The UFC Looks To Reinvent…

September 2, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The smartest brands are always trying to reinvent themselves in the marketplace. In today’s economy staying fluid and satisfying your audience while looking to engage new partners or customers is key for success.  One brand which seems to constantly be looking for new is the UFC.

A Kinder, Gentler UFC?

July 24, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

The UFC has been a textbook example of brand growth using both the digital and traditional space in the past five years, even getting profiled by Mashable on their social media platforms. They have followed a playbook first se (and then abandoned) by boxing and then by the WWE in using traditional TV and media as the driver for large gate pay-per-view events and following that with a very unique experience in-arena. It has been a solid run for the UFC and their fans, who are more fans of their brand probably trhan the overall sport of Mixed Martial Arts.  Still with all the success, the UFC model still has not brought in many new sponsors outside of brands like Bud Light and Harley Davidson, who came on several years ago and gain the great benefits of partnerships overall with Spike TV.  The UFC continues to go to new markets with one-off success, and always returns for the bigger name shows to Las Vegas for experiential weekends.  The company talks about more overseas expansion and continues to do well in the gaming and product sales area, so what’s next?  how does one gain more mainstream exposure, not in news coverage but in consistent larger viewership and gate, and does the UFC need another company to step up as a legitimate, consistent international competitor?  Is the market big enough?

Boxing Does What Boxing Does Best and Worst…Builds Buzz For The Big One…

May 4, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

Saturday night in Las Vegas we again saw both the best and the worst of what brands find both intriguing and infuriating…an engaging fighter calling out his best possible opponent for his next fight with little to no assurance the “Fight of the Century” will ever happen.  Floyd Mayweather Jr., who has become the boxing marketing and branding machine that Oscar de la Hoya was in his prime (and which he turned into Golden Boy Productions with his partners), continues to grow in stature and flamboyance.  His opponent, Manny Pacquaio, continues to be the guy who can make the other half of perhaps boxing’s biggest pay day.  Still, the fits and starts, deals and postponments, hype and hoopla, that have surrounded the much-anticipated matchup have both confounded and intrigued not just the boxing fan, but the casual sports fan and many brands looking to reach that male demo. In years past, the deal for the fight, no matter how mercurial the opponents or how at odds promoters were, always seemed to get done.  The demand for th sport and for the dollar just became to great. However today we live in different times.  The consumer can easily be pulled in other directions until or if the fight becomes reality, the economic issues of boxing give those looking for elite events a large pool from which to choose from, and the fighters themselves are actually more distracted with issues outside the ring than ever before (Pacquaio is currently running for elected office in his home of the Philippines, which is also effecting the possible date for the fight).

Racing Back To The Top…

February 14, 2010 by Joe Favorito · 1 Comment 

As one looks for continued signs of resurgence in sports marketing…record viewership for the Super Bowl and the Winter Olympic Opening ceremonies, more global sponsors building activation platforms, increased and more diverse ad spending dollars being but forth from ‘09…perhaps one should look to racing as a bell weather.  Yes it is true that “The Great American Race,” the Daytona 500, will just beginning NASCAR’s season this weekend, and that the aggressive new launch of IRL is still a few weeks away, but there are continued positive signs which are showing that racing, one of the the industries hit hardest in the recession the last few years, may be returning to form in terms of viewership, attention and brand awareness. NASCAR has started awareness campaigns in theaters across the country, designed to promote the personalities of the sport, has enhanced their digital presence and begun a more intense program to get their faces out to the widest possible audience going into the season.

Can MMA Grow In The Garden? State, That Is.

January 7, 2010 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

There is still more than a little contention over how “hot” professional Mixed Martial Arts is as a sport.  One thing is for sure, the UFC as an experiential brand, is certainly very hot and very active for the men’s demo, and that experience was again in full force for their New Year’s weekend card, which again saw a sold out crowd in Las Vegas and put a cap on a record year for pay-per-view sales.

The Sports Branding World Continues To Shrink…

November 18, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

With every passing week the global transparency of sports events continues to grow. Whether it is high school hoops stars looking to build their brand and their game going to Israel, Emirates Airways using the Breeder’s Cup in Los Angeles as a prime global marketing tool or more Chinese brands signing endorsements to promote brands never seen before in the United States, the sports and entertainment world continues to contract in distance and expand in potential opportunities.

MMA Takes The Big Stage To Try And Grow Audience and Interest…

November 7, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

The World Series is now over, the NBA and NHL seasons have begun their long stretches, college football is missing a compelling weekend matchup, the luster of the NYC Marathon is gone and the NFL is passing its midpoint. So into the mix when there is a lack of marquis events this weekend falls the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, which returns to CBS in primetime still looking for a challenger to provide any mainstream competition to the UFC. Can either capture the casual fan on a slow weekend? The CBS/Strikeforce show will feature perhaps MMA’s largest and most enigmatic star, Russian Fedor Emelianenko in a heavyweight bout at the Sears Center in Chicago. With nowhere near the mainstream hype that Kimbo Slice had during CBS’ earlier MMA test with Pro Elite, and without female star Gina Carano on the card, Emelianenko will have to carry the card and try to find a way to endear himself to a public and to marketers that appear to be even more agnostic to MMA as a whole than they have been in some time. Make no mistake about it, the UFC continues to be the number one experiential brand in the sport and maybe in all of fight sports, but the strides to add new partners and even build mainstream names other than the MMA vets that have grown in the past few years, continues to hold MMA back from jumping to a level of growing mainstream acceptance. Saturday night could be another chance to provide that move forward, even with a promotion in Strikeforce that is a great regional event but has not caught national acceptance with the casual fan.

Playoff time…Dodgers Take Brand To The Streets…

October 5, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

It is now playoff time in baseball, with Tuesdays Twins-Tigers winner take all game getting fans started. The Los Angeles Dodgers, however, had the luxury of something the teams that battled to the wire didn’t have…the luxury of time. Yes they struggled and almost blew the division lead to the Rockies in the last week, but Joe Torre’s team will be in the postseason, and coming down the stretch used that time to get out and find new ways to engage fans especially with the Angels also heading to the postseason. Now have the Dodgers had to struggle to sell tickets and gain brand recognition? No, they remain one of the iconic draws in MLB. However, their brand development folks, led by people like Dennis Mannion and Charles Steinberg, have found ways to make it grow, just like Steinberg did with the Red Sox before he moved west. Recent case in point, the Dodgers took the ticket and memorabilia item to the streets, by using the neighborhood ice cream truck model and turning it into a door to door ticket selling truck. It was a very smart move in a region that is spread so wide and not connected by mass transportation…a way to bring the Dodgers brand literally to the doorsteps of each community with a vehicle that people can relate to as it has been seen in their neighborhoods countless times before. It is not the “fan van” that many teams use for community and traditional field marketing. It looks different and offers a different product and leaves a solid branding impression, whether it sells tickets on the spot or not. Nice piece of innovative and simple branding that resonates with the community in a very unique way. An initiative that is surely going to be copied and expanded on.

UFC’s Recent Moves Shows More Business Savvy Than Some Give Credit For…

August 2, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

Many people can criticize the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, but one thing that cannot be criticized is the continuing rise in business savvy of the UFC. Friday was a great example of how far the “NFL of MMA” has come. In their usual fashion, the UFC announced well, probably way too far in advance, that they had a “big announcement and press conference set for this past Friday. The hype machine had the much anticipated Fedor Emalianenko vs. Brock Lesnar fight finally signed, a heavyweight battle which would lift MMA more into the mainstream with big fight buildup worthy of two crossover athletes, one American, one Russian. However the day came and went, and the press conference went off with its own news, news that was not the hyped up and teased announcement the sport had hoped for. Instead, White announced the return of former UFC star to the organization, and talked very candidly and at length about the problems as to why the Fedor-Lesnar fight did not happen. White talked at length about the issue’s with Fedor’s management team and the large purse and concessions being demanded, and sent a strong message not just to those in the MMA business, but those watching the MMA business, especially the UFC business, who are interested but not yet involved. The message was that the UFC has the business savvy to know what a good deal for all involved, especially financially for the UFC, is, and that with their current success the cost/benefit of going over that at this time does not make good business sense. It is a departure from the free wheeling spending in exchange for buzz that has slowed MMA’s potential outside the UFC, and even more interesting is it seems to avoid the pratfalls of overspending, alphabet soup and mismanagement that has severely hurt boxing in recent years. It also was a great move by the UFC to take the stage and turn the messaging squarely against the Fedor Management team, especially for the casual observer. Does it mean that the UFC will not get its dream matchup at some point? No. It does mean that the UFC knows its business, its negotiation tactics that work and its audience and by being the only player in professional MMA they have sent a clear message that they can dictate the correct business terms for success, which if you are a brand or a media partner looking to invest, maybe you are now closer to working with them. Well positioned, well thought out, and well timed.

Leaving Your Core Business To Get Into Event Production Can Be A Costly Affliction…

July 27, 2009 by Joe Favorito · Leave a Comment 

There is still some debate about the sport of Mixed Martial Arts, as to whether it is “hot” and a viable business or just a niche sport whose success is solely dictated by the success or failure of the one true brand in the market on the professional side, the UFC. Those who lean toward the latter received more validation for their point this past weekend when the sport’s latest UFC challenger, the highly successful apparel brand Affliction, announced it too was getting out of the event game and was going back to doing what it does best…running a very lucrative brand for the male demo that follows the UFC and trains in MMA.

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