Facebook’s recently renamed parent company Meta teamed up with sport and entertainment agency Team Whistle on the first Tuesday in December to leverage ‘World Trick Shot Day’ through a team of influencers including musician Famous Los, YouTuber and former college football star Deestroying, former model and basketball player tuned journalist and TV presenter Rachel DeMita and the world famous Harlem Globetrotters who invented the ‘holiday’.
As well as the hero ‘2021 World Trick Shot Day’ spot (featuring 22 trick shots) which launched on 7 December, the Harlem Globetrotters also amplified the partnership through shorter form content across their Instagram feed.
While Team Whistle supported the Globetrotters by assembling a team of more than 75 sports influencers, social media creators and professional and amateur athletes to post their best trick shots to Instagram and Facebook Reels in order to inspire more engagement with Meta’s two flagship properties.
Running under the hashtag #WorldTrickShotDay, hoops fans, celebrity supporters and social media users are invited to vote on the best submissions through Reels, carousels and Stories on Team Whistle’s Instagram page.
Team Whistle’s aim here is to connect to Meta and fire up influencers and users across its platforms whilst expanding the Globetrotters’ fanbase.
“Instagram and Facebook are places where creators can thrive, both creatively and economically,” said Instagram Head Of Sports Dev Sethi. “Sports creators, in particular, have an amazing presence on our apps, so we’re excited to partner with Team Whistle to showcase some of their work through the always-entertaining lens of trick shots.”
“We know sports content and how young audiences want to consume it across platforms,” added Team Whistle VP of Content Strategy and Programming Dashiell Desloovere. “Meta has been a great partner to us, and we’re excited to continue our collaborative efforts to create added value to our existing partnership while catering to their large audience of avid sports enthusiasts.”
Courting creators and influencers
Team Whistle, which was acquired by UK-based live football streaming platform Eleven Sports in March to expand its operations in the US, boasts more than 2m subscribers on YouTube with content that skews toward sports, culture and lifestyle.
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‘World Trick Shot Day’ was initially started back in November 2016 by the Harlem Globetrotters basketball team as a way to raise their profile by socially sharing their famous trick shots, skilled dribbling and remarkable athleticism. The event is typically fuelled by simple no-look passes, underhanded baskets, half court hoops and even shots taken while skydiving.
Meta’s Facebook and Instagram have struggled to keep pace with new rival TikTok when it comes to creative and entertaining short film content for and by Gen Z. Indeed, TikTok is rapidly becoming the prime discovery platform among Gen Z consumers for social media based creativity and entertainment.
TikTok itself claims that 75% of its users go to the app to be entertained, while 67% use TikTok to discover new products.
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