While the coronavirus pandemic forced many media companies to slow down production and forced athletics to grind to a halt, Barstool Sports adapted and CEO Erika Nardini says the company was able to capitalize on a slew of non-sports-related content.
Now Barstool Sports' priority is to show buyers at the company's first appearance at the NewFronts marketing conference that it can still be profitable even without the return of North American pro leagues.
"We wanted to show, not only the showcasing of what we're creating -- so, all of the brands we're developing and running -- but also how we're performing for advertisers," she said.
Barstool's success during the shutdowns, Nardini explained, is not only attributable to the team's ability to "create content that's authentic" but also its commitment to creating content that fans want to engage with.
"We're building some of, if not, the very biggest brands on the internet," she said. "I think that during quarantine, most media companies stopped making content. They either had production challenges, they weren't able to gather in studios. We took the opposite approach."
Barstool's growth on social media platforms like TikTok and Instagram has also allowed the company's "brands the ability to play ball with those audiences" where they otherwise might not have had access, according to the CEO.
"Every single brand that's created at Barstool is programmed and produced for the internet, which means that we naturally attract what you would call 'young viewers,'" she said.
Even with the success of the non-sports content, Nardini said the company will not abandon its newfound format despite the imminent return of the pros, but will instead marry the new content with Barstool's core programs.
"What we've found is when you have eyes for the internet, and you're making content for the internet, that stuff can last," she noted.
The U.S. has seen several retailers across the country forced to close their brick-and-mortar stores amid the rise of e-commerce over the past few years. However, we are in the midst of a brick-and-mortar boom, with retailers expected to open more stores this year than they close, for the first time since 2017, according to an analysis of more than 900 chains by IHL Group, a research and advisory company. At the same time, the e-commerce businesses of retailers have become more dependent on physical stores to fulfill orders, especially during the holiday shopping season. Lionesque Group CEO Melissa Gonzalez joins Cheddar News' Closing Bell to discuss.
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The nation's largest vacation rental management company, Vacasa, made its public debut on the Nasdaq via a SPAC merger with TPG Pace Solutions. CEO Matt Roberts joined Cheddar to talk about the company's better-than-expected success and the plans to leverage its IPO to expand the business and refine Vacasa's tech. He noted that with five million second homes across the country, the company has much more room to grow as it currently has just 35,000 rental properties in 400 locations available. Roberts also said that there has been no impact on bookings due to the omicron variant of COVID-19.
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