At 29, I haven’t yet really considered myself “old,” but
when I read Fast Company’s article
about Bleacher Report’s 23-year-old
Instagram maven who is basically controlling the outlet’s entire social media
marketing effort, I started to feel… out of touch.
The story is interesting, and one that I feel is becoming
more common these days. In 2014, Omar Raja was a student at the University of
Central Florida who had started posting video clips on Instagram – under “House
of Highlights” – of his favorite sporting events. It was just for him: Raja said
at the time he was depressed because LeBron James had just left the Miami Heat
and he was looking for moments from games online to cheer himself up. He had a
hard time finding clips on YouTube, so he started sourcing them himself.
As House of Highlights and its follower count grew to
~500,000, the feed became a mix of Raja-generated content and clips received from
fans of the Instagram, all captioned by Raja’s quick-witted and culturally
relevant commentary. At this point, in 2015, Bleacher Report took notice and made Raja an offer to join the
organization. Out of this partnership, Raja gained access to Turner’s content (Bleacher Report’s parent company), an
office, and a legitimate career doing what he loves for a living (watching sports
and posting about it online). In turn, Bleacher
received a turnkey social media marketing channel it can strategically grow.
The deal is already paying off – House of Highlights doubled
its revenue from the year prior and, with Bleacher/Turner’s
help, is expanding its branded content offering with big brands like Under Armor.
House of Highlights content views have grown into the millions and Raja’s staff
has grown from one to five. It’s crazy to think that Bleacher’s multimillion dollar social media marketing spend is in
the hands of someone so young with no prior experience but, at the same time,
who better to tap into the outlet’s key twentysomething demographic than a
twentysomething himself?
The article goes on to cite a recent survey by travel firm
First Choice, which found that 75% of children aged 6-17 want to pursue a
career in online video making, likely to mimic the fame and passion-driven
career of people like Omar Raja. And they don’t have to go far: news outlets
and brands are seeking them out instead of the other way around. In addition to
Raja, Bleacher Report recently signed
its first exclusive content deal with 22-year-old Instagram and YouTube star supremedreams_1
(a.k.a. Mark Phillips).
This is the new dream of kids around the world: digital
video making turning into a career in digital marketing. The idea is mind
blowing, but it’s also the future(?)
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