How STACK Media Built a Video Empire

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Building A Video Empire
April 15, 2015

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• We exist to inspire and empower
the next generation of athletes
• Founded in 2005 as print
publication
• Requested into 75% of nation’s
high schools
• Largest teen readership in print
with 5.4MM per issue
STACK Today

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• Largest sports performance media
company with 15+MM UV/month
• Library of 8,000 original vids and
85MM+ views/month
• Advertising and Sponsorship deals
with Gatorade, Nike, Under
Armour, NFL, etc.
• Partnerships with Yahoo! Sports,
Fox Sports and Relativity Media
STACK Today

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• Experienced the need for STACK as
athletes at Mayfield High School
• Learned others had similar
experience when meeting college
teammates at CMU and Harvard
• STACK is the solution to athletes’
information problem
The Initial Idea

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• First major question: Where do we
begin?
• Leverage University Resources
– Professors
– Classes
– Advisors
– Classmates
• Leverage Student Status
• Read, Read, Read
Starting The Plan

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• Had classmates build us initial
website
• Leveraged design and art majors
for artwork
• Asked professors to be advisors
• Took relevant classes outside our
majors
• Reached out to industry experts
using student-status to open doors
Start Doing Something

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• Built business plan instead of
taking internships
• Won multiple business plan
competitions and $15,000 in
prizes
• Declined job offers out of college
• Raised money via friends & family
and credit card debt to soft-
launch mag
• Built prototype of magazine
repurposing website content
Keep Doing Something

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• Chose non-traditional route of
controlled circ and free
distribution direct to HS
• Ad supported model so more
athletes could be reached
• Marketed magazine to 6,000 HS’s
and signed up 3,000 in two weeks
• Sold ads to Nike, Reebok,
Rawlings in first issue
Make Smart Business Decisions

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• Started producing original digital video content in 2007 with
star athletes and trainers.
Master Digital Video

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Be The Expert
• By 2008 leading marketers like
Gatorade and the National Guard
were coming to STACK to help create
custom video content
• STACK provided expertise in creating
content for athletes and distribution
to the brand’s target market
• Still actively creating custom content
and recently did work with The
Hobbit/Warner Bros.

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Scale Content Production
• Empowered subject matter
experts to be regular contributors
via tech tools
• Now have hundreds of
contributors that scaled content
production by 4x
• Content includes both article and
video
• Key element in growth of
audience as more content for
more sports and interests

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Focus on SEO
• Started extensive SEO efforts in 2013 which have lead to 4x
growth in organic search traffic in 15 months
• Content discovery is critical for success and search still a key
driver of traffic for all publishers

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Be Mobile Friendly
• Mobile web browsing is out-growing desktop browsing and many
sites now receive the majority of their traffic from mobile devices.
• STACK released a responsive design in late 2013 and our organic
mobile traffic has grown 6x since.

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Know How To Market
• We began promoting our content via Outbrain, Taboola, etc. in
2013 and our traffic has boomed
• Social channels like Facebook and Twitter are also effective
organic and paid marketing channels

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Video Is Critical To Success
• Video is at the core of all content
opportunities & experiences
• “Writers” need to be directors and
video producers to create multi-
media packages
• Trending toward 100 million
monthly vid impressions
• Partnerships with Yahoo! Sports,
Fox Sports and Relativity Media

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Going Beyond Traditional Media
• Acquired franchisor of athlete-focused training centers in 2014
• Acquired mobile app developer of sports-fitness based apps
• Building new Direct-to-Consumer offerings to meet athlete needs

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Building A Video Empire
Chad Zimmerman
STACK
Co-Founder & President
Chad.zimmerman@stack.com