NEW YORK & LONDON & MELBOURNE, Australia--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Unscriptd, an Athlete media company that helps professional athletes to create and publish their unfiltered personal stories in short-form video format, through a proprietary publishing platform, today announced its launch and outlined its global ambitions.
Unscriptd’s mission is to expand the reach and engagement that athletes have with their fans in existing and new markets on a truly global scale. The technology delivers video content to social media channels and media publishers through a content distribution platform, and will, in the coming months, enable athletes to deliver their video content into China, a market of immense and largely untapped potential for elite athletes. Through Unscriptd, each athlete has the power to become their own content publisher taking control of their own narrative, the issues or stories that matter to them, and deliver insight into their sport, helping create personal brands that can support the athlete beyond their playing days.
To help athletes with the creation of their content, Unscriptd has developed and implemented a personalized athlete service model that provides inspiration, ideas and best practices for athletes to create short-form premium video content. This high quality service model is delivered through an expert team of Athlete Content Managers located in key markets around the world, who deliver highly personalized service to their athletes. Unscriptd also works directly with athletes around the world on “Co Created” content such as the recent “Ronaldo’ this is my house” 2 minute film that received over 30 million views in its first week of release.
The athlete media company is already working with an unmatched roster of more than 30 top-tier athletes with a combined social media following exceeding 500M fans, including the world’s most followed athlete, Real Madrid super-star Cristiano Ronaldo, plus other athletes spanning the world of sport including footballers and Ballon d’Or winner, Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique; Six-time World Surf Champion Stephanie Gilmore; Olympic Gold Medalists Mo Farah and Justin Gatlin; and Captain of the Indian national cricket team, Virat Kohli amongst over 30 others.
Unscriptd’s was specifically designed and built for elite athletes based on their personal insight and is simple and easy to use, allowing 100% unfiltered video content direct from the athlete to be published by an application on the athlete’s phone.
“Unlike anything else in today’s sports media landscape, Unscriptd delivers athletes unfiltered content directly to their fans utilizing video as a means to tell their personal stories,” said Brent Scrimshaw, CEO of Unscriptd. “The feedback from sports fans around the world to Unscriptd’s unfiltered video and distributed media model has been outstanding. Fans are craving the ‘real story’ direct from the athletes they follow, in the media they love. Unscriptd is also designed for athletes to unlock and eventually monetize their social footprint, and engage with their fans on a global scale. Not only does Unscriptd provide custom video content optimized for today’s social and mobile world, we will offer a new way for brands to directly align with global elite athletes who share their values. We believe this model is the future of sports publishing.”
Unscriptd is led by a proven, global team with deep roots at Nike and across the world of sports. The company was founded by Brent Scrimshaw, former Vice President & Chief Executive of Nike’s Western European Operations, Ben Crowe, formerly Nike’s Asia Pacific Director of Sports Marketing, and Todd Deacon, who is widely credited as Asia’s leading sports researcher. The company is backed by an impressive roster of high-profile athlete investors, including Andre Agassi, Steffi Graf and six-time World Surfing Champion Stephanie Gilmore, and advisory from executives with strong digital and content publishing credentials, including the former CCO of Buzzfeed, Andy Wiedlin. In addition, the former head of international partnerships for the Red Bull Media House, Peter Northing. Joined the team as Chief Commercial Officer based in London, in late 2015.
Unscriptd has been in development and testing for the past 12 months and is demonstrating its power to deliver premium content and maximize the reach of that content. In December the athletes on Unscriptd have garnered more than 30 million video views on the Beta version of Unscriptd making it one of the leading athlete direct publishing companies worldwide
“As professional athletes, we recognize that certain moments in sports, and in life, are not only entertaining, but have the potential to motivate and inspire,” said tennis legend and Unscriptd investor Andre Agassi. “Unscriptd was developed for athletes in order to provide fans with an unfiltered window into the pivotal moments that shape elite athletes into who they are. This is an exciting and totally new concept, and I believe that it has the potential to change the way that both athletes and fans connect through digital publishing.”
“When I met Unscriptd, I was attracted to their unique publishing model and simple technology immediately,” said Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo. “The idea that I can be a publisher of my own personal story and have my personal video broadcast to not only my fans but to new markets and make new fans is a great opportunity for me and other athletes.”
About Unscriptd
Unscriptd is a leading global athlete media company that enables athletes to become their own content publishers. Led by a seasoned team of dynamic leaders from across the sports and digital media industries, Unscriptd’s mission is to amplify unique moments in sports through the personalized lens of athletes by partnering with and providing the technology tools and the access to new channels to broadcast their messages with the touch of a button. A truly global company, Unscriptd has offices in Barcelona, New York City, London and Melbourne, Australia.
