“I’m an athlete, now listen and watch.” 05/01/2011

Product or Service

Callisto

Like us regular folk, elite athletes are flocking in their well-toned masses to social networks in a bid to communicate with their fans.

With these instant, global platforms readily available the world’s top sports men and woman can communicate what they want, when they want to the assembled digital voyeurs eager for any morsel of insight into their lives.

With a shift away from blog posts, post match interviews and newspaper articles, athletes are taking charge and now have more control than ever over their image rights.

‘This twitter thing…. ‘

The social network “de jour” for most athletes is twitter. After all, who doesn’t like telling the world what TV show they are watching or bantering amongst their other super talented friends. The fact that this is then subsequently read by fans in there hundreds of thousands only adds to their digital gravitas.

Up until now it has just been a bit of fun to enjoy the sometimes highly amusing give and take between some of the biggest names in world sport. The (good natured?) ribbing Ian Poulter and Robbie Savage gave each other one Sunday night was particularly memorable.

So what next? Will fans tire of this chat and demand more from their stars? Will the athletes themselves get bored of coming up with things to say? Will the lack of substance detract from why (as fans) we passionately follow these stars and as top sports people why they themselves became so renowned? Well, in my opinion the answer is ‘Yes’.

Athletes seek control of their own rights.

What social media has done is shift control of image rights back to the Athlete. To be able to send a tweet, post a video or photo is now almost second nature and the latest mobile technology is making this child’s play.

So, how does the athlete make the most of the technology that is available? Athletes are brands, global brands. Beyond having a tenacious agent who hunts down endorsement deals how else can sports stars monetize their image? The answer is to leverage their voice and video rights. After all, sport is entertainment and sports stars are the entertainers.

The days of a pre and post match interview with the same rhetoric are over. Athletes are now able to provide unique, personal views and insight to fans in their own words, in their own time. Identifying the need for this content and providing a simple way for athletes to record this content then immediately syndicate it globally to fans is why we created the “Callisto’ platform.

My brand. My fans. The new cry of the Athlete.

The Callisto platform enables athletes to have their own broadcast platform, uniquely branded with 100% control over the content delivered. The creation of the content is simple but most importantly a direct channel from the athlete to their fans. Twitter feeds, photos, videos, latest news and the exclusive voice and video content are all pulled together and delivered via a mobile application.

Athletes acknowledge and take ownership of their own fan bases, identifying and choosing how and when they connect with them. What we want to do is assist athletes in controlling their content and providing them with the platform for them to build their brand globally, while also monetizing their image rights. This platform provides a one stop shop for fans to access all things relating to their favourite athlete.

Mobile is errr mobile….

The channels for communication are many. Mobile has evolved in such a way that smartphone uptake has exploded and continues to rise, also in developing countries the adoption of mobile has been so great that it has leapfrogged broadband internet. The immediacy and personal nature of the mobile channel lends itself perfectly for this one to one communication platform.

Athlete control

With many other ideas in development we will continue to deliver this athlete centric communication platform they can truly call their own.

Article written and submitted by Adam McVicar, Athlete Factor

You can watch a short video below about Callisto.

It's currently being used by

1 - Lee Westwood
2 - Rory McIlroy
3 - James Haskell  

Connect with us via any social media channels and learn when other athletes start using Callisto - click our logo to visit our profile and find out more...