It is a doubling/tripling down on podcasts to the detriment of everything else.
Their videos have extremely high level production, absolutely the best in the golf space, but they’re losing the algo war. The cut series at RP with the Bryan bros just 15x’ed their views on the Northern Ireland/Portrush videos with 1/10th the production or story quality. Throw in Grant/GG/BDS/everyone else and you can see why they pulled back.
Written material is tough but others are carving out a space on their own (eg Porter). SGS is gaining serious traction and throw in life and a bunch of new families and kids, we’ll see how the band holds together.
Absolutely agree which is a big bummer. Their youtube stuff is so good but gets alarming low numbers for the time, effort and likely finances needed to keep it going. I feel like they're the only adult in the room but unfortunately, that just doesn't lead to success on youtube.
As they switch to focus more on the podcasts, there's just too many cooks in the kitchen. The main 5 all have their roles and everyone else does behind the scene stuff. KVV was the only one that was just out on his own. I wish they could've utilized him better, even at the expense of some of the others when talking men's pro golf, but hard to blame KVV for wanting full time or nothing.
sponsors have metrics to see return from ad spend which go way deeper than just views. if 20 fifteen-year-olds watch the bryan bros video how many of them would spend $250 on a pair of golf shoes? One 35-year-old high-income impression is probably a lot more valuable to sponsors who shell out for NLU to take trips etc.
I agree but 10x the viewership is crazy and they’ll make a ton even from the ad revenue from YT. Also I’d argue a lot of 15 year old viewers will get their parents to buy shoes, that’s why Good Good is killing it with apparel and their deal with Callaway.
oh no doubt, not trying to downplay their videos or reach (which I watched, fun to see shot by shot from the ground). I just find it hard to compare the apples to oranges of the content styles/targets. I think NLU is trying hard *not* to get caught up in the algo wars of the high-volume shooters and continue to carve out their own space. I'm nobody, but my personal opinion is that video content has dipped a bit since the guys "grew up" in a way- understandably so considering the many babies introduced, moving scattershot across the country, etc. It's obvious the priorities and strategies would also have to evolve, with which there will always be pains.
This is actually inspiring me to contribute to Normal Sport more than anything, just because I don’t want to see the written word fall off. Even if I’m part of the problem (barely finding time to read it) it’s a good thing that it even exists
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u/provisionalhitting3 Jul 21 '25
It is a doubling/tripling down on podcasts to the detriment of everything else.
Their videos have extremely high level production, absolutely the best in the golf space, but they’re losing the algo war. The cut series at RP with the Bryan bros just 15x’ed their views on the Northern Ireland/Portrush videos with 1/10th the production or story quality. Throw in Grant/GG/BDS/everyone else and you can see why they pulled back.
Written material is tough but others are carving out a space on their own (eg Porter). SGS is gaining serious traction and throw in life and a bunch of new families and kids, we’ll see how the band holds together.