Have you ever heard of the term “trickshot?” The term became popular with the YouTube channel called Dude Perfect, featuring 5 Texas men performing insane trick shots that captivate anyone who watches. Tyler Tony, Garret Hilbert, Cody Jones, and Cory and Coby Cotton were all roommates at Texas A&M University, who all shared a passion of sports. They often placed bets with each other on ridiculous shots they could do, and eventually decided to film a video and post it on YouTube for fun, featuring numerous trickshots. Within a few weeks, the video gained national attention and an idea was born to expand their YouTube empire. While Basketball was the norm early on, Dude Perfect moved on to making videos with footballs, soccerballs, frisbees, ping pong balls, nerf guns, and more, always coming up with new ideas to appease viewers and grow their online platform. Through AdSense revenue on YouTube and sponsorships, a fun hobby ended up becoming a full-time job for the Dude Perfect gang, and they innovated their idea by selling merchandise, creating stereotype, battle, and “overtime” videos, and using their following to create content that centers around the personalities embodied by each member. Dude Perfect even coined a mascot, named Panda in a Panda suit to appear in videos and represent the Dude Perfect franchise. Today, the members of Dude Perfect make a full time living off of their YouTube videos, endorsements, video games, merchandise, TV shows, books, and public appearances, forging a new view on sports in a world where traditional games and commentators ruled media beforehand. Dude Perfect has also broken 19 Guiness World Records with their trickshots, in their quest to always improve upon their various trickshots they do. While their intentions were never to become self-made entrepreneurs, their idea of fun ended up launching a new style of sports videos that have now taught a whole generation the importance of sports and their function in society.
To learn more, follow the link: Dude Perfect – Wikipedia
They are awesome! I think it’s cool how they were able to unintentionally make a career out of something they really enjoyed, but also was something that no one had really done or heard of before – that in itself is an innovation.
On top of that, like you mentioned, they kept innovating by adding merch and, of course, Panda in order to stay relevant and keep audience’s attention, which is good entrepreneurial management. In my opinion, this entrepreneurial management is just as important as being a good entrepreneur because you need to know how to succeed as an entrepreneur too, not just be a good innovative thinker.
I have been a fan of Dude Perfect for a while now, and cannot agree more that they have had a huge impact through their entrepreneurial ideas. I think it is really cool how they noticed and took advantage of their audience (mostly kids/teens), by creating a brand with a large mix of things to purchase. Social media influencers should use Dude Perfect as an example of how to be an entrepreneur with your platform.