Opinion: Athletes Co-Own Their Content

(This is a guest post from Jim Cavale, CEO of INFLCR. INFLCR is a Proud Partner of Front Office Sports.)

I just want to get athletes their content. I believe their content is anything they appear in.

I don’t want to tell them what to do with it. I don’t want to tell them what to say. I simply want them to have it for their memories and to tell their story on social media within the context of the brand they play for and the league they play in.

Empowering the athlete to tell their stories is why I started Influencer (INFLCR). And to me, our content delivery formula is a win-win for the team and athlete to co-brand in telling their stories to more people in sum on social.

This was never clearer to me than Saturday night when one INFLCR’s college sports clients — the University of Kentucky football team — continued its historic season by winning on the last play at the University of Missouri to remain in first place in the SEC East Division. Kentucky quarterback Terry Wilson hit tight end CJ Conrad on a dramatic pass with no time left.

We love sports, in your face and on your phone, from the perspective of the athletes who are making the plays and living the moments. This video shot by the first-class UK Creative Staff and shared by Conrad to his Instagram was as in-your-face, on-your-phone and in-the-moment as it gets.

Athletes — yes, even student-athletes — have become their own sports channels with massive social media followings that, in sum, outnumber the social following of the team that they play for, the league they play in and the traditional media network airing the game.

I firmly believe that all athletes co-own their content and I’m on a mission with INFLCR to streamline all of an athlete’s respective content into a personalized gallery of pictures, videos, GIFs and links that are continuously populating inside of their INFLCR mobile app on their phone.

UK Athletics has invested in a creative staff that shoots great content of this journey through the season and has invested in INFLCR to deliver that content to their student-athletes, coaches and other brand ambassadors. Because of this collaboration, each headed back to Lexington with new content in their personalized INFLCR mobile app gallery for them to use in telling their story for their one million-plus combined Twitter and Instagram followers, who want to see it through their eyes.

Within hours of the victory, UK Football student-athletes had downloaded and shared 132 of UK’s internally-curated content pieces from their INFLCR mobile app to their Instagram and Twitter channels, reaching a captive six-figure audience for UK Football’s brand while growing their personal brand followings simultaneously. As a fan, when you consume these videos and pictures in your feed, it’s almost like you know the athletes and you were there with them.

In your face. On your phone. In the moment. From the perspective of the athlete.

I just want to get athletes their content.

(*INFLCR is a Proud Partner of Front Office Sports.)