Brandon Deyo and brother Bradley once played basketball for Richard Montgomery High School in Rockville, Md.—a sleepy suburban town with excess retail everywhere you turn. Back then, the brothers wanted to land a D1 scholarship. To get the attention of athletic departments across the country, they sought media attention just like many of their teammates. That spotlight, however, was hard to come by and fears of being overlooked grew as graduation neared.
Rather than losing hope, the brothers had an idea.
If recruiters wouldn't attend their games, then they would bring video cameras, shoot film and send highlights of their play, themselves. Pretty soon, others on the team and friends at neighboring schools caught word of the Deyo's nascent production studio, the Mars Reel, and asked for help.
In a matter of months, Mars Reel's library of a few dozen basketball highlight videos turned into a database of several hundred. The growth in content happened fast, faster than could have been expected, and it was being pushed by YouTube, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
Mars Reel was filming everything from pick up neighborhood basketball to pro summer league games. The mobile, social media-centric strategy that they were employing—inherently without a researched marketing plan—was supremely effective.
A real business opportunity was in sight and dreams of playing college ball suddenly felt less forced.
Looking back, the Mars Reel already had legs as a small production studio aimed at helping promote the play of athletes looking to secure college scholarships. The revenue model was simple as well; cameramen on-demand for an hourly rate.
Meanwhile, Mars Reel's content was simultaneously being shared on social media. People began to notice the boys with cameras at every game.
Less than a year after officially launching the Mars Reel in 2010, Brandon stood on stage at an EY Business Awards Conference to accept the 2011 Youth Entrepreneur of the Year honors.
At the event, Brandon met CustomInk CEO Marc Katz and recognized that his Reston, Va.-based company had designed Richard Montgomery's senior t-shirts. From that point, the two stayed in touch and Marc eventually became an investor in the Mars Reel and still acts as a mentor.
"Back then, I mean, we didn't really have a clue what we were doing. We were just trying to make it," said Brandon over the phone from California.
Shooting video as contractors took time, energy and simply wasn't scalable as a business model. Because everything was being done in house, editing video and traveling to games cut away at the co-founders ability solely focus on growing the business.
That's a key lesson both brothers understood early on. And as such, a pivot was in order in 2013.
The two continue to film some games, mix clips and post everything on social media. But today, freelance contractors are increasingly the backbone of operations. These on-ground freelancers are closer to their beat, know about the local basketball community and where to go to get the best content—in other words, to find stars in the making.
25-year-old Brandon declined to comment on how his company finds these freelance videographers across the nation.
At some point in their journey, even super stars like Lebron James needed to be discovered. The Mars Reel, in this sense, was and continues to be a source for scouting purposes—helping to discover talent—in an organic and grassroots manner. But the difference, today, rather than in the months following high school graduation, is that the Mars Reel aims to be much more than a production cog.
The Deyos now have a new dream: to create a sports media empire molded and specifically built for millennials.
Mars Reel videos are fast, mobile-friendly, easily consumable, entertaining and engaging. The short videos center around highlights, game-breaking moves and skilled players rather than win streaks, lengthy reports or specific teams.
These are videos that people can easily watch between classes, while walking or doing another task. A video going "viral" within this model is not a hopeful outcome for Mars Reel, it is the exact game plan.
The transformation into a media compare will require the expansion of Mars Reel's video contributor network, building a platform to streamline pre- and post production editing, and adding different sports coverage, said Brandon.
"With our current growth rate we'll hit 100M views a month by the end of this year, and that's gonna be from basketball alone. We definitely have our work cut out for us. The next year is all about growth and brand building for Mars Reel. Some of the prerequisites to that is to refine and build upon our current technology to enhance our process," said Brandon.
To help them achieve their goals, the Deyos already boast a notable list of investors and advisors, including CustomInk's Katz, former NBA star Shane Battier, Rev Software founder Jerry Hall and daily fantasy sports giant DraftKings.
Moving forward, Brandon said that he will be focused on finding quality videographers and will work to monetizing Mars Reel's content through branded partnerships, among other things.
Brandon believes athletic wear giants like Nike, Under Armour and Adidas are not receiving enough exposure from the gear they contribute to high school sports teams, amateur leagues and pick up games. And subsequently, that the games his company captures in film offers a unique and effective advertising platform, directly to consumers.
Today, Mars Reel is a pre-revenue company looking to raise its first official seed round.
There's a long road to go, but the prospects are promising.
Warm-up lines at @HuntingtonPrep (cc:@MilesBridges01 ) #marsreel pic.twitter.com/tqYlWAOJVw
— Mars Reel (@themarsreel) April 8, 2016
"[In the future], we will keep creating high quality and differentiated content ... Overall we understand that younger viewers care about quality, voice and authenticity. I think that's what Media 'brands' like Mic, NowThis and VICE have figured out and executed well," Brandon told DC Inno.
Just five months ago, Mars Reel joined the illustrious Silicon Valley-based incubator known as 500 Startups. The D.C. company recently graduated, completing demo day, and was able to grow their traffic from 1 million views per month to 18 million during the program, said Brandon.
"For Mars Reel, we will add more sports and grow our presence on as many platforms as we can. We're launching our Apple TV and iOS products this month and will find new ways to leverage our original content for distribution to continue growing our brand. We have a global focus."
