The New England Patriots quarterback and super star of the NFL is leveraging January’s playoff fever with the launch of his very own documentary social series debuting on the new Facebook Watch video platform.
The idea is that ‘Tom v Time’ will give fans an intimate look into Brady’s life both on and off the field of play.
The series focuses around Brady turning 40 and how he manages his football career (as he plays in his 18th NFL season and seeks his sixth Super Bowl win) and lives his family and personal life.
The first film launched in the lead-up to the New England Patriots divisional playoff game against the Tennessee Titans on Saturday 13 January.
The video series is being filmed by Gotham Chopra and produced by production company Dirty Robber and Chopra’s platform Religion of Sports – which he founded with Brady, Michael Strahan, Dirty Robber and with Tom Brady himself.
“I have thought for many years how cool it would be to show fans other aspects of my life and interact with them in a different way,” Brady said.
“I have been a part of features in magazines, newspapers and TV shows, but I’ve never tried anything like what we decided to do with this docu-series. I hope fans enjoy seeing what we captured.”
The PR push launching the new series included a New York Times article highlighting some of the moments included during the docu-series: from Brady driving and singing along with his kids, to family vacations in China and Costa Rica, as well as cuts of the quarterback spending time with his wife Giselle Bündchen.
Indeed, Bündchen herself is also promoting ‘Tom vs Time’ across her own social channels.
Comment:
Brady has a strong and active track record of using Facebook to interact with his fanbase: regularly posting pictures and sharing aspects his TB12 brand.
His Facebook page already boasts 4.4m followers and his Instagram feed has 3.3m followers.
So there’s some solid credibility supporting the player’s choice of using the social networking giant’s new Watch platform.
The move is part of a wider wave of sports stars taking more creative control over their own personal content: a trend that spans LeBron James’ recent film work, back to Derek Jeter founding the Players Tribune platform back in 2015 (https://www.theplayerstribune.com/).
Links:
Tom v Time
https://www.facebook.com/tomvstime/
Tom Brady
https://www.facebook.com/TomBrady/
https://www.instagram.com/tombrady/?hl=en
