ESPN, the New YouTube for Brands? Welcome to The Age of Lifestyle Media Companies

ESPN is not just for us couch potatoes anymore.  It is now a home for those selling those very potatoes from which the chips-we-eat-as-we-watch are made -- i.e., major consumer brands.  Huh?  What?

Here’s the story.  ESPN just announced -- nay, invited -- major brands to develop programming for their distribution platform, initially focusing on its TV Everywhere app.  Not commercials.  Not ads.  Not traditional sponsorships.  Actual entertainment programming.  Engaging video.  Case in point -- major media company, Dick’s Sporting Goods (well, perhaps not “major” yet, but possibly with major aspirations to become one some day -- Marriott anyone?) developed the documentary series “Hell Week” for ESPN.

Pause and chew on that for a moment.  Dick’s didn’t go to YouTube first with its videos -- historically, the standard path for brand-backed videos.  It went to ESPN first.  And, it paid ESPN for that privilege.  That is precisely ESPN’s goal -- to become the first choice for major brands to produce original, differentiated and compelling programming for its audience.  Outside the YouTube ecosystem.  And, here’s the beauty of it -- not only does ESPN get compelling (hopefully) new programming developed on someone else’s dime, they also get paid by that content creator (in this case, Dick’s) for that privilege AND ... wait for it ... ESPN also gets to run their traditional ads against that programming which pay yet again.  That is some Trifecta!  Kudos to you ESPN!

ESPN is not alone in its goal of being “the first choice” over YouTube for video creators, including brands.  This “divorce” from YouTube -- perhaps not a complete divorce, but at least a trial separation -- is a persistent theme in digital media circles these days.  Content creators of all stripes increasingly loudly express dismay (that’s a soft way of putting it for some) over YouTube’s 55/45 revenue split to creators.  The result is a burgeoning number of YouTube alternative platforms that promise better times for those video creators who enter their world first.  Think big OTT guns like Netflix and Amazon.  Think old stalwarts like Yahoo!, Comcast and Xbox.  Think major MCNs like Disney-fied Maker Studios, Otter-ized Fullscreen and hot young MCN Whistle Sports (which bills itself as a new kind of ESPN for millennials).  And, think newbies like Vessel and Zealot Networks.  Something is most definitely in the air ... on the air?  Yes, in more places than ever before.  High times indeed for the creative community.

Which brings us back to Dick’s.  Dick’s is not alone.  Marriott, as glibly noted above, just recently busted a move (reference, too dated?).  Pepsi just made major “noises” to that effect.  Starbuck’s.  And an increasing list of “others” all trying to pull a Red Bull and smartly transform themselves into lifestyle media companies that are significantly more interesting -- and engaging -- to consumers (especially to the coveted mobile-savvy millennial).

In any event, ESPN’s bold move is not to be denied.  Or overlooked.  It is yet another major data point demonstrating that brands increasingly see (or strategically want others to see) themselves as becoming media companies.  My business team and I at Manatt Digital Media see this directly.  We have already guided brands in this kind of media morphology.  We just recently finished a media transformation engagement for a respected beauty brand.  

This is real.  It is not fashion or fad.  And it is accelerating ...

Brands -- grab your lifestyles now while they last!  And, become storytellers, not just marketeers ...