Robert Downey Jr. recently warned Hollywood against using his likeness in AI-generated replicas and threatened legal action against anyone who tries. This includes Marvel, which he has confidence wouldn’t digitally recreate his famous character, Tony Stark.
A peek into today’s edition:
- Inside the NBA‘s creator strategy
- Big Tech earnings roundup
- Cosm and the NFL are in business
Why Content Creators are Key to the NBA’s Digital Growth
It has been nearly a decade since the NBA got intentional about working with creators, and the investment continues to pay off.
The league recently announced an expanded creator program featuring a new content-sharing program and an NBA Creator Cup Series. Bob Carney, Senior Vice President of Social and Digital Content at the NBA, told Boardroom all about how creators have become an integral part of the league’s digital strategy.
“The NBA has 12 months of events, so the collaboration is ongoing. The NBA never sleeps,” Carney told Boardroom in an interview. “We thought integrating creators into our events would make the content even better.”
How the NBA Shaped Its Creator Strategy
Carney leads the team responsible for content creation and publishing across the NBA’s global portfolio of digital and social media platforms, which includes the @NBA across every social platform, the NBA app, and NBA.com. He’s been with the league for 23 years, and most notably, he helped the NBA launch its YouTube channel in 2005. On the relationship with content creators, he’s been helping build out that focus since 2016, when the NBA officially formalized its creator program.
“I’ve been on this journey all this time, helping build our presence on all of these platforms. It’s been quite an interesting and fun journey, integrating all these additional voices,” Carney said. “At the league office, we’re the league, and we’re running all these accounts. We have our voice, but you need a collection of voices to round out the coverage.”
At the onset, Carney said the NBA observed super fans creating content on various social platforms, especially YouTube. The league’s strategy was to embrace content and use creators as ambassadors, extending its brand.
“We wanted them to become an extension of our content team,” he said. “We integrated them into events, allowing them to create content that is authentic to their voice with the access we provide. It supercharges the content, benefiting both the creator and us.”
As new players enter the league, they already know these creators, making it easier to foster collaboration between them. The NBA doesn’t just work with basketball-focused creators; it also collaborates with creators in fashion, food, and other fields.
While the league has a formal process to connect with creators, Carney’s team and the league’s marketing sector often organically discover creators to work with by clocking viral content.
“Sometimes, creators reach out to us. The changing social algorithms are fascinating because content quality matters more than follower count,” Carney said. “Great content bubbles up naturally, making it easier to notice creators.”
Measuring Success
Carney said the NBA has long-standing partnerships with all major platforms – including YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, and X – and it consistently learns and optimizes content for each social network. Last season, the NBA attracted 26 billion video views across its social media platforms and the NBA App, up 22% from the previous year.
This particular post from Tristan Jass features a trick shot he did in Dallas during the NBA Finals. The video has over 100 million views and 3.4 million likes.
“Each platform has its unique community and content style. Our goal is to deepen these partnerships and identify impactful creators,” Carney said. “We reach different fans globally by optimizing for each platform.”
One of the league’s most significant digital accomplishments is that its YouTube channel became the first professional sports league account to surpass 20 million subscribers. With more than 22.3 million subscribers to date, the NBA has attracted 14.4 billion lifetime video views on the platform.
The NBA primarily measures reach to track its online success. Carney said the league focuses on reaching beyond existing social followers, which is where collaborations with creators matter most. During the 2024-25 season, creators across diverse sectors will share behind-the-scenes content connected to NBA games.
The NBA kicked off its expanded creator program on opening night with Kai Cenat, who was featured in the league’s start-of-season brand campaign dubbed “The Tip-Off.” Cenat took fans behind the scenes at the New York Knicks vs. Boston Celtics game on Oct. 22, while Drew Afualo captured content at the Phoenix Suns vs. LA Clippers game on Oct. 23. Content featuring Cenat at the Knicks-Celtics game on opening night generated more than 40 million video views across NBA-related platforms. Carney hopes to continue fostering this type of reach and collaboration throughout the season.
Here are a few more ways the NBA is collaborating with creators this season:
- The NBA Creator Cup Series will return this season with creator matchups at the Emirates NBA Cup in Las Vegas, the NBA All-Star Weekend in San Francisco, and the NBA Summer League in Las Vegas.
- As the NBA’s official MR headset, Meta will work with creators to coordinate meet-and-greets with fans and provide demos of the Quest courtside experience.
- The NBA is expanding its partnership with WSC Sports to transform its NBA Playmakers creator network. This includes providing select influencers access to over 25,000 hours of NBA game footage and AI-driven editing tools to create content. Swish Cultures, By Any Means Basketball, and Golden Hoops are some creators leveraging this footage and AI tools to create content this season.
- The NBA is partnering with Snapchat on the Snap Creator program, bringing creators to events to capture content that will be shared across their accounts and the NBA Snap account.
- The NBA Creator Correspondent Program is back for its second year. This program allows creators to produce real-time courtside coverage.
“We’re focused on relationship-driven strategies with creators,” Carney said. “It’s all about leveraging relationships and providing new opportunities.”
Big Tech Earnings Recap
Tech earnings season returns, with Reddit and Roku hitting new milestones while Big Tech giants struggle to impress investors.
Here’s a short list of some key takeaways from recent tech earnings:
- Alphabet reported $88.3 billion in revenue, driven by Google Cloud growth and YouTube ad sales, boosting its shares by more than 5% when trading opened on Wednesday. The company reported that “YouTube’s total ads and subscription revenues surpassed $50 billion over the past four quarters for the first time.”
- Amazon’s AWS revenue grew 19%, generating $27.5 billion in Q3. Overall, the e-commerce giant generated $158.9 billion in revenue for the quarter.
- Apple generated $94.9 billion in quarterly revenue, up 6% from a year ago, though its shares were down 2% on Thursday after investors were underwhelmed with the company’s results. The iPhone 16 launch drove the bulk of revenue, generating $46.2 billion in sales for the iPhone segment.
- Meta‘s stock dipped slightly after it narrowly missed user growth projections and told investors that AI would cost a lot more spending dollars in 2025. Still, the Big Tech giant generated $40.6 billion in revenue, with sales up 19% year-over-year to $15.7 billion.
- Microsoft‘s shares fell more than 6% on Thursday following a disappointing earnings forecast, marking the company’s worst day on the stock market in two years. Still, Microsoft’s revenue increased 16% year-over-year to $65.59 billion.
- Reddit‘s stock was up 22% in after-hours trading on Tuesday, and share prices topped $100 for the first time after the social network shared that it turned a profit for the first time ever. Reddit reported a $29.9 million profit in its recent quarter and $348.4 million in revenue, a 68% increase year over year.
- Roku recorded its first $1 billion revenue quarter, and the company will follow in Netflix’s steps and stop reporting the number of active households using its platforms regularly. At the end of Q3, Roku reported 85.5 million active streaming households.
- Snap reported that Snapchat added 37 million daily active users in Q3, bringing its total to 443 million as it prepares to roll out a simpler app in Q1 of 2025. Snap’s revenue increased 15% year-over-year to $1.37 billion.
Custom car creator Action Vehicle Engineering built 10 Batmobile replicas, priced at $3 million each. Warner Bros. officially sanctioned the replicas, and interested buyers must apply, be accepted, and put down a deposit before their Batmobile can be shipped (15 months later). While the Batmobiles will be fully operable, they aren’t street-legal, so don’t expect to see these on roadways.
- Cosm is partnering with the NFL to stream select live games at its “Shared Reality” venues in LA and Dallas. The immersive entertainment company will deploy production crews to NFL stadiums for the rest of the 2024-25 season to broadcast Thursday, Sunday, and Monday night games, along with select FOX matchups, across its venues. In other Cosm x NFL news, Detroit has been selected as the company’s fourth experiential entertainment venue, joining Atlanta as a future Cosm location.
- Apple unveiled a new iMac equipped with its latest M4 chip and Apple Intelligence features. Starting at $1,299, the new desktop will be released on Nov. 8 and come in shades of green, yellow, orange, pink, purple, blue, and the classic silver.
- OpenAI finally introduced ChatGPT Search, allowing users to search the web for timely responses and links to relevant sources. Users can manually choose to use ChatGPT’s new search function or let ChatGPT decide when to tap into the web.
- After 50 years with CBS, the Grammy Awards will move to Disney platforms in 2027, marking the first time the show will air on a different network in decades. Under a new 10-year deal between Disney and The Recording Academy, The Grammys will air exclusively on ABC, Disney+, and Hulu.
- Netflix announced a new feature called Moments, which lets users save and share their favorite scenes from shows and movies via the My Netflix tab in the mobile app. The feature is part of a new Netflix global brand campaign called “It’s So Good,” which highlights Netflix’s most memorable moments.
- Stormzy and Christian McCaffrey inked deals with tech gadget manufacturers. Dyson announced the London-based rap star as its newest global ambassador, while Brookstone and McCaffrey launched a collection of lifestyle products across fitness, recovery, wellness, travel, tech, and lifestyle.
- ESPN debuted a new gaming experience hosted by its anchors in Fortnite dubbed ESPN Football Island. The gaming environment, developed with Disney Games and Epic Games, features challenges, minigames, and multiplayer gameplay.
Delta Airlines CEO Ed Bastian will deliver his keynote speech at CES 2025 from the Las Vegas Sphere, marking the first time the annual tech trade show hosts an event at the famous venue. As Sphere continues to expand its range of events, I’m going to bet that we’ll see a major conference or event fully relocate there within the next year.
More Tech Talk:
