He pointed to seeing ESPN’s Rachel Nichols live tweeting about an NFL game -- that itself was being streamed on Twitter -- as for when he knew the social media outlet had officially crashed the sports scene. Adeshola: “When you’re looking to drive affinity for your content, Twitter can be a great way to maximize that.” Whistle Sports Founder & CEO John West has led the global digital media company since ’08, and he said that his company has been the beneficiary of him coming into the sports industry “without a lot of preconceived notions.” He added that Whistle prides itself in knowing the 25-year old who grew up with Facebook and Twitter for a decade is a “different sports media consumer” when it comes to the scripted shows and docu-series they air.

DID LEBRON PAVE THE WAY? Hawkins and moderator Andrew Brandt both credited LeBron James and Maverick Carter for inspiring the next generation of content creators across sports media. Hawkins: “This is the age of access, the age of authenticity. Shows like LeBron’s ‘The Shop’ on HBO, they’ve broken it down and created an appetite for their content. It made me realize that the ability to show more of my personality has helped my value.”

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