Georges St. Pierre rocked fans in his hometown of Montreal. (Photo courtesy of UFC)
Phil DeAtley traveled 2,500 miles last week to see a sporting event. His journey to Montreal wasn’t for a big game featuring a favorite hockey, football, basketball or soccer team. DeAtley wanted to be on hand to witness the first appearance of the Ultimate Fighting Championship in Canada.
Was the experience all he hoped?
“It was the best time. It was totally worth flying all the way across the country to see,” DeAtley told the Toronto Star after he and 21,000 others took in the spectacle at the Bell Centre. Most notably, the Edmonton man added, “I would do it again.”
The UFC has hooked fans with a branding effort that’s evolved to appeal to a mainstream sports audience without turning off its hardcore followers. When mixed martial arts arrived in North America in the early 1990s it was an extreme sport that courted negative publicity. Once Dana White took control of MMA’s premier fight league, UFC, the marketing campaign kicked in.
UFC eliminated its most controversial rules, allowing its outlaw tag to be removed, and built a stable of fighters from the ground up. It used an aspirational campaign to keep fighters hungry to reach the top, which is a spot on one of its pay-per-view events, such as Saturday’s competition that was highlighted by Montreal native Georges St. Pierre’s welterweight title victory over rival Matt Serra.
With boxing in decline because of mismanagement and lack of interest at the youth level, UFC also benefited from market opportunity. It has now replaced the sweet science as the world’s most popular combat sport and the potential for expansion is vast.
MMA is the fastest-growing sport in the world and major news outlets such as ESPN and the New York Times have reporters dedicated to covering UFC events.
“What UFC has done is deliver an experience, not just an event,” says Kal Suurkask, general manager of the strategic communications company Elevation PR. “From TV shows to online promotions and meet-and-greets with its top stars, White’s team has created a social community out of a sport that was considered taboo not long ago. Businesses at all levels can learn from what these guys have done.”
Some would say UFC was lucky to be in the right business at the right time or that it doesn’t take much to sell a sport to an audience rabid for competition. If that were true the XFL would still be in business.
The truth is the UFC succeeds because of its astute branding and public relations strategies.
Any reporter who questions MMA’s brutality is quickly told that no fighter has ever died in the ring. Observers who view the fighters as brutes have their opinions changed when introduced to a personality like Chuck Liddell, who has been coached on what to say and what not to do in public. Fans like DeAtley who turn out for a showcase live event receive a product that surpasses their expectations.
That’s how you build a champion, in sport or business.
