I Blame Ryan Reynolds

It's Ryan Reynolds ' fault.

I blame him and Rob McElhenney for my newfound love of Wrexham AFC, a National League soccer team in Wales.

The National League is the fifth-tier of the English football league system - the minor leagues to the English Premier League.

I'm not going to get into the entire relegation system, but you lose your way down the league system and you can win your way up.

But, needless to say, as I was following along from my home in Los Angeles as Wrexham played Sheffield United in a FA Cup match today, I was thinking about why I, an American, cared so much about this team in Wales.

During the COVID pandemic, Ryan and Rob teamed-up to buy the team, restore it to it's previous glory, lift it to higher levels of competition, and tell the story on the FX docu-series, "Welcome to Wrexham."

I fell in love with the show - and the team - from the first episode.

Why? The story.

Rob is one of the most famous Philadelphia Eagles fans in the world and wanted to invest in a town that reminded him of his home city. He enlisted Ryan, they made a pitch to the Wrexham community and team stakeholders, and earned the right to complete the transaction. The purity of how both Ryan and Rob described driving progress through sport hit me in the feels.

It also is a perfect illustration of the intersection my team at 万卓环球 lives in everyday - content and channel strategy.

A movie star and a TV star teaming up for a business venture is good content. The goal to improve the community is even better. The channel - a docuseries - gave them the space to tell an episodic story, introduce players and coaches, and create a new fan community around the team.

Viewers of the show, no matter if they had even heard of Wrexham beforehand, are now invested in the journey.

Would I be a fan of the team if there was just a docuseries about new owners? Would I be a ban of the team if this was just a business deal without the story behind it? No and no.

Content. Channel.

A match made in Wrexham.

(To avoid confusion, my team does not work with the team or the show.)

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1. Checking in on Twitter. Turns out, Twitter Blue has not taken flight. A new report from The Information claims only 180,000 users - 0.2% of active users - have signed up for the service, exponentially below reported targets. It's not good news, but it gives some real data on the amount of users willing to pay for the services included in the tier.
2. It's Not Always Sunny at Mastodon, Either. Mastodon surged as Twitter became less stable and moderated in the fall and early winter. Their active monthly user count dropped from 2.5 million in December to 1.4 million in late January, according to a Wired report. Combine these two points and we're left with one conclusion - we will likely continue to see a decentralized microblogging ecosystem as people search for either the "next Twitter" or more niche platforms.
3. Talent Is Not Everything. I love this guidance on what you can bring to work to succeed - besides talent. (H/T Keith Hannon )