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Barstool is a sports media and entertainment powerhouse. With over sixty-five content franchises, a dedicated sought-after socially engaged listening demographic, Barstool brings an iconic brand and concentrated attention to every market it enters and every partnership it builds.
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So What's Next for Barstool ?
An Ambitious Regional and International Expansion through new innovative brand co-productions and building new properties only Barstool Original Programming can produce.
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And It Looks Like This...
The Barstool Cities concept breathes incredible potential, presenting an enormous opportunity to not only strategically build a strong, connected listening community and regional audience but also to leverage a regional anchor program with long legs and big international appeal.
A Regional Anchor Program
With Big International Appeal?
Yes, Barstool broadly does sports, food, finance, culture, and lifestyle, but what regional production can be the vehicle drawing the attention of a local city and still speaking to listeners and viewers throughout the world?
4/9
and more specifically a content franchise built around each of the hottest, up and coming young teams in the NBA. Yes, I am speaking about player and opponent analysis, exciting guests and interviews, but I am also talking about how the players impact their city, where they love to eat, hang out, work out, and what they feel their city’s culture does best.
THE ANSWER IS THE NBA,
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If You Don't Think the NBA and its Players Can Serve as This Vehicle, Then You Aren't Paying Attention.
The latest level of interest poll conducted by Statista shows that 63% of individuals interviewed in the Philippines, 38 % in China, nearly 30 % of Canadians, Mexicans, Spaniards, and Argentinians, and let’s not forget 19% of Australians state that the NBA is either their top interest or one of their top interests. NBA fans follow teams, players, basketball related trends on every social channel, bridging every category. So it is time for one of the biggest players in sports entertainment to move in and take over this territory.
Ok, So What NBA City & Team Can Serve as the Ideal Test Market?
The city of Memphis with its abundance of music, culture, history, BBQ, and the Memphis Grizzlies are the perfect partner to launch an NBA Team-specific podcast. This team has youthful talent, respect from the media, and exciting play, and as Lebron and Stephen Curry age out of the league, NBA fans want to see what’s new and what’s next. Ja Morant and the Grizzlies franchise are what’s next.
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A recent survey by online sports betting company Betway, utilized a social listening tool, Linkfluence, to crawl and index for the past twelve months all of the positive mentions across social media and analyzed growth rates on every social channel.
THE CONCLUSION:
THE MEMPHIS GRIZZLIES HAVE THE FOURTH-FASTEST-GROWING FANBASE
OF ALL NBA TEAMS.
The Grizzlies saw a 33.2% increase in Instagram followers in 2022 and Ja Morant’s 52-point performance against the Spurs in February of 2022 broke all NBA social media records generating 42.1 million Instagram views and over 80 million views across NBA social media. Morant with 385 million total views trails only Lebron James and Stephen Curry as the most-viewed star in the league. The votes have been tallied and the world cares about Ja Morant and the Memphis Grizzlies.
Given these statistics, you would think someone must have already put together the formula to produce an impactful Grizzlies podcast. The rankings say otherwise. Of the hundred-plus Grizzlies pod talkers out there, not one is ranking within the Top 150 Basketball Podcasts on Apple. Well, is this a problem with Grizzlies fans or an issue with too many choices? Neither. We all know it is about the consistent quality of analysis, personality, and production. It is about finding the right mix of topics, tie-ins, and talking temperature. And no one is doing it.
But This is Just a Broad Concept, We Know Barstool Properties
Are All About Personalities,
So Who Is Going To Host?
Zach Randolph, an ex-Grizzly star, is a great candidate to lead this podcast. According to YouGov America, Zach ranks 59th in popularity rating among all active and retired basketball players. We've all heard his interviews and guest spots on a wide variety of podcasts and YouTube channels. Zach has strong, informed opinions and his player and team analysis come from his experience as a 2-Time All-Star and franchise-leading player. Pair this with his contagious smile, happy nature, and the fact that he remains a Memphis native means Barstool would be adding an immediate leader and regional expert to their podcast.
But we all know you need contrasting personalities and colorful opinions to make a podcast work. So let’s stay local and go with a Barstool regular, the sports encyclopedia himself, Frank the Tank. By pairing Zach with Frank’s natural humor and popularity, Barstool brings together a league wide favorite getting a chance to prove himself as an analyst with an on-brand known entity getting the opportunity to expand his image as a host.
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8/9
We Love the Idea, How Do You Plan To Bring It To Market?
Successfully building the Barstool Cities concept and launching this new podcast, tentatively titled ‘Gritty Grizz’, recognizing the Grizzlies' fierce, aggressive playing style requires an equally aggressive go-to-market strategy.
We are talking about live local events, tie-ins, introductions, and lead-ins from established Barstool properties, as well as an initial lineup of impressive guests and Memphis cultural features. And this all must be captured, told, and leveraged through every social media channel putting at the center the major features of each platform in every length and format.
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Let's get specific. Leveraging the strong relationship between the NBA and Hip-Hop, Barstool will live-stream an event activation at the infamous Memphis Sun Studio. A live podcast with Zach and Frank will headline with a performance by Moneybagg Yo, the biggest name on Zach’s record label N-Less Entertainment with over 12 million followers on social. Highlighting Memphis's foodie culture, the Gritty Grizz team will host a rib tasting and premiere the new Gritty Grizz meal combo at the legendary Memphis BBQ spot Rendezvous. The iconic Bass Pro Shop Pyramid will welcome our two new podcast stars turning their incredible indoor fountains dark blue and yellow, promoting Zach Randolph’s new Gritty fishing rod. On Twitter, Barstool will run a contest having fans weigh in on matchups between their all-time favorite Grizzlies Teams. The first week of the podcast will feature special guest Ja Morant helping break down the new rookie class, speaking about the Grizzlies' preparations for a title run, and addressing the always-present Kevin Durant rumors. With Memphis, the marketing options are endless and the collaboration potential can unite brands looking for explosive regional and international exposure.
