2023-06-04 16:11:38
What if hyperspecialization and a touch of insolence could lead to success? In the space of a decade, Bastien Fontanieu has made his media, created in 2012, a reference among free French online sites specializing in basketball. With his quality of analysis, his art of titillating and his deliberately provocative tone, Trash Talk is a hit on social media. “The editorial line is counter atmosphere, cloakroom or glass between friends”explains the 30-year-old, recalling that the « trash-talking » consists in destabilizing the adversary on the ground through insults.
His videos “aperitifs” broadcast on the YouTube platform last almost an hour and accumulate hundreds of thousands of views. With his friend Alexandre Martin, they spread the jokes, while the duo passionately comments on the performances of the players, points out the errors, and deciphers the strategies. Their displayed sincerity has won 1 million cumulative subscribers on social networks. “We behave like in reality, we don’t pretend. I arrive with my four hours of sleep and my face of eight kilometers “says Bastien Fontanieu.
Trash Talk shares since 2015 a “common DNA” with So Foot, the magazine and website specializing in football. So Press, Franck Annese’s group, took part in up to 20% of the starting capital of TrashTalk, and the two media now work in the same premises in Paris. “They have always been independent, they just needed a springboard to external partners”, says Franck Annese. The development director of So Press, Brieuc Férot, for example, facilitated contacts with the publishing house Marabout, which published The Greatest Basketball Book of All Time. TrashTalk and the So Press group also recently organized the second edition of “L’incroyable flea market sport” which attracted 7,500 onlookers to a Parisian bar on 21 May.
Doubling of turnover
At the end of April, the two faces of TrashTalk brought together 2,500 fans in the Parisian cinema Le Grand Rex for the broadcast of two play-off matches during an evening sponsored by the beIN Sports channel, Parions Sport and the NBA. “Tickets left in seven minutes”proudly displays Mr. Fontanieu, adding that he created his media for “sharing the strong emotions while basketball is often watched alone at night” due to time difference. It is mainly thanks to its partnerships with the Française des jeux, Decathlon and the NBA that the company, made up of a dozen employees, is profitable. It even doubled its turnover between 2019 and 2022.
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