Summary

• Who really owns the fan relationship now? Is the power shifting irrevocably from massive clubs and leagues to the athletes themselves?
• Is the traditional sports media model heading for extinction? How are content creators forcing sports organizations to surrender control or risk irrelevance?
• What is the breaking point for “realness”? How much creative freedom must organizations grant athletes to capture the attention of a digital audience?
• Beyond the paycheck: Is the rise of the athlete-creator a direct protest against the way traditional sports organizations treat their own stars?
• Are you ready for the next “attention shift”? What concrete, actionable steps should a sports brand take to convert one-way broadcasting into content co-creation and revenue?
• Is your favorite team getting left behind? Why are the most successful athletes of the new era investing millions in content instead of relying on legacy media deals?

Transcription

Hello and welcome to the attention shift
This is a message for you to go and download the great attention shift report for me and Dizplai
This gives you the concrete steps to move from one-way broadcast to content co-creation.
Helping you unlock new revenue streams and make your brand worth staying for
Welcome to the attention shift a podcast where sports media gets debated like a VAR decision
passionately longer than it should and with none of us fully agreeing on the outcome
So producer wills been having me acting
Posting pretending that I hit the bull on a dark board and all the other kinds of nonsense recently
But I’ve also managed to find the time to do some actual work
I’ve been working on a report in the background for a little while now called the great attention shift
Which you probably noticed has got a similar title
The idea behind is is a lot of stuff I’ve been been musing about on LinkedIn over the last couple of years
Love it or hate it.
You know for myself also hopefully people find it useful in terms of the things that we’ve been talking about
I think back early this year was talking to the two of you about how I had this idea of doing a report and
Maybe a podcast and then you two went away and spoke separately and said she’s gonna die
Thankfully you don’t have a massive hole and then decided to come and join me and doing the podcast
So ultimately a lot of what we talk about on this is very much in the report and pull together
So I thought it’d be great opportunity to talk to you two about it. Now. You’ve had a chance to have a read of it
correct all the spelling mistakes
Do get told off from my husband frequently for spotting continuity
The idea is I think you know certain from my perspective
In the sun in terms of where I we see things going in amongst I know we were very similar views on that
Do you know what I think is really interesting given that we were talking about this and you you were thinking about how you were
Going to pull this together when we decided that we could theme a podcast around it
It’s something that we all have been talking about and we all very much agree on which is why we find the hot takes
huddles
Tricky sometimes because we do think very similarly
What does surprise me sometimes is how we kind of just assume everybody thinks like this and everybody understands how
Attention is fragmenting and shifting and then every once in a while when you see it pull together and you talk to people about it
You realize actually there’s a lot of people that don’t understand this
So actually to have it pulled together is is really useful. So well done you
Never done anything like this before and it always feels a little bit
What people people gonna read it and we’re gonna want to read it and and we’ve tried to give some tangible
examples in there
in terms of to try and bring alive some of the soft ideas and concepts and and I guess we certainly don’t see any of
This is rocket science would be fair to say but I think there’s a lot of stuff that probably needs saying so at least
I got out of my system
And and worth saying that things are changing so quickly this might need might need updating in 12 months time
But actually just pulling it together helps stimulate conversation. It’s stimulated a whole podcast
So it’s worth talking about I don’t know about you. I’m gonna I’ve got thoughts, but you
General summary
My general feel so like I like to do it
It’s like we joke I see your face more than my wife’s when I look on LinkedIn
And you always have some good stories and articles. That’s it
So actually having it in one place is great
And I think some of the topics you you dive into if people want to they can dive deeper into some of the
Other episodes we’ve done previously to really get some deep deeper insight, but I think you’re right
It’s like we kind of assumed because maybe we are in a bit of an echo chamber and even even within the industry
I think sometimes it can feel like that
but I think there’s a lot of great valuable takeaways and
From from actionable takeaways that people that people can take take from this and it was a bit
it’s funny because it was the chicken and the egg and actually the podcast but they came for the report and
X number of podcast episodes in and finally we get the report
Yeah
Now we’ve done ten episodes I’m gonna keep going
But yeah, I mean look
when we talk about the attention economy the realities is a there’s been a whole reset right of
How people think about telling their stories in one way or another and and you can do it a multitude of ways across a multitude of
channels
There’s not necessarily one right or wrong way of doing it
But I think often we just say to people just do it
I just tell the story be authentic and we try to encapsulate some of that in there
Like I said with some case studies in there as well that give a bit of context of what the new let’s call them
Broadcasters well look like that was gonna be what I again when I say broadcasters. I’m talking about people casting broadly
Yeah, but do you know what that I’ve I’ve borrowed that phrase from you
That’s one thing that I’ve taken away from doing this
But I mean it’s fair to say a lot of people parrot buzzwords
And I’ve fallen into that trap many a time and we talk about strategy and principles and authenticity
But what I wanted to dive into after reading this report was let’s let’s get into the nuts and bolts
Let’s look at people like the Kelsey brothers
Let’s look at Bryce and DeChambeau which are case studies referenced in this report and let’s actually dive into
Why it works for them because we can talk in principles and strategy as much as we like but they’re doing it
So we need to break down and deconstruct why they’re having so much success
So I’m gonna throw it to you first
Those Kelsey brothers are pretty much unstoppable. They’re pretty unstoppable. Let’s dive into
Some of the numbers to kind of back that up, which is you know, they’ve only been going for two years
Which I think feels like they’ve been around for a long time
First it feels like they’ve been around forever and I know they may be a certain pop star helps the association
Inactively
You know the sort of this season that they’ve done and across 28 episodes in a single NFL season, which was doubling season one
54 million plus views. I mean that’s crazy. I know there is a halo effect that comes with it
They’ve they’ve secured a hundred million dollar media deal with Amazon’s wordery
They grew
their Instagram by
4.13 times in one year and they’ve got
247,000 new followers in the same period on Twitter. So, you know, they’re pulling in the deals
They’re getting the reach and they’re doing something different and it’s resonating without using a word that begins with a why is it working Ed?
It’s real
I
Think look Jason tells you right and you and you’re good. That’s why some speak
Can lie in a couple of years ago now and knew you were both on stage together, right and and and his brother was like
I know he’s the genius. Yeah, he’s like he’s a marketing degree
He without that helps doesn’t he he he knows what he’s doing and he said he said he’s like Ryan Reynolds
He said look nobody’s having my chance this guy plants it out and you could see that he was at the end of his
NFL career he saw the opportunity knew there were personalities that the you know, they can talk very eloquent. They have fun
And ultimately they tell real stories. Not the fact. Yeah. All right Taylor Swift
You throw there in the mix as well lunch in your album that
Like that’s the crossover right then it’s like what was
Sports has become culture and then you sort of link in that into this you would come on the podcast because yeah
Because she doesn’t do anything by us neither
She knows that that’s gonna really help her to
Have an impact with what she’s doing and there there is an art to being that intentional but making it look natural
Yeah, because it doesn’t feel too constructive. We all buy into it
I mean and but what makes you think because
Started off as two sporting brothers with a sports podcast
But now I think we’d all agree that it’s transcended that and it’s moved into culture. It’s driving conversations
What takes it from there to there in your view?
Is it the production? Is it that smarts and planning it very intentionally but making it look easy and natural?
What are the secret ingredients right? Like I think that’s it
It’s like they are they’re not just players
They’re fans first of all and if you take it if you take it are that simple simple?
At the beginning which is they treat fans that they know what they’re talking about
They thought they’re talking about how they’re doing things together
How their match days are going how their training is doing all the stuff that we may have mentioned before which is about
You know creating those behind-the-scenes moments those glimpses of personality that you don’t you don’t see and you’re gone are the days of
the sort of polished athlete as
Now don’t know I think you know the attention is we took she’s never poor which is about that moving to sort of athlete owned
media where you know the person who used to be in control of the sort of relationship with the fan was the club or the
Broadcaster and actually it was never that was never really true if we were completely honest with us
No, so it’s like you always it was about the you know
What happened on the pitch or that your favorite everyone had their favorite footballer or their favorite athlete and it was always about that
Now I think it’s just which the way social media is and the reach and the way that people are telling stories
Just genuinely just just being themselves, and I think that’s what if you go back Taylor Swift was so good at right
She was one of the ones who first started this which was just documenting a date, right?
You know now it comes down to that proximity doesn’t it we spoken about lots like that’s what creators do is
They have a much more intimate
Closer relationship with their fan it feels like I mean very often you’re only six inches away from the Kelsey brothers
It’s actually close even though it’s through a screen. It’s that parasocial relationship that we talk about
Do you think the fact that their brothers helps as well?
The fact that they are family also lends that you know you’re in there
You’re hanging out with these two brothers, and it feels even more like you’re in the room
They’re just being brothers right which you wouldn’t see you know you don’t see that on a matchday, right?
You know that’s that sort of sibling rivalry in the bands that you get you know with with siblings
It’s not something you’ve game day. There’s a serious to it seriousness to it right, but that that
This is their way of chilling out
This has been there was their way of chilling out when you first start doing it and also
Being able to speak to each other regularly because I imagine they didn’t get a chance to speak that regularly when they were playing for two
different teams
Two different parts of the country
So I think they started out really like that and then and then very quickly realized actually could be so much more than that
How much freedom do you think they had I mean also they had they clearly had some creative freedom to do what they want
Also, it’s growing losses have grown the audience for the for the club right for the chiefs
How much freedom jerk and they had at the beginning do you reckon they just did it and asked the forgiveness rather than
permission or do you think that I
I don’t know I think now they’ve got as much freedom as they want
I don’t think anybody would tell them what to do and it comes down to trust we’ve spoken about before
You know again when when a rights owner or a broadcaster used to control the relationship with the audience or the fan or the viewer
then
Things could be constructed in a certain way and then creators came along and were like no
No, we’ll we’ll do it our way and I do think that some of the more forward-thinking
Partners whether it’s brand sponsors or producers of the show and now like okay
We have to let them do what they do because if we try and shape it or round the edges off too much
It’ll come across. Well, they will lose that realness. I’m not gonna use the a-word but um, yeah, but that’s something that
The creator economy really is forcing a lot of brand and rights owners to do is seed a little bit of control
You’ve got to let them do what they do best
Do you agree? Yeah, I don’t think it’ll be a lot you scowling
No, I agree I don’t think there have been a lot of pushback from from their teams or the NFL in general
They were back into their career. Anyway, both of them like Travis playing this year. But again, could this be his last year marriage, right?
Yeah, Jason. No, we obviously retired as well. So I think you know back in the career
They’ve got more control because if someone turns he can’t do they go. Well, you know, I won’t don’t need to keep playing
Yeah, I’ve had a good career. I’ve made the money anyway
But there is plenty of other younger NFL players now who were doing podcasts as well
They’ve you know
They want the same success these two have had because I guess playing is in terms of certainly their sport
That’s the opportunity isn’t it because that’s how that’s how fans expect to engage now and we talk about meeting fans
Where they are and how you want to build relationship?
There’s these are just a shining example of one of many great examples of how you can do it
And also, let’s be honest a cheap way of doing it, right?
Like, you know getting those guys just do a podcast compared to you know
Think of the rights deals that the exposure that’s come from this off the back of it
You know, it’s crazy that how this reaches and I think that like you say in the report which is
Letting athletes, you know be your brand
No, be not just a brand ambassador, but let them have their voice and let them build the audience
That’s only gonna bring the attention to the club in the right way
it’s interesting what you’ve just said there because
The other example in the case study in the report was Bryson DeChambeau
Now he came in for a lot of flack in the early days when he was creating on his TikTok account
I don’t think Liv were very keen on him doing some stuff. So
But now you look at the amount of views that he’s getting in some of his challenges
He did the hole-in-one over my house. I was completely obsessed with his
Getting the ball into the cup to give away a Bentley that he did
Recently now that’s completely flipped. They’re looking at Bryson DeChambeau as he’s
I’m not massing two goals. I couldn’t tell you who else plays in on the lift to it. Yeah, exactly
I know he does doesn’t what he does, but I’m sorry John Rahm
But I don’t see any kind of worries. I see bright and stuff all the time and I’m not going searching for it
But I think that’s but isn’t that the thing, you know
You say you got flack at the beginning because I think there’s two parts that one was
He traditional golfing fans, you know, just didn’t want that
This doesn’t cater to you know, we were talking about happy Gilmore
You know before it’s almost the happy Gilmore of golf, right?
Like, you know, you kind of like this new way of doing things
Yeah people that people didn’t like and that’s the whole premise of the film. Have a Gilmore was that yeah
You know doing things different and it resonated live the whole live rivalry thing was things again
But it’d be interesting to see I mean they let him do it
And you can see they’re paying lots of money to to pride the brand and it’s paid off and I think that’s the point
You’re giving these people creative freedom and you’re engaging people
With where they are and and you need that license creative Dean a bit of trust interesting
Would you have done what he’s done if it is dead on the PGA? No way
Yeah, they’re not a massive fan of too much if live didn’t exist
Do you think the P do you think any of this would have changed ago?
There was no live there was already lots of talk about like, you know, they weren’t reaching younger audiences, right?
But yeah, would they have gone down this path?
I don’t I mean people would have told me to invest in a million dollars a year and he’s in his content creation
Yeah, but he sees it as he sees it as the but that he sees it that is ultimately he’s involved in investing in
I mean that really is a hedge against when his playing career is done
And I’d say arguably that’s pretty much set now
But what he’s done as well is he’s built a platform now that if he wants to get a message out
That he doesn’t have to rely on traditional media to do it now and to be fair
He’s now pulled back from doing traditional meat as well. He said he’s actually he’s now he’s not
Yeah, but I saw something recently where you actually impressed him
He said I’m just gonna speak direct to my fans now because you guys are not doing me
This was impressed. I’m not doing me any favors in terms of that’s it in a nutshell, isn’t it?
Talk about I come here
What do I get back from you where is actually from my fans I can talk directly to him and they get it as it is
Yeah
Well, it’s just a new channel to them for him
If he wants to bring the next generation of golfers through and we have to do is promote
Any go for anything that they’ve got instant audience, right?
Yeah, you’ve got this incident pathway now of getting new golfers into the sport
You know, like you said doing and actually doing things that you wouldn’t see before
Yeah, and I think that that’s the thing that’s a bit like how drives to survive did it?
You know got different people into F1
I think you know that’s been a real great, you know
Just an athlete taking some initiative to really drive to drive something to a younger audience base that wasn’t being reached before
And I guess his success also has led to you’ve now got good good golf that are doing
Loads of brilliant stuff on YouTube even I mean golf is having a real moment and you’ve got a credit him for a lot
of that right you
there’s a YouTube first series called shanked which is a
Scripted drama based around a golf club, but it’s it’s a YouTube and it’s not paid for by YouTube
But it’s original on YouTube original on YouTube
So it’s having a real moment and you’ve got it. You can’t take Bryson Shambo out of that equation
He’s right at the beginning of it because he’s now this
He’s kind of a creator business
led on top of an athlete
Which is what we’re seeing more and more of and that means that they’re really really powerful
It’s interesting what you said about how a lot of them now are going. No, I’m not playing this game anymore
I’m going over here where I own that relationship with the fan and it’s much more direct
Everything else that drive drives that you know, you know, he knows he’s gonna make
Getting at the eyeballs. He’s gonna get the insights
We talk about data a lot
He’s gonna get the insights from YouTube’s gonna get all those insights that you wouldn’t get from just doing brand partnerships or even from
traditionally from you know the
Associations, you know, how much would he see about his audience figures?
Before you’d imagine now as well because I think when you know when if you’re thinking about sort of 10 15 years where endorsements responsive endorsements
I mean for individual sportsmen and women
You’d imagine now I’d be amazed if the value’s not gone
Massive look compared to what it used to be because now ultimately these people the right are baking the content as well to go
with it
The video you show me earlier that Bryson did for underdog, right?
So when I’ve not seen that I was mesmerized by it and yeah
When he gets the ball in the cope and these two sort of genuine he celebrates there like a fan would right?
Yeah, he felt like he’s genuine celebrating so and that was 12 days with underdog
so that challenge took him 12 days to get that ball in the cop and
It was compounding every single day. I went back and I could see the views and the likes
That has got to be commercially much more efficient for underdog than if they just did a straight
Media deal or sponsorship for sure. So I thought that was really really good and thought-provoking
From the report. Okay, so shorter episode this week. Yeah, just because I would encourage people to
So
You can go to display website and on display website. You’ll be able to go into what section will
Downloads obviously
See what you did there
Go to download section and then you’ll be able to download the report and again welcome any feedback
Observations well worth it. Any typos, you know, please
Thanks for your time, thank you for allowing me to talk about this on that on our podcast
Yeah, we’ve been the attention shift. If you’ve got any questions observations
Like to come on as a guest email is it hello attention shift media got it right this time
You can listen to all the past episodes of the attention shift
Which actually covers most of this report over the previous 10 episodes on displays website. Yeah display calm
I’ve been at a piece
Thank you
That’s it for this episode of the attention shift remember to like and subscribe and listen in next time and do let us know
What you think email us at hello at attention shift dot media so that hello at attention shift dot media
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