During Raja's first month, the "SC" Instagram account saw 160% engagement growth compared to January '19ESPN IMAGES
House of Highlights creator Omar Raja's move to ESPN is an "attempt to transfer that vibe and voice to a 41-year-old TV show," as the net is "trying to signal to different types of sports fans that it wants their business," according to Cale Guthrie Weissman of DIGIDAY. After a few months with ESPN, Raja's "impact is already palpable" as he looks to "transform the network's online persona into something younger and meme-able." During his first month in January, the SportsCenter Instagram account "saw 160% engagement growth" compared to January '19. Also that month, 31 ESPN digital posts "broke the record for total engagement," and 27 of those "came specifically from the SportsCenter handle with Raja at the helm." Followers "went up by over half a million." The playbook Raja is using for SportsCenter is "generally the same; find the best, most relatable moments that speak as much to the sports' cultures as they do the actual games." ESPN has been "building out its digital programming for the last couple of years." The ESPN app now "sees an average of more than 21 million unique users per month, and its social accounts have a combined 248 million followers." The numbers are "trending in the right direction, but the ESPN app needs momentum -- and someone who speaks to a specific audience -- to keep it that way" (DIGIDAY.com, 3/16).
