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It’s not a secret that, when a TV viewer is watching a sporting event, be it an NFL game, a soccer match or a March Madness basketball tourney, they will have one eye on the action, and another most likely on their phone.
And the content they are consuming on their phone — if it isn’t group text messages — is most likely going to include content from social creators on Instagram, TikTok, Snap or YouTube.
Paramount Advertising, the division of Paramount Global focusing on ad sales and brand partnerships, thinks it has just the thing to bridge those two screens: A new offering it is calling the CBS Sports Creator Studio.
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The studio will pair advertisers with creators, who will create custom content or provide behind the scenes access to CBS Sports events or programs.
“These younger audiences are following our events on social platforms, we think that there’s an opportunity there to kind of put these two things together,” says John Bogusz, executive VP of sports for Paramount Advertising. “Impressions are growing, people are following the events on their phones, and we can we can offer that to advertisers to tie in more with with their campaigns with our events.”
In other words, whether the fan is watching the action on the TV glass, or following the chatter on their phones, there’s a chance to reach them. And Paramount thinks it will be particularly attractive to brands hoping to hook younger viewers.
“In today’s sports fandom, there are many different types of fans, right like across the different genres and ages,” adds Ryan Briganti, senior VP of CBS Sports for Paramount Advertising. “So this this may speak a little louder to certain fans than maybe more traditional fans. So it’s really trying to hit all these fans where they are, from both a partnership with a brand standpoint as well as our own brand.”
The CBS Sports Creator Studio is launching with three initial offerings: “Influence X Tentpole” will give sports influencers access to tentpole events like championship games being televised by Paramount (CBS has next Year’s Super Bowl, for example); “Influence & CBS Sports IP” will give creators behind-the-scenes access to CBS Sports programs, footage and talent to create new content; and “White Label Influence” will pair a brand with an athlete or content creator to create custom campaigns.
Paramount plans to leverage its existing creator-focused businesses in the new venture, including the influencer marketing firm WhoSay and VidCon, both of which it acquired in 2018. It can also guarantee brand safety and relevance, a sticking point for marketers in the social influencer space.
“You kind of got to get into the weeds a little bit with all these brands and figure out what they’re trying to achieve,” Briganti says. “We work with that brand as we roll through the ‘Match Report’ and then try to best marry brand objectives and who these influencers are.”
“They could be current athletes, former athletes, someone who just loves the sport and has developed a following in in the social space and anywhere in between, really,” he adds.
As for Paramount, the company will take a bespoke approach to the studio, though it expects to offer as part of larger advertising packages.
“They could buy a significant golf package, we could then extend that online, and then we could have an influencer type campaign associated with it,” Bogusz says.
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