Bill King of the Sports Business Journal writes that the deal between the UFC and Boost Mobile is official. Boost will begin its first activation piece this weekend at UFC 121 with a text to win game, while also doing some in-arena activation around one of its new phone offerings.
Boost launches its first major UFC activation on Saturday with a national online and text-to-win sweepstakes promotion titled “Your Town, Our Fighter.” Boost also will serve as presenting sponsor of Saturday night’s UFC 121 PPV from Anaheim featuring BrockLesnar-Cain Velasquez. That event brings the unveiling of Boost’s in-arena activation, a “Seek and Destroy” zone in which consumers can sample Boost’s first touch-screen slider handset, the Samsung Seek, and also win seat upgrades by posting the highest score on a UFC video game.
Payout Perspective:
This has been in the works for the last couple months. MMAPayout.com first reported on Boost’s relationship with Rampage Jackson at UFC 114, which was the first time they’d been allowed in the Octagon. Then at UFC 119 in September the mobile phone provider had cage mat and fence signage to which we proposed the following:
The one thing I really wanted to mention was the addition of Boost Mobile as a sponsor on the mat and cage padding. Boost has been slowly increasing it’s investment in MMA over the last year; most notably with it’s sponsorship of Rampage Jackson back at UFC 114. It appears the brand will be the presenting sponsor for UFC 120, so look for plenty of signage that evening. I’d also expect, seeing as it’s a Spike TV broadcast, that Boost will purchase some additional ad inventory to further activate it’s new found relationship with the UFC.
I’ll be watching this with a keen eye over the next couple of months to see where this relationship goes. The UFC is a potentially incredible platform for a mobile phone operator to advance on that coveted 18-34 demographic; especially one such as Boost that doesn’t require users to sign contracts.
We’ve seen other UFC sponsors reticent to activate and I’ve never fully understood this approach. The UFC platform is full of little nuances and marketable lifestyle traits that a sponsor could easily use to draw a better association between its brand and the UFC, which would help the brand endear itself to the fans. Boost is set to change all of that. I wouldn’t be surprised to see Boost, in addition to signage and several contests, sign a few more fighters in the coming months.
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Chalk one more acquisition up for UFC VP of Sponsorship Mike Pine. He’ll be moving to IRONMAN Triathlon in November and the UFC is currently searching for someone to fill his shoes.
perhaps they would sign Carwin LOL