Last week what I thought would be a fairly obvious article about Brock Lesnar’s post-fight antics, and how they could easily turn off network and advertising executives under enormous pressure to make safe decisions in a turbulent market, turned into one of the most controversial articles I’ve ever written. Many of MMA’s most influential reporters, caught in their pro wrestling pasts, were unable to grasp what was obvious to almost everyone else: not everyone likes pro wrestling antics mixed into their conventional sports.
Lesnar is very likely well on his way to being the top American PPV draw ever (although he has to show some longevity before surpassing Tito Ortiz, Ken Shamrock, and Chuck Liddell). But that doesn’t mean he can’t also be bad for the long term future of the sport, especially as the UFC attempts to market and present the sport as mainstream entertainment and not a pro wrestling side show.
Sometimes the business of MMA can be confusing to people used to seeing the world in strict black and white terms. Take, for example, Affliction. The t-shirt company will hold their third PPV mega show this month and many of the sport’s reporters and fans are actively rooting for them to fail. In their minds, because Affliction hasn’t made a profit in their first two shows, they are a company filled with imbeciles and cannot possibly ever make it in the MMA business.
Putting aside the inconvenient fact that Zuffa failed to make a profit from the UFC in their first four years, let alone their first four shows, and you are still left shaking your head. Affliction, more than being a fight promotion, is a t-shirt company. A very succesful t-shirt company, with a reported $125 million in yearly revenue, but a company in an increasingly crowded marketplace. They needed a way to differentiate themselves from Death Clutch, Silver Star and an ever-growing list of other competitors.
Promoting their own MMA shows was a brilliant way to get their name and product in the MMA news on a constant basis, at a reasonable price. If Affliction issued a press release, it would only be picked up by a scant few websites that publish everything that hits their inbox. As reporters, we gets dozens of these messages a week, ignoring all but a few that ctahc our eye. What Affliction has done is guarantee their releases are picked up everywhere, because they aren’t just about a t-shirt company. They are also about a hot MMA show with some of the best fighters in the world.
The Affliction MMA shows are more than a struggling PPV entity-they are an extended PR move. Public Relations is different than advertising and in many ways more valuable. Often a good PR plan will provide advertising value that exceeds a company’s wildest expectations, and their meagre budget, by planting a constant stream of stories in the media. The benefit is two-fold: the company gets lots of attention their message is much more credible because the media provides a third-party endorsement that advertising cannot provide. Everyone knows that a company pays for advertising and takes those messages with a grain of salt. In a clever PR campaign, the cost of the advertising is hidden.
So when you read reports elsewhere, often from reporters with business and personal relationships with Affliction competitors, it is important to remember that while Affliction has lost several million dollars in the MMA business, the losses haven’t been all for nothing. People know the Affliction name-and in the world of PR and advertising, that’s like money in the bank.
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