As a burgeoning start-up led by 4 ex-Nike executives, the idea was to build a mobile-based platform that allowed the top 1% of the world’s athlete’s to communicate with their fans and the world. Newpath, a digital marketing company, was an integral part of this journey, from the very start, helping develop the groundbreaking app.
Ultimately, the goal was to facilitate the creation of raw, unedited footage that athletes could upload immediately without additional formalities. This could be either before a big game or even right after, their first, rough thoughts on a trending topic, a general video — all unscripted. This interaction between an athlete and their fans had to be made simple so as to promote an authentic relationship — the athlete’s vulnerability was the key selling point here.
Knowing that the executives had the media relationships to syndicate and promote this content worldwide, all that needed to be done was build the app from groundup.
The key to designing a successful app platform that an audience would want to engage with comes from the authenticity promised. It had to break previous barriers created, letting athletes show more than just ‘their best selves’; but more of what made them themselves. The quality of the message depended heavily on this, especially in a heavily fragmented market.
The app was built to enable athletes to share their own voice, directly to their fans. Most importantly, co-creation was at the heart of it all — till date. The technology needed to be adaptable, allowing itself to transform consistently to meet new consumer needs or trends. Also, now, more than ever, the sports media industry needs an honest outlet.
The app was built to specifically help athletes upload, edit and finally publish their videos with minimal hassles. As a sports technology platform, streamlining the process to be as seamless as possible was essential; and to ensure further dissemination to multiple media platforms. Increased traction for each interaction was necessary to encourage users and athletes to continue sharing and collaborating.
Another key point to note while designing and developing the app was to maintain that ‘athlete-first’ line of thinking. The app, to maintain a form of exclusivity, is also invite-only. However, ultimately, the app is meant to connect athletes globally — giving everyone the opportunity to interact with their favourite athletes on a whole new, untouched level.
The app’s rollout has led to major updates down the track, the highlight being the 2017 IAAF World Track & Field Championships in London. The event garnered major traction through content shared via the app — giving fellow athletes and agents access to content like never before. The app was then rolled out to sign on more events and teams to help curate more raw footage; allowing athletes to now tell and control their own stories.
We’ve worked with Newpath Web since our early days working across mobile and web platforms to build out our content service to top tier athletes, offering them the ability to connect in raw format with their fans and the sporting community. Newpath has proven to be a valuable, connected and engaged partner working with us on each iteration of our digital presence and maturity. They’ve been an integral part of our business.
Brent Scrimshaw – CEO – Unscriptd
