RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Seven-time Super Bowl champion and considered by many as the best quarterback in NFL history, Tom Brady has proven his skills in another field: business. At 44, the American athlete is one of the names behind Religion of Sports, a company founded in 2017.
Just as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers advance yards with every play engineered by Brady, the media startup has been gaining ground in creating sports-related audio and video content. And now, this strategy is leading the company to the Brazilian market.
The passport to land in the country is a partnership with brandtech Adventures. Focused on original content combining sports and entertainment, the agreement may involve everything from creation to production and four-way marketing to and from the Brazilian market.
“Brazil is among the top markets for all major social and content platforms,” says Adventures’ Sergio Floris, partner and managing director of original content. “Religion of Sports had a foot in the country and this was a natural path within their international expansion.”
The bond with Brazil that Floris mentions is not a reference to Brady’s marriage to Brazilian model Gisele Bündchen. It is a reference to the US$10 million round raised by the startup in 2020, led by Elysian Park Ventures, the investment arm of the LA Dodgers baseball team.
Among other investors, the funding included the participation of a “team” of 25 Brazilians. The list includes names like tennis players André Sá and Thomaz Bellucci, journalist Felipe Andreoli, and Verve Capital fund.
Religion of Sports, which also has filmmaker Gothan Chapra and Michael Strahan, former New York Giants athlete and another NFL star among its founders, has produced series such as “Tom vs. Time,” which featured Brady’s quest to remain relevant in sports and was awarded an Emmy.
The range also includes titles such as “Simone vs. Herself,” which depicts gymnast Simone Biles’ preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, and “Greatness Code,” a series featuring hitherto unpublished stories told by sports legends such as Lebron James, Tony Hawk, and Kelly Slater.
The plan is to connect this approach with Adventures’ structure, which will also manage the partner’s profiles on social networks in Brazil. Founded in December 2020, the Brazilian group has technology, data and intelligence, advertising, and content creation units, among other arms.
In the productions field, Adventures develops everything from 15-second videos for TikTok to series, documentaries, and reality shows. The company has developed projects and strategies for brands such as Stone, TikTok, Tinder, Disney, Lojas Americanas, and Domino’s.
From the association of the two companies’ assets, the goal is to create content with local athletes that will attract the interest of advertisers and streaming service platforms.
“Today, we have internationally renowned Brazilian athletes and many good stories to tell, but this is still little explored in the country,” says Adventures partner and executive producer Olivia Chiesi. “Sports involve resilience, which is very much in line with Religion’s approach and which greatly applies to Brazil.”
Floris adds that the plan is to seek inspiration in Religion of Sports productions to escape the traditional approach to sports in the local market, still very much centered on a journalistic and factual bias, with little space for entertainment.
“Their ethos is to treat sports as a religion. We will look at these formats, tropicalize them and understand how they can connect with brands. It will not be a simple copy paste,” she says. “Likewise, we can design projects from scratch. It will be a constant exchange.”
FROM BRAZIL TO THE WORLD
The initial source for creating these productions will be the portfolio of Brazilian athletes Adventures represents. Among them are surfer Gabriel Medina; soccer star Thiago Silva; and skateboarder and XGames’ top winner Leticia Bufoni.
The plan is to develop productions that will conquer the world. “It will all depend on the story and the brands involved,” Olivia explains, “but this is a natural process. Today, many of Brazil’s top athletes are competing abroad.”
The plan is for all projects to be produced with the support of brands or streaming platforms from the start. “Today, advertisers know they can spend millions on 30-second commercials or millions on an original series that will be aired much longer.”
The partnership’s first project is scheduled for release in 2022. The production will be based on the culture and world of soccer. “But we will not limit ourselves to soccer. Today, Brazil is also the country of skateboarding and surfing, for instance,” Floris says.
Surfing is the source of two recent productions in Brazil with this differentiated look. The first one is “A Curiosa História de Italo Ferreira,” about the trajectory of the world champion and surfing gold medalist in Tokyo. Co-produced by O2 and Billabong, the documentary is being aired on RedBull TV.
Another example is “Brasil do Surfe,” a film produced with the support of the World Surf League (WSL) and sponsored by Oi, Corona, and Neston, featuring Brazilian athletes who have taken the country to a prominent position on the world circuit.
Professor of sports marketing at ESPM, Ivan Martinho points out that sports content with this focus is still in its infancy in Brazil; however, he highlights the potential of these narratives.
“There are many more stories to tell than what happens inside the four lines, on the courts or in the sea,” he says. “Sport has drama, emotion, and all the ingredients for a good story.”
Martinho adds that this type of production has great appeal for brands. But he makes a caveat: “Streaming platforms still don’t disclose their subscription figures, and this is an important metric for those who have been trained for decades to buy an audience,” he says. “Once this hurdle is overcome, brands’ interest will be tremendous.”
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