How Hudl has Defined its Brand to Become a Household Name

Founded in 2006 in Lincoln, Nebraska, Hudl, a company that provides video review and performance analysis tools for sports teams, quietly grew to have an estimated worth of over $100 million.Since its inception, Hudl has acquired over 162,000 total active teams across 30+ sports and more than 4.1 million active users - coaches, athletes, trainers and analysts.It’s fair to question how a company with a seemingly niche focus attained this level of success, but turns out, the platform’s reach is much more broad that one might suspect.From pros in the NFL and NBA down through college, high school and even little league teams, Hudl has become a must-have tool.Derek Hernandez, Hudl’s Editorial Lead, sat down with TechDay to explain how the company has acquired such a massive user base, how it articulates its brand story and what we can expect next from the platform.

Hudl has grown exponentially since being founded in 2006. How and via what platforms are you able to convey this success in order to attain even more growth?

Because our solutions are used by organizations worldwide and at every level of competition, it’s important for us to understand which audiences are most relevant to specific messaging we want to share. Once we have that understanding, that’s when we decide which tactics within our forms of media (paid, earned, shared and owned) make the most sense. Leveraging our brand partners’ distribution channels, utilizing paid social campaigns, and securing coverage from prominent media channels have proven to be our most successful forms of distribution.

What sort of content works best for Hudl when it comes to acquiring new users? Why do you think this is?

Testimonial content is important for us because it provides prospective users a candid look at how our products help teams and athletes improve. This type of content also makes our current users the heroes of our story.

Which of Hudl's value propositions are primarily emphasized via its content strategy? What's the thinking behind this?

Efficiency is a common thread across all our content because we’ve found that saving time and coaching smarter are two things our users value most.

How are you able to successfully articulate Hudl's brand story in a way that highlights the company's value?

By understanding our users’ motivations for using Hudl and talking to them like real people. We feel if we can do that, we’ll position Hudl as the hub for credible content on coaching, performance analysis and recruiting.

What would your advice be to entrepreneurs struggling to define their brand and convey it to potential users?

Everything starts and ends with understanding your users and what problem they “hired” your product to solve. Engage with them. Learn from them. Get to know them inside and out and you’ll understand how you can set your brand identity apart from your competition.

Any new innovations we can expect to see from Hudl in the near future?

We plan to use our most-recent round of funding to pair innovations in machine learning and computer vision with our in-house group of professional analysts, providing teams around the world quicker access to the insights they need for training and game preparation.