Bleacher Report is betting on its animated content to break through all the sports coverage around the FIFA World Cup tournament kicking off next month. The Warner Bros. Discovery-owned sports publisher has launched a dedicated home for its cartoon shows on YouTube this week.The move is also about deepening audience engagement, by giving the fanbase around B/R Cartoons a place to go for all the animated content and to engage with others.
B/R’s animated content has “driven more viewership than any other original content franchise at the company,” said Drew Muller, vp and gm of House of Highlights, Bleacher Report’s social-first sports vertical.
Choosing YouTube as its primary platform is an effort by Bleacher Report to reach younger viewers who are looking for cultural commentary around sports, beyond live games and highlights.
“Animation skews younger and is highly shareable, which helps top of funnel sharing and brand awareness,” said Nicholas Spiro, chief commercial officer at Viral Nation, a social media marketing and creator agency. “A thematically coherent channel also gets better treatment from YouTube’s recommendation system than animated content scattered across a general sports feed.”
