MIKE TYSON: HOW TO GET ATTENTION

Morning!

I was sat at the bus stop with my brother Morgan the other day when we got into a debate about who the most famous people on the planet were.

Not the Jake Paul’s that dominate modern-day media, but the people that if you held up a picture of them, 99% of people would know exactly who they were.

The first names that sprang to mind were the likes of Queen Elizabeth and Donald Trump - people that are known around the world.

But then a name popped up that stood out… Mike Tyson.

We started to break it down…

My 13-year-old brother knows him, I know him, my Mum & Dad know him, my Nan & Grandad know him.

The guy is literally known across 3+ generations.

But how in the world did he become so famous?

That’s what I spent the last 4 hours researching and exactly what you’re about to find out.

Let’s get into it!

Breaking Down The Strategy

At 1:45 AM on the 8th June, 2002, Mike Tyson began his walk to the ring to fight Lennox Lewis.

As he walked, 1,950,000 people were glued to their TV’s watching live from their homes.

At that moment it was the largest number of eyes to ever tune into a boxing match.

Unfortunately for Tyson, it ended with him led unconscious on the canvas.

But today, we aren’t going to be analysing his illustrious boxing career. Instead, we’re going to be looking at how in the world Tyson was able to get so much attention on him.

By the time this fight came around, he had:

• Gone to prison for rape

• Had a tiger bite a man’s arm off

• And openly admitted to having a drug addiction

People had every reason to want him to fail… which was all part of why they weren’t able to keep their eyes off him.

Don’t get me wrong, Mike Tyson is far from a marketing mastermind.

Yet there are clear lessons (intentional or not) that we can takeaway from his journey.

I just spent the last 4 hours digging deep into his life story.

Here are the 4 lessons on how to get attention, from the baddest man on the planet:

Lesson 1: Give Them A Storyline

Tyson grew up in a rough Brooklyn neighbourhood with no father. But he was a pretty normal (ish) kid. He wore glasses, was a little overweight, and cared heavily for his flock of pigeons.

Then at 11 an older kid killed one of Mike’s pigeons and he snapped.

He beat the kid up real bad and quickly realised just how powerful he was. This is when his life really took a turn.

Over the next 2 years Tyson: joined a gang, was arrested 30+ times, and was sent to a correctional facility.

Which is where he found boxing, met his life mentor (and future boxing coach) - Cus D'Amato - and began turning his life around.

7 years and 3 months later, Mike Tyson was the youngest heavyweight title holder in history.

It’s one hell of a story and that’s exactly why Tyson was able to get so much attention early on in his career.

Newspapers don’t publish snippets of information, they publish stories.

And that’s exactly what Mike Tyson had.

The marketing lesson? 

You can’t market a heap of unentertaining sh*t.

If you want attention, craft a storyline around you or what you do.

Lesson 2: Create Moments That People Can’t Not Talk About

On 28th June, 1997, 1.9M people tuned in to watch Mike Tyson’s rematch with Evander Holyfield.

In the first fight, Mike had been knocked out in the third round - but this time, Mike was back with a vengeance.

People around the world tuned in for a fight for the ages and they got that… until the third round where Mike bit Holyfield’s ear off.

It was one of those moments that you just couldn’t not talk about.

To this day, it’s something everyone still talks about.

But just imagine how huge it was at the time, “Did you see that boxer who bit his opponents ear off?”.

That’s a line that would hook anyone in and it’s a story that you just have to tell all of your friends.

The marketing lesson?

Create moments that people can’t not talk about. George Mack reframes this as creating moments that can be “shared in the group chat”.

What’s something that people would instantly want to post in their group chat?

That’s the thing you should be doing if you want more eyes on you or your brand.

(Or just bite someone’s ear off in front of 1.9M viewers)

Lesson 3: Give Them Something To Hate

From the Holyfield moment on, Tyson’s life was pretty much pure chaos. Every week there was a new news story.

Buying 3 tigers, beating up his wife, failing a drug test, getting involved with the mafia, getting sent back to jail.

Everything was going wrong for Mike Tyson.

In just a few years Tyson blew over $400 million and in 2003 he finally declared bankruptcy.

But whilst all of this points to him losing fans, all it did was bring him more attention.

Just look at him…

He was a jacked, arrogant man that flaunted every single thing he had - he was so easy to hate.

But it doesn’t matter whether people love you or hate you, as long as people feel some type of way about you - they’ll keep watching you.

This is the exact same reason Floyd Mayweather made so much money - everyone couldn’t wait to see him lose.

So they tuned in to every single fight to watch it happen… unfortunately for them, it never did.

The marketing lesson?

If you want more attention, get off the fence.

I don’t recommend buying tigers, but give people something to love… and something to hate.

Lesson 4: Have Something That Makes You Stand Out

I’m a strong believer that Mike Tyson would not be the Mike Tyson we know today without his face tattoo.

Without it he may have been a great boxer, he may have been controversial, but he wouldn’t have been as well known as he is.

It’s just a clear stand out feature that everyone knows from the second they see him.

Nowadays there are a tonne of rappers who have face tattoos and all sorts of crazy stuff.

But it’s never as famous as Mike Tyson’s face tattoo.

It added to the bravado, it added to the name, but most of all it was a simple thing that made him stand out amongst every single other person in history.

A horrific life choice if you ask my Mum, but an amazing stunt to make himself stand out.

The marketing lesson?

Have something that makes your brand stand out.

• Louis Vuitton has the infamous checkered pattern.

• Michael Buffer has his “Let’s get ready to rumble”.

• Mike Tyson has his face tattoo.
  
  What do you have?

Well, I never thought I’d be using Mike Tyson for one of these breakdowns… but here we are.

Hopefully you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it.

If you have any ideas for other people you’d like to see covered, please do reply to this email with a suggestion - I promise I’ll reply!

Until next Sunday.

— Niall

This has been a breakdown of Mike Tyson’s marketing strategy. I hope you have learned something and can implement a similar strategy in your business!

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