#7: From Instagram page to a Sports-Media business:
It was a small one man operation that turned into a legit sports media brand backed by an army of millennial/Gen-Z supporters. Here's how it all happened.
What started as a passion project with a dream of being able to watch the human side of his favourite NBA players over and over again on demand, has now become a big business that does a lot of other things besides that. The man behind it still has the same passion for it as a business as he had for it as an Instagram account. I am talking about House of Highlights. In case you haven’t heard of it, the account commands a 26 million+ following on Instagram alone. And here’s the story.
SOME BASIC BACKGROUND:
House of Highlights is basically an Instagram page that posts clips of the best and coolest moments, mostly from the NBA, but also includes MLB, NFL games and much more. Nothing special, right? Many pages do just that. Except, House of Highlights (HoH) had the first-mover advantage. HoH was one of the first pages in this space. But there’s more to it than just that. I’ll talk about its business and success later. First, let’s see what it has become.
House of Highlights (HoH) was started by Omar Raja in 2014. Today, it has 26.7 million followers on Instagram. For comparison, legacy sports media company ESPN has ~20 million on Instagram (Not to denigrate ESPN and the likes, but, my point is to show that HoH has created something that connects so well with the audience that it has such a big following in such a less time).
For the Gen-Z and Millennial audiences, HoH has become the go-to place for all sports highlights and the big moments in games.
Notable followers of House of Highlights include — LeBron James, Snoop Dogg, Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson, Kanye West, Kevin Hart, Conor McGregor, Mark Cuban and many more.
Just around a year later in 2015, Bleacher Report (B/R) bought the HoH business and now HoH operates as a separate brand owned by Bleacher Report. Although, HoH hasn’t shed even a slightest part of its identity. That is what has kept it going and growing. As of 2019, it brought in about 10% of Bleacher Report’s revenues. B/R reportedly made $200 million in revenue in 2019, meaning HoH’s revenue would have been around $20 million. I wouldn’t be surprised if today, that percentage figure and actual revenue are even more.
HoH makes money by:
Putting up paid posts on its Instagram page (like a random guy doing moves in his backyard on a trampoline or the most recent milk crate challenge),
Brand partnerships (with the likes of Nike, Jordan brand, Netflix etc.),
Organising their own sports events (HoH Showdown),
Merchandise sales
YouTube channel
And, I am sure there must be a few other ways here and there.
When Omar Raja started his own Instagram page, probably even he wouldn’t have expected it to become what it is today. In 2014, when Raja started putting life into this Instagram page, he was still in his college. What began as a passion project, is now a full-fledged viable media business.
RAJA’s MOTIVATION BEHIND HOUSE OF HIGHLIGHTS:
The motivation to start this Instagram account however was to provide something to people that even he himself had wanted. Growing up Raja was a die-hard fan of the Miami Heat of NBA. More so, of his favourite player, Dwayne Wade. Miami Heat had an incredible run after signing big stars — LeBron James and Chris Bosh in free agency in 2010-11. Heat then had an unbelievable run for the next four years in the NBA, making it to the finals all four times in those four years from 2011 to 2015, and even winning two championships in the process. After 2015, though, LeBron James decided to leave the Heat and go to his former team — Cleveland Cavaliers. Being such a big fan of this Heat team, for Raja, it was like the end of an era.
He was feeling sad and nostalgic, and that’s when he decided to look up the internet for some of the best moments of the Miami Heat team in those four years. Particularly, Raja wanted those funny team interactions, or the best dunks, etc. etc. which used to happen during the game. He found NONE. Back then, you could find highlights of the whole game, but these moments didn’t use to make the highlights and hence, the internet. For example (This is what Raja said in an interview in 2018):
“It would be stuff like Mario Chalmers and LeBron James arguing in the timeout huddle, there would be times where Chris Bosh is videobombing Dwyane Wade and LeBron James. Dwyane Wade interviews LeBron James in the middle of the game.”
And this —
“So I said, ‘Listen, these moments continue to happen. People honestly care about them more than the dunks sometimes. I’m going to go out and make it.”
Raja started doing something about it himself. This is what he did. He used to watch around five NBA games in a day, record those through his own iPhone, and teach himself to edit those videos. He would then upload the best parts in the form of short clips on Instagram. Turns out there was a big market for this as the content received an insane amount of engagement right from the get-go. The follower count kept on ticking and it sits at 26.7 million today.
But that does raise one question. Why did the NBA allow HoH and many other similar creators on YouTube to make money off their IP, i.e. the content that is owned by the NBA? That’s where NBA commissioner Adam Silver deserves his due credit. In 2005, NFL and MLB restricted YouTube creators from posting their respective content. Adam Silver begged to differ and said this:
Look, this is where the world is going. At a certain point, if we’re not there, does it mean we don’t exist to this new fan that’s growing up on YouTube?”
Adam Silver said this back in 2005 when YouTube had just come out. The average age of an NBA fan was 40 years in 2000 and 42 years in 2016. Whereas NFL’s average fan was 44 years old in 2000 and 50 in 2016. MLB fan’s age has also increased during this time from 52 to 57 years (H/T). This shows Silver’s fore-sightedness and how it turned out to be a good decision. Then, again in 2015, Silver said:
“The way we look at it: we’re incredibly protective of our live game rights, but for the most part, highlights are marketing,”
This gave Raja the leeway and boy didn't he run with it. He had the commissioner's blessings to use the content. Adam Silver and NBA won't lose anything either. The content has to reach the consumer. Social media, in my opinion, helps the creators (NBA in this case) get a foot in the door. A passive and casual fan has to see the value. That's when the consumer will let the door wide open for content to keep coming in.
HOW DID HoH BECOME SO SUCCESSFUL THOUGH?
In my opinion, it is the way Omar Raja has connected with his audience that is the real game-changer. Raja being on that diminished border between a Millennial and a Gen-Z himself has done well to connect with the all-important demographic. Gen-Z is known for its short attention span. As much loved as they may be by the Gen-Z audience, NBA, MLB, NFL games are 2-3 hours long. Getting a 2-3 hour commitment from Gen-Z is tough. They would rather watch the most fun elements on the go rather than having to watch the full game. It’s not only that. It’s also the small things.
The captions of posts,
The emojis used,
Instagram stories/quizzes,
Modern-day slang, memes,
Viral challenges,
Collaboration with social media influencers, etc.
Everything HoH does caters to the Gen-Z/ millennial audience and gets them hooked. HoH is not just a page, it is an artwork, and Omar Raja is one heck of an artist. And he is not stopping anytime soon.
That would be all from my side today. Until next time!!
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