JAKE PAUL: MOCKERY OR MARKETING GENIUS

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He’s the 10th most searched athlete in the US.

He sold out Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse.

He’s sold over 2 million PPV’s total.

He beat 2 former UFC fighters.

All in 2021.

Yep, “he” is Jake Paul.

Leave your personal opinions behind and take a second to see the marketing genius behind the madness.

Overview

Estimated Net Worth: $30 million (Source)

Social Presence: 57.3 million

Most readers will probably know absolutely nothing about Jake Paul. Maybe you’ve seen some of his content and know him for being a cringey content creator. He certainly didn’t begin his career with a good rap.

For those of you that know nothing…

Jake Paul is a 24-year-old, American social media personality and now a professional boxer.

He initially rose to fame on Vine (an app very similar to TikTok), before playing the role of Dirk Mann on the Disney Channel series Bizaardvark for two seasons.

Throughout his career, Paul has become the subject of many controversies due to his behaviour including engaging in risky stunts, sexually suggestive behaviour, and featuring age-inappropriate material for YouTube, getting fired from Bizaardvark and being charged with criminal trespass and unlawful assembly. (Source)

In 2017, Jake was just another “YouTuber” - a very successful one, but nonetheless a kid who made videos for young kids.

In 2021, he is the 10th most searched athlete on Google - in the US.

What in the world happened in 4 years?

How did Jake go from YouTuber to the most trending boxer in 2021?

Answer: Genius marketing.

Breaking Down The Strategy

From 2017 to 2021, who Jake Paul was changed.

It was a whole rebrand, new positioning, essentially a whole new person.

Jake and his team did this in 3 stages: Rebrand, reposition, market the hell out of Jake Paul the boxer.

Rebrand

One of the most important aspects when creating a company is deciding who it is - not what it is. The same goes for people. Jake and his team had to decide who Jake Paul was going to be.

They needed him to have virality, be remembered and they needed to figure out the Jake people would want to watch fight.

Jake and his team chose to be the villain - hence the nickname “The Problem Child”. They came to the realisation that people want to watch Jake get knocked out. So they leaned heavily into that narrative with every piece of content or marketing put out.

No more “Jake Paul the YouTuber”.

It’s "The Problem Child” Jake Paul.

Positioning

So, at this point, Jake had decided that Jake was going to be Jake “The Problem Child” Paul - the professional boxer. That doesn’t mean the world sees him that way. Jake had to position himself as a professional boxer.

Positioning is all about where your product (in this case Jake is the product) stands in the marketplace as well as the mind of the consumer.

Jake had to stand as a boxer in the minds of his audience. What did he do to make this happen?

• He stepped away from YouTube, no longer put out weekly videos. Instead, all his videos posted on the platform would solely be boxing or fight related (press conferences, messages to opponents, etc).

• He partnered with ShowTime boxing - one of the most renowned boxing organisations on the planet.

• He even moved out of Califonia - the “influencer” capital of the world. He didn’t want to be associated with them, so he got away from them.

Now, people are slowly beginning to see Jake Paul as a boxer all due to decisions just like these.

Marketing

Just because people see Jake as a boxer it doesn’t mean he’ll instantly sell 2+ million pay-per-views immediately, no, that comes down to a hell of a lot of marketing.

Jake had to not just bring his audience over to the boxing world but he also had to bring the boxing fans to his world.

For Jake, going viral was a skill that he had mastered - to say the very least. Let’s take a look at some of his most viral moments in the boxing world:

• Online “beef” - Jake has become very well known for calling out fighters online. Not just any fighters. He’s called out: Connor Mcgregor, Nate Diaz, Jorge Masvidal, Tyron Woodley (who he fought and beat), Canelo Alvarez and more. Yes, Canelo Alvarez - one of the greatest boxers of all time.

• Mockery - You’d be surprised where a meme can get you. Jake definitely knows which ones hit and boy does he love to post them.

• Puts on a show - When he does fight he makes sure he delivers. No running around, Jake knocks people out. People don’t want to watch fights that go 12 rounds, they want to watch big knockouts. Jake has provided that and the below video of Jake knocking out Nate Robinson marketed him better than any advertisement ever will.

• Oh and this - The video shows Jake Paul stealing Floyd Mayweather’s - yes the unbeaten boxer - hat, which evolved into a massive brawl between Jake and Floyd’s team. To say the moment went viral is an understatement.

Just to put how successful Jake’s boxing carer has been, take a look at the below tweet.

Notice 1 that Jake is roped into the category of athlete and 2 that he was paid the same amount as Anthony Joshua according to Sportico! Crazy!

The Lessons

The macro lesson here is that you can truly be anyone you want to be. It took Jake Paul just 3-4 years to shape himself into one of the biggest prizefighters on the planet.

It’s not easy, but it’s possible.

From a business perspective, Jake showed us all the value of personal branding, positioning and marketing. Jake has generated over $100 in revenue from his events in 2021 all down to how he and his team changed how the world viewed him.

What could you do if the world viewed you in a different way? As a leader in your field?

How To Implement It

Whether it is for your business or for you personally, you need to position and brand yourself to be seen the way you want to be seen.

If you’re a design agency wanting to work with high-end clients, you need to be seen as a high-end, sought after agency. You can’t just expect people to see you that way, you have to make them.

1. “Fake it till you make it” - The truth is Jake was faking being a boxer whilst he worked at his craft. The truth is he’s probably still faking a lot of it. What I mean by faking is that he presented himself as a professional boxer before he even had any real boxing skill. At the time he seemed stupid, but 3 years down the line of portraying himself as a professional boxer and now everyone sees him that way. As they say “First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win”. Truthfully, Jake skipped the “ignore part”. Now, he is revelling in the winning part.Be the company/person you want to be - before you are!

2. Consistency - One of the biggest traits for success is consistency. It’s absolutely vital when trying to position yourself or your business. You can’t be pushing your business as a high-end design firm and then offering your prices cheaper than competitors or be running discounts every two minutes. Your business must resemble being “high-end” in all aspects of it: the staff must dress well, the prices have to be premium and the service has to be better than the low-cost agencies.

There are many more aspects to doing what Jake Paul did. However, the above points are by far the most important aspects and a great place to start!

This has been a breakdown of the marketing genius behind Jake Paul. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy into your business!

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I’ll see you next Sunday!