Welcome to a special mini-edition of the Payout where we are looking at Saturday night’s UFC card billed, “Fight for the Troops” from Fort Hood near Killeen, Texas.
Fighting for a Cause
Saturday night’s Fight for the Troops UFC event was entertaining, but unlike every other one of its cards, the UFC focused its efforts on philanthropy as it helped raise money for the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund. The Spike TV broadcast raised an impressive $600K from phone donations alone. In the coming days, donations in the millions are expected through online giving as well as a UFC-related auction with proceeds going to the cause.
Via MMA Fighting:
While part of the purpose of putting on a show exclusively for enlisted military is to bring some entertainment to the men and women serving America, the UFC and Spike partnered once again with the Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund to raise money for troops suffering from brain trauma, as well as their families.
The success of the show be measured by the amount of money raised by the UFC through this event. The fact that $600K was raised through phone donations during the 3 hours the card was on Spike TV is a testament to the cause and to the UFC for giving it the publicity it deserved. The UFC did a good job of raising awareness of the IFHF charity during the broadcast without making it seem like a telethon.
Facebook Experiment
The UFC used its Facebook page to show 4 prelim (originally advertised as 2) fights when Facebook users hit the “Like” button. The influx of new “adds” meant that the UFC had a wider base of followers in which it could later post further information on how to donate to IFHF. It also posted pictures of the UFC’s experience at Fort Hood so that people could see the involvement of the UFC fighters. We do not have any numbers of new Facebook users that the UFC received on Saturday night, but it would be an interesting measurement to analyze.
Another side issue that arose when the UFC announced that it would be showing prelims on Facebook was the number of people that were anti-Facebook or did not have an account…or both. It’s a definite experiment to see whether the UFC will continue to post prelims on Facebook. Certainly, it could have streamed the fights on its own web site but the UFC experimented with its Facebook page. It is nice to see the UFC try something new within social media even if it could be met with opposition.
Bonuses
In addition to the worthy cause, UFC fighters received the usual rewards for outstanding fights.
Fight of the Night: Yves Edwards versus Cody McKenzie – $30K
Submission of the Night: Yves Edwards – $30K
Knockout of the Night: Melvin Guillard – $30K
A good night for “Thugjitsu” as Edwards earned $60K in bonuses as an undercard fighter.
Prelims in exchange for identity theft? Fail.
JV,
I wouldn’t be so quick to call it a fail. This is another example of the UFC’s willingness to experiment and move away from the beaten path. It wanted to test the world’s largest social networking hub as a distribution platform and the feedback so far has been mostly positive (aside from some stream quality issues reported on the FB chat itself).
Yes, you’re going to have some people that are anti-facebook or don’t have facebook, but they’re in the very small minority. And, If people are worried about privacy protection then they shouldn’t be on Facebook (or even really turn on their computer). This is the world we live in.
I’ll add to Jason’s post above. Did anyone notice that Verizon was essentially a presenting sponsor on Saturday with its 4G LTE device? This is an interesting move for one of the nation’s largest sports sponsors and encouraging for MMA. There’s also a competitive side to Saturday night’s sponsorship as Boost Mobile is the UFC’s official mobile and its a Sprint company. Very interesting indeed.
I used my wife’s Facebook account since I closed mine and didn’t want to go through the hassle of opening a new one (even a fake one). I much prefer the prelims on Ion or Spike. I have a flat screen TV with surround sound and I hate having to watch anything on my laptop. It’s a waste of the investment in my entertainment system. Still, I’ll take free prelims anywhere and anyhow the UFC wants to deliver them.
I echo the senitments above. 4 free fights is better than 0 free fights, even if watched on the laptop.
I could have done without the Waylon Lowe fight, nearly put me to sleep. However, I was glad to see the Johnson and Edwards fights.
I also do not have a facebook account and used my wife’s. Little did I know the chat session posted my comments on here wall. Doghouse for me for posting “Ariane is hot” on her account. Now I know.
In todays marketplace, you must be multi-dimensional. I think the UFC is showing that with fights broadcast on Facebook, UFC.com, and even Ion.