Hip Hop magazine The Source is reporting that Snoop Dogg is looking to enter the MMA clothing business with his Serious Pimp line (of which he was recently named the President). The article basically states that Snoop is looking to marry the hip hop and MMA cultures through the clothing line, fighter sponsorship (Rampage Jackson was the line’s first), shared events, and music.
Payout Perspective:
I’ve long advocated for the convergence of MMA and elements of popular culture. The best way to reach the casual fan is to infiltrate their everyday activity destinations: music, media, and events. Hip hop is particularly interesting, because it could provide an avenue for MMA to better target the black community (traditionally a stout supporter of boxing).
The UFC has experimented with various elements of integration before (the UFC 91 and 50 Cent video comes to mind), but it didn’t go far enough. In terms of its event promotion, fighter promotion, and general marketing, there are a host of opportunities to make a closer association (albeit a careful one) to the hip hop community and access that potential audience. Leverage the ability of hip hop to generate press and access key demographics by getting fighters into music videos and onto music television programming. Some examples:
- Put a guy like Jon Jones or Rashad Evans on BET’s 106 & Park before an up-coming fight or strike a deal with one of the record labels to feature music from their latest album releases in UFC promo content (the same way ESPN does with its Sportscenter coverage).
- Develop PR relationships with print and digital content providers to in order to motivate them to cover the event.
- Tailor specific advertising campaigns toward the audience that integrate elements of the UFC into the culture (and this could even be sold in a very positive light – make it cool for some of that more hardcore hip hop element to drop their guns and get into the gym to channel that aggression).
“Tailor specific advertising campaigns toward the audience that integrate elements of the UFC into the culture (and this could even be sold in a very positive light – make it cool for some of that more hardcore hip hop element to drop their guns and get into the gym to channel that aggression).”
LOL thats a good one. I can see the Ad now “Drop your guns, and Bare arms(flexes biceps)”
it seems like a match made in heaven, but watch out. the hip hop market isn’t known for its desire to pay for entertainment. As a person who likes both let me tell you that almost every hip hop album you hear will have a song begging its listeners to actually buy, rather than just download the content. Believe me, you can download anything MMA in the exact same places you download hip hop.
The ESPN 30 for 30 on the LA Raiders does a pretty interesting job of showing how this relationship developed with the football club. Definitely worth a watch if you haven’t seen it.