Latest news with #Shanked
Forbes
22-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
How Olipop Uses Creator-Led Sports Content To Win New Fans On YouTube
YouTube Is the Most Valuable Sports Media Network Younger audiences don't watch sports the way their parents did. They're not sitting through full games or waiting for highlights on SportsCenter. They're watching on YouTube, where athletes and creators are driving something more dynamic than traditional sports coverage ever allowed. According to YouTube CEO Neal Mohan, sports content on YouTube grew 45% last year and topped 35 billion hours of viewership. Behind that growth is the rise of athlete-driven storytelling, creator-led formats, and fan communities that live far beyond the final score. LOS ANGELES, CA - FEBRUARY 28: YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan speaks onstage during the ... More YouTube TV announcement at YouTube Space LA on February 28, 2017 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic for YouTube) For athletes and creators building IP, YouTube offers access to a massive global audience, creative control, and monetization tools to build entertainment properties without waiting for a green light. It looks like it belongs on Netflix, but Shanked, a scripted golf comedy, launched on YouTube. Think The Office meets Caddyshack, set at a fictional country club with a cast of creators who double as writers, characters, and marketers. Shanked, the YouTube comedy show sponsored by Olipop and produced by London Alley The ensemble includes Laura Clery, Blake Webber (Aristotle Georgeson), James Lynch, Patrick Farley, and Mikey Smith, alongside guest stars like Malosi Togisala (Big Moe of Good Good Golf) and even AJ McLean of the Backstreet Boys. Together, the cast brings over 70 million followers and a built-in fandom. The series was produced by London Alley, a production company founded by Luga Podesta. London Alley is one of the few entertainment companies building premium long-form series for YouTube. Vice Media recently acquired London Alley to deepen its platform-native storytelling capabilities and support creators launching new IP. A Network Mindset, Not Just a YouTube Platform Strategy Ryan Horrigan, President of London Alley, leads this initiative. A former agent and studio executive, Horrigan treats YouTube like a network, not just another social channel. That network mindset shaped casting and production, as well as how Shanked was marketed. 'Selling to a streamer gives you a higher floor,' Horrigan says. 'But YouTube gives you a higher ceiling.' James Lynch, a co-creator and cast member, adds: 'We wanted something that works for 22 minutes but also hooks you in 60 seconds. Our show has to live in both worlds.' 'We made this in six months for a fraction of what a streamer would spend,' says Horrigan. 'But because we understand YouTube, the fan connection is stronger and more meaningful.' Olipop: When a Sponsor Becomes a Character Olipop is a sponsor and a character in the new show, Shanked. More than product placement, Mikey ... More Smith aka Teddy. Shanked launched with a sponsor written into the script. Gen Z–favorite soda brand Olipop appears in multiple episodes: in the clubhouse fridge, on the beverage cart, and in a fourth-wall moment where the characters joke about how visible the product is. 'We went way beyond product placement,' says Lynch. 'Olipop is baked into the world, the jokes, and the show's culture.' A Smarter Play: Building Audience Through Precision Content Olipop is ahead of the curve. While most brands buy ads, Olipop sees YouTube and creators as a precision engine for audience growth. Golf has become a valuable entry point for the brand. 'I talk to people in golf all the time, and they say all they serve is hot dogs, soda, and beer,' says Steven Vigilante, Director of Strategic Partnerships at Olipop. 'Our product fits where the culture is going.' 'We sell soda,' Vigilante adds. 'We don't need to be in front of the 1 percent at the Masters. We need to be in front of the everyday golfer. And YouTube is where they spend time.' Creator Mitsy Sanderson plays Sophie on Shanked. Understanding their audience shapes Olipop's social programming. 'Our Instagram audience is 80 percent Gen Z and millennial women. The Shanked audience is mostly 18 to 44 men,' Vigilante explains. 'So we're not flooding our social channels with golf clips. Olipop has a strategy; we show up in the right places for the right reasons.' For Ollipop, the value is clear. 'I'd rather be in the content people choose to watch than the ad they're trying to skip,' Vigilante says. 'That's how we're building the next wave of brand relevance.' No Trailers Needed: Momentum Comes From Athletes And Creators 'We knew we had to market this differently,' says Mikey Smith, co-creator and cast member of Shanked. 'We can't rely on trailers and tune-in ads. We leaned into thumbnails, creator collabs, TikTok, Reels, and Shorts. That's how you build momentum.' The timing for a golf comedy show couldn't be better. According to the creator intelligence platform Traackr, more than 11,000 creators posted golf content between January and June 2025, a 17% year-over-year increase. 'Golf is more accessible than ever,' says Horrigan. 'It's not your grandfather's sport anymore. Younger audiences are fans, and across GolfTube and GolfTok, you can find everything from trick shots and comedy to fashion, fitness, and player stories.' Shanked is bigger than one show. It's a blueprint for fast, flexible, creator-led IP built around communities that don't need cable to become fans. The Next Chapter: Where Athletes And Creators Turn 1v1 Basketball Into Must-See TV If Shanked is a sitcom disguised as sports content, The Next Chapter (TNC) flips the equation: non-league basketball reimagined as pay-per-view entertainment. Basketball Legend, Kyrie Irving announced the latest TNC match up. Founded by creators D'Vontay Friga, Scotty Weaver, and Grayson White, TNC started on YouTube and now distributes content through their own network. TNC's latest event featured Michael Beasley vs. Lance Stephenson, with Kyrie Irving as guest commentator. Tens of thousands paid to stream it. Over one million visited Instagram views hit 82 million in four days. Stars and influencers packed the arena: Adin Ross, John Wall, Naz Reid, Andre Drummond, Victor Oladipo. Kevin Durant and Iman Shumpert joined the online conversation. It was a cultural moment. Grayson White, Scotty Weaver, D'Vontay Friga and John Bellion. TNC is built for modern fans: short games, meaningful financial stakes, and every player acts as both athlete and entertainer hyping games, creating content, and driving viewership. Dan Levitt, SVP at Wasserman, is helping shape the model. 'Creator-led sports content is the main event,' he says. 'Younger fans follow the personalities. They care about the story and the stakes, not just the score.' A veteran in creator representation, Levitt joined Wasserman after its 2024 acquisition of his agency, Long Haul Management. 'Today's athletes know they are full-blown media platforms,' Levitt adds. 'They have distribution and influence. What they need now are systems to build something durable.' Owned IP Is the Model. YouTube Is the Engine. Shanked and The Next Chapter are strong signals that the next generation of sports media won't live on cable; it's built for platforms like YouTube. Creators and athletes are building the future of sports content in real time. They own the audience, shape the story, and control the upside. YouTube gives them the tools to turn attention into revenue and fans into customers. The most innovative brands aren't just watching. They're in the game.
Business Insider
15-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Insider
Why YouTube is trying to replace your favorite TV shows
A new golf comedy called "Shanked," which follows the hijinks at a country club where employees clash with pampered members, made its debut this month. The first episode runs about 20 minutes and resembles a low-budget comedy you might have once seen on Comedy Central. But it's not on cable. It's on YouTube. Welcome to 2025, when the big question in Hollywood isn't whether YouTube can work in the living room, but rather, how much of the entertainment landscape can it conquer. "Shanked" isn't the only scripted show on YouTube, with top creators like Dhar Mann and Alan Chikin Chow making TV-like series for the platform. Meanwhile, streamers like Netflix and Amazon's Prime Video are also updating their strategies, both by taking cues from cable TV — with ads and costly live sports — and seeing how they can mine social media for creator talent. For the creators of "Shanked," YouTube was a no-brainer. Ryan Horrigan of production company London Alley said he saw a lack of low-budget comedies on TV at the same time YouTube was increasingly favoring 20-minute episodic series. Why not a comedy, he thought. James Lynch, a comedian who co-created and stars in the show, said he felt the lines between entertainment platforms were increasingly blurring. "We love shows like 'Severance,' but every time I go to a friend's house, there's always something on YouTube," he said. Google-owned YouTube has nurtured a creator economy that Goldman Sachs estimated would grow to about $480 billion by 2027. Many in the entertainment and advertising world dismissed YouTube as a repository for amateur videos and movie trailers until it became the No. 1 viewed platform on TVs, per Nielsen, ahead of the "real TV" companies Netflix, Disney, and Prime Video. As YouTube and TV begin to converge, it looks like the Hollywood system as we know it will never be the same. But how the ecosystem will look when the dust settles is much more difficult to parse. YouTube is encouraging episodic series Lately, YouTube has been rolling out tools and features to encourage creators to make shows for the living room. It's also doing more to match advertisers to creators to support the kinds of shows you're used to seeing on TV. At Brandcast, YouTube's big annual presentation to the advertising community, it underlined the point by showing off top creators like IShowSpeed and Michelle Khare, who are making episodic series. And it's making a big push to win an Emmy to prove it can support quality TV. Viewership is one thing, but advertising, the lifeblood of entertainment, is another. Many major brands still want to be associated with buzzy scripted shows and movies that drive the mainstream conversation, like "The White Lotus," and most creators aren't close to that yet. Only a handful, like MrBeast and Dude Perfect, are making Hollywood-style productions. AI tools could reduce that friction, though, by cutting time and costs from video production. "Creator content is dominating TV watch time — not just on phones, but on the biggest screens in the house, replacing what used to be traditional television. Yet brands are still spending like it's 2015, chasing impressions over impact," said Nick Cicero, founder of Mondo Metrics, a media measurement company. Advertisers are closing the gap, though. Ad holding company giant WPP recently estimated that creators would earn $185 billion between direct brand deals and platform revenue share, surpassing ad spending on TV companies like Disney and Paramount. Top ad spender Unilever also said it would move to spend 50% of its advertising on social media platforms, up from about 30%, and work with 20 times more influencers. Can Hollywood adapt? YouTube's growth could be a problem for Hollywood, which is built on direct ownership of IP and entertainment that moves the culture but costs a ton. Studios and streamers aren't spending like they were when everyone was trying to catch Netflix, but they still need new stuff to keep viewers coming back and capture younger audiences. Creator-led shows offer one way forward. But can they pull it off? There are promising signs. Amazon is the most prominent example of a company betting huge on a creator. It spent more than $100 million to make MrBeast's "Beast Games," which became its most-watched unscripted show, and just renewed it for two more seasons. Netflix has done deals with The Sidemen, kids' educator Ms. Rachel, and more. Warner Bros. Discovery's HBO Max has a new reality show starring Jake Paul and his brother, Logan, "Paul American." And Disney's Hulu has a hit in "The Secret Lives of Mormon Wives." Entertainment companies have gotten more sophisticated about how they work with creators. They're tapping them for their ideas rather than simply looking for a piece of their audience, in contrast with some past flopped creator experiments. Netflix is looking at YouTubers as producers as well as on-screen talent, an unscripted agent told Business Insider. NBCUniversal's Peacock just announced a slate of shows developed by creators via an accelerator program. Tubi has an initiative called Stubios to nurture up-and-coming filmmakers. Media and entertainment companies are also looking at other forms of low-cost content, like soapy mini-dramas and video podcasts. There are challenges, however. Creators like YouTube because there's no gatekeeper. It gives them a lot of data, lets them own their content, and gives them a relatively generous 55% cut of the ad revenue. Creator talent reps told BI some of their clients had walked away from potential Netflix deals because the streamer wouldn't budge from the Hollywood playbook, in which it owns ancillary rights to things like e-commerce revenue. Scott Purdy, a media consultant at KPMG, said entertainment companies would likely start to look at YouTube and other social platforms as potential places to actually launch shows, starting with low-budget fare. "For most companies, most options are on the table," he said. Meanwhile, producers like Horrigan are blue-skying other creator-led formats to put on YouTube. "Talent is still going to want to play in both sandboxes, but we're moving up the stack," he said. "What's next — is horror going to be a thing on YouTube, teen romance? I think that's going to be a thing as well."
