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When Conan O’Brien, Adweek’s Media Visionary, moved from NBC to TBS in 2010, his team knew it wanted to handle the social media and YouTube distribution of his show clips itself. The digital strategy wasn’t yet a priority for media companies, but “we needed to control how this stuff got out,” said Jeff Ross, O’Brien’s longtime executive producer and Team Coco co-founder. “When we went to Turner, we made a little business out of it.”
Thus, Team Coco was born, its moniker inspired by the nickname Tom Hanks helped popularize during O’Brien’s brief run as Tonight Show host, which then became a rallying cry among fans when he exited NBC.
The social media business is thriving, with 17 million social media fans and 1 billion annual video views across YouTube and Facebook, generating roughly $10 million in annual ad revenue. And Team Coco morphed into a full-fledged digital media business in 2018, even though “we didn’t know exactly what that meant,” said Adam Sachs, now svp and head of Team Coco, who arrived at the company that year. “We had a vision; maybe there would be some live events and some digital video with other talent.”
With plans to also tackle standup specials, books and video games, podcasting “was just one vertical of what we were going to do—and then that turned out to be the big thing,” said Ross.
That’s because O’Brien’s podcast, Conan O’Brien Needs a Friend, became an immediate hit in 2018. “We realized that we had the ability to build a successful podcast network because of the success of this centerpiece show,” said Sachs. As that network—which now boasts nine podcasts—grew to include offerings from Rob Lowe (Literally!), Nicole Byer (Why Won’t You Date Me?) and O’Brien’s longtime TV sidekick Andy Richter (The Three Questions), it took shape as an audio-first business.
With more than 190 million annual podcast downloads, two-thirds of which are O’Brien’s flagship podcast, Team Coco was able to capitalize on the recent frenzy among audio platforms in signing A-list podcast talent to exclusive deals. Last May, satellite radio company SiriusXM acquired the company for an estimated $150 million, a deal that also included a five-year agreement with O’Brien to continue as host.
Its new owner “gives us a huge amount of visibility if you combine the podcasts and the radio and their ability to market stuff, which is significant,” said Ross. “Assuming that we do another TV show, I think they’ll all feed into each other in a positive way.”
While the company focuses on creating its upcoming Team Coco comedy network for SiriusXM, due later this year (“Right now, that’s the thing we’re most excited about,” said Ross), Sachs is eager to tap into SiriusXM’s substantial audio and video resources, including working on an audio documentary that has long been in development at Team Coco.
As Team Coco nurtures O’Brien’s podcast, which Sachs predicted is “going to continue to grow as more mainstream demographics adopt podcasting,” the company has shifted its long-term podcast network plans to prioritize quality over quantity. Sachs once envisioned growing the podcast slate to 50 shows by 2023, but said now “we really just want to be opportunistic and make a handful more shows over the next couple years that we feel are really great and have the chance to break through.”
Check out the rest of the 2022 Hot List here.
This story first appeared in the Oct. 10, 2022, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.
