Dive Brief:

• Media platform The Players' Tribune (TPT) and Amazon Prime Video are partnering on a co-branded series to promote the Amazon original series "Tom Clancy's Jack Ryan," The Drum reports. 
• The series, titled "Unexpected Heroes," focuses on moms of NBA players who overcame obstacles to ensure their sons' success. It features NBA players Jayson Tatum, Markelle Fultz, Kyle Kuzma and their mothers. The series is inspired by the character Hanin, the mother of Jack Ryan in the Amazon show.
• "Unexpected Heroes" will premiere around the NBA's Christmas Day games across TPT, Amazon Prime Video and the players' social media channels.

Dive Insight:

Marketers are increasingly embracing digital content to reach younger, digital-savvy viewers, and Prime Video and TPT, which provides content written by professional athletes and was founded by former professional baseball player Derek Jeter, likely see their co-branded series as a way to expand the user base for each by getting in front of new audiences. The news comes as Amazon Prime Video is looking to drive new subscriptions in the increasingly competitive market for streaming video, with co-developing content one of its strategies. Earlier this week, candy brand Sour Patch Kids and Amazon Prime Video released "Wreck The Halls," a 24-minute stop-motion video showing Sour Patch Kids destroying a gingerbread house.

The new TPT-Amazon Prime Video series could help the platforms make an emotional connection with sports fans, who are more often seeking out digital sports content, like highlights and player interviews. Unveiling the series around the NBA's popular Christmas games is good timing, as the games usually attract a strong viewership. Viewership of original digital video, which refers to ad-supported, professionally produced and digitally distributed video, jumped 60% from 45 million in 2013 to 72 million in 2018, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. 

Co-branded content is a tactic that TPT continues to embrace. It collaborated with Amazon Prime Video previously during Comic-Con over the summer to promote "Jack Ryan" with Ronda Rousey, Richard Sherman and Joel Embiid.TPT also recently partnered with Newell Brands' Sharpie on a content series as part of the marker brand's "Uncap the Possibilities," featuring athletes discussing how they "uncapped their possibilities" via personal journeys and the charities they support.