Integrated Marketing: Building the Next UFC 100

UFC 100 remains the most successful event in UFC history. The show sold over 1.62 million buys in North America and did a live gate of $5.1 million in the middle of what many financial pundits described as the worst recession in twenty years. Impressive, indeed.

However, since the Summer of 2009, the UFC hasn’t come close to repeating the PPV or live gate results enjoyed at UFC 100. Which begs the question: what exactly will it take to create another UFC 100? The answer: the same sort of massive integrated marketing effort that was employed the first time around.

In building UFC 100, the company established a strong foundation of interest and awareness with a solid product offering in the first half of the year – a series of very strong PPV cards built upon brilliant matchmaking and headline fights. Those PPV cards were then supplemented with a variety of free programming on the cable network Spike TV, a UFC video game in May, a superb marketing campaign, and an all-out PR blitz which fostered an unprecedented amount of media coverage.

The following is a summary of the integrated marketing pieces the UFC used to drive interest and awareness in the overall UFC brand, as well as direct interest in UFC 100:

PPV Fight Cards:

• UFC 91 (15/11/08): Couture vs. Lesnar, 900,000 buys
• UFC 92 (29/12/08): Griffin vs. Evans, 1,050,000 buys
• UFC 94: (31/1/09): St-Pierre vs. Penn II, 920,000 buys
• UFC 97: (18/4/09): Silva vs. Leites, 650,000 buys
• UFC 98: (23/05/09): Evans vs. Machida, 635,000 buys

All were exceptionally strong cards that compared very favorably to the UFC’s average event buyrate of 520,000 over the previous three years. By July, the UFC was up 62% year-to-date from 2008 in its buyrate total (it would end the year having increased total PPV sales by 30%).

Free Spike TV Content:

The UFC supplemented its tremendous PPV cards with a laundry list of free programming that gave MMA fans all they could watch; new and old.

In fact, a major component of the success of these PPV cards was the free corollary content that pushed viewers to the PPV by featuring behind the scenes footage of the fighters in their daily lives, training for fights. Countdown to UFC and UFC Primetime are the two shows designed to mimic HBO’s popular 24/7 series.

The Video Game, UFC Undisputed 2009:

The UFC partnered with esteemed action video game producer, THQ, to introduce its first video game in seven years with the release of UFC Undisputed 2009 for the Xbox 360 and PS3 on May 16^th. The game sold 1.5 million copies in its first month and 3.5 million copies by December 2009.

UFC Undisputed 2009 served as a major cog in the UFC’s promotional wheel because it generated interest and awareness in millions of gamers by teaching them the sport and helping to familiarize them with the stars. These gamers, most aged 18-34, were all in the UFC’s demographic wheelhouse.

Moreover, at the time of the game’s release, the UFC was in the midst of trying to promote its “biggest event ever,” and received a big boost from THQ’s own advertising of the video game; which essentially doubled as UFC promotion.

Social Media Marketing:

There are few sports leagues in the world that use social media more effectively than the UFC; Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube have all become powerful tools for promoting the brand and its fighters.

The UFC’s President, Dana White, used Twitter to announce fights, contests, and to give away tickets. Not surprisingly, his account surpassed one million followers by June of 2009. His following on Youtube is no less impressive as his video logs – 8-10 minute video clips that capture his daily routine in the days leading up to an event – often garner more than 1 million views each.

The social media efforts only added to the regular marketing methods such as commercial spots on television programs with similar demographics, print ads in magazines such as SI and SI Swimsuit, and mega billboards in high traffic metropolitan areas throughout the United States.

PR Blitz:

Perhaps the strongest competency of the UFC is its public relations department; the organization truly gets it where PR is concerned, and it played as big a role in building the UFC 100 weekend as it did in building the UFC brand that we know today.

The UFC managed to cultivate major and unprecedented coverage of its events throughout the early part of 2009, including frequent ESPN coverage (SC, PTI, and ESPN Magazine, and ESPN’s various local radio stations) and USA Today. It seemed like Dana White and many of the fighters were in the news every two or three days; even with many traditional print outlets like the NY Times, LA Times, and Wall Street Journal.

The PR team was very effective at getting word to the press, and then having the press disseminate its message; this added another layer of legitimacy to the UFC and its 100^th event. Perhaps most telling was that UFC 100 had more than 30 traditional outlet reporters in press row for the fight; compared to the average of 5 or 10 for any given regular fight.

UFC 100 Weekend:

The UFC also put together a fight card worthy of its centennial show by featuring its two brightest stars: Brock Lesnar and George St-Pierre. Both had worked to headline massive PPVs in the previous six months and were generating substantial interest online (google searches, UFC web hits, etc.)

The UFC also held its First Annual UFC Expo during UFC 100 weekend to further motivate UFC fans to make the trip down to Vegas for the centennial show. The Expo was billed as a celebration of MMA; and featured a tradeshow, world-class jiu-jitsu competitions, and a chance for fans to interact with the brand and its personalities.

Conclusion

The UFC didn’t just put a couple of great fighters on the card and hope that its centennial show would do the rest; the company actively utilized every inch of its marketing mix capacity to push this fight. They used creative corollary television programming, a superb PR blitz, social networking sites that were received quite well by its young audience, and a video game, all to generate the perfect storm of buzz for the event. Integrated marketing at its best.

Building the Next UFC 100

Can the UFC once again achieve the same sort of success it enjoyed with UFC 100? Absolutely.

If you look closely, you can see the same sort of elements aligning in the UFC’s marketing mix for UFC 116 that were present during the build to UFC 100. Brock Lesnar will once again be the catalyst, which isn’t surprising because his polarizing nature is exactly the type of casual draw that a massive integrated marketing effort can feed on. But, the event will also benefit from a series of strong fight cards have been put into place:

• UFC 111: St-Pierre vs. Hardy, Carwin vs. Mir
• UFC 112: Silva vs. Maia, Penn vs. Edgar
• UFC 113: Machida vs. Rua II, Koscheck vs. Daley, and Kimbo
• UFC 114: Evans vs. Jackson, Nogueira vs. Griffin (Memorial Day Weekend and 2nd Annual UFC Expo)
• UFC 115: Liddell vs. Ortiz, Franklin vs. Couture (basically legend’s night)

The UFC will supplement these cards with a host of free content like TUF 11, Countdown to UFC, and perhaps even another UFC Primetime (Lesnar vs. Carwin, anyone?). The organization will also release the newest version of the video game on May 25th; again, strongly targeting its male 18-34 year-old demographic.

Where the media is concerned, UFC 116 looks to also benefit from more unprecedented coverage. MMA Live will move to ESPN 2 and TSN during the month of May on a trial basis – ESPN will also air two live pre-shows prior to UFC 113 and 114 – and I’m willing to bet that agreement will at least be extended through July and UFC 116, if not indefinitely. The network will undoubtedly want to cover Lesnar’s return to the octagon.

More press coverage will follow in the footsteps of ESPN and USA Today, because of the aforementioned momentum generated by numerous events and content. The organization’s rapid global expansion and fight for legalization in key regions will also benefit UFC 116. New and developing markets like Philadelphia, Vancouver, and Boston will perhaps show more interest than even what UFC 100 was able to generate – regions like New York and Ontario will also be watching closely.

Note that I haven’t even got into what the UFC will likely do or spend on the marketing side of things in the lead-up to this event.

I think you all get the point: UFC 116 has a legitimate shot to leverage a strong series of PPV events, another video game, unprecedented media coverage, and numerous fight story lines to make this event the biggest or second biggest event in UFC history.