UFC: SELLING A STORYLINE

Morning!

You know what, it’s been a great week for me and I hope you’ve had a great week too.

I’m currently writing this in a cute little coffee shop, with an Acai smoothie. I hit a gym session this morning, the UFC is on later. Pretty much a peak Saturday for me.

Anyway, less about my acai smoothie, because today I’m going to tell you about a company that went from near bankruptcy in 2001, to being a $7 billion company today.

All through one simple marketing strategy…

Telling stories.

Let’s get into it!

Breaking Down The Strategy

It was around 1:20 AM on Sunday 21st of August and my heart was beating just a little too quickly. I was stressed. Physically sweating.

The next hour was a mix of me shaking, rapid sups of water, and deep breaths to try and keep my composure.

Then boom it happened. Headshot. Usman hit the floor.

I accidentally woke my partner up shouting (she had fallen asleep led on me about 45 minutes before - she never makes the main event).

The above is my account of the last Usman vs Leon Edwards title fight.

Tonight (last night when you read this), the two will fight again in London and I am just as involved as I was last time - in fact, I’m probably even more involved.

It’s only 4 PM, yet I can already feel the nerves kicking in.

I have no dog in the fight, I honestly don’t really care who wins, but I’ve been so roped into the story.

And I’m not the only one, millions around the world will tune in to see how the fight turns out.

Not necessarily because they want one man to win, but because they have been sold on a story by one of the best storytelling organisations in the world…

The UFC.

Here’s how the UFC went from a failing fight organisation to being a $7 billion company that has the world at the edge of its seats every Saturday (all through great storytelling):

In the 90s the UFC was virtually just legalised gladiator wars. They’d throw two crazy freaks in there like Keith “The Giant Killer” Hackney and this humungous man and let them battle it out.

It sold tickets, but it was closer to a circus than a legitimate sports organization.

A failing circus that is, with the owners on the brink of bankruptcy by 2000.

It was then in 2001 that the Fertitta Brothers alongside Dana White came in and swooped up the UFC for just $2 million - and everything changed.

The new owners saw that the circus act fights wouldn’t cut it. If they were going to take the UFC to the next level, they had to do two things:

1) Make it a legitimate sports organization
2) Somehow find a way to get people interested in the fights (without the crazy match-ups)

(I’m going to skip over all the legal stuff on how they got themselves sanctioned because this isn’t an MMA newsletter. Plus, how they solved number 2 is much more interesting.)

For the first 5 years, the new owners tried their hand at putting different spins on fights. They attempted to push the storyline behind it and the rivalries between the fighters.

It worked, but it still didn’t have the impact they wanted. They knew that if they really wanted to push the storylines behind these fights they had to go one step further. So they did.

In 2005, they introduced the first-ever “Ultimate Fighter” show.

Imagine Love Island, but with two teams, being coached by two fighters and they all fight every week.

Not the greatest description from me, so let’s steal Wikipedia’s version:

The Ultimate Fighter was an absolutely genius move from the UFC and has been hyper-successful for the last 8+ years for two reasons:

1) It allows them to tell in-depth stories during the build-up to fights.

Conor McGregor and Michael Chandler have just finished filming the next season of TUF. You probably don’t even know who Michael Chandler is right now, but once the series begins streaming he’ll be all over your socials.

- You’ll see him and McGregor falling out.
- You’ll see videos of him training his TUF team.
- And probably videos of his everyday life.

You don’t know Chandler now. But the TUF show will no doubt allow you to get to know him and really tell this storyline and set up a huge fight between the pair.

It’s like reading a book that cuts off before the finale, and that finale happens in a cage.

Another bad metaphor, but just know it’s a genius way to tell a fight’s story and sell tickets.

Once TUF began to take off, the UFC went all in on storytelling.

But more specifically, they took notes from the WWE and invested heavily in three areas:

1) Personal Branding

(No they didn’t start posting on their fighter’s LinkedIn accounts.)

The UFC wanted their fans to start backing fighters just like they do their favourite NFL or NBA team. But they understood that if people were going to start supporting certain fighters like that, they had to tell the fighters’ individual stories as well as they did the fight stories.

So they pulled together a big marketing and PR team and began to market their talent - heavily focusing on their story.

- They began making mini-docs in the lead-up to fights.
- Set them up on podcasts within the space.
- And even helped them set up on socials.

Over the next few years, the “fan favourites” of the sport went from the people who could hit the hardest, to the ones with the best stories.

Like Paddy the Baddy for example.

Then you have Francis Nganu, who hits like a truck and also has a tremendous story (read it below). A double whammy for the UFC.

2) BTS Marketing

I am obsessed with behind-the-scenes (BTS) marketing at the minute. Everyone who is interested in you or your company wants to see what’s going on behind the scenes.

Show them and they’ll quickly go from fans → super fans.

UFC introduced BTS marketing in a number of ways, but none more successful than their “Embedded” YouTube series.

The series is essentially a bunch of cameramen following the fighters around during the week leading up to their fight.

- You see how they relax
- You see how they train
- You see how nervous they are

You see it all.

Those Embedded vlogs give fans a real chance to get to know the fighters on a personal level whilst also really telling the story of the upcoming fight.

The show brings in millions of views and has personally got me way more excited for fights.

3) Fight Storylines

Back in the day, the UFC would advertise fights by showcasing this big muscular man knocking out another big muscular man.

Now, they always push the story.

Tonight's (Yesterday’s) fight isn’t being pushed as two amazing fighters going head to head. It’s all about how Usman beat Leon once, but in the last fight he knocked him out, what’s going to happen now?

Is Usman going to be the same?
Is Leon more confident now?

There are so many questions, but that’s exactly what great storytellers do. They have you asking questions and getting emotionally involved in whatever is going on.

People don’t just want to see two people fight in a cage for money.

They want to see one man’s dream lived and another’s shattered to pieces.

They want the story and that’s exactly what the UFC does so well.

In 2017, the UFC was acquired in a deal that was the largest-ever financial acquisition of a sports property.

Today, the company is estimated to be worth $7 billion.

Yes, that’s with a “B”.

They also have:

- 70M+ followers across socials
- Fighters with millions of followers
- And a stupidly large fan base

Quite a rise from the failing UFC of 2001.

All this success comes down to many factors, but personally, I don’t think there is anything quite responsible for this rise like storytelling.

Storytelling sells.

It’s that simple.

Right, that’s all for today, I’m off to watch the fights.

Have a great day friend!

— Niall

What did you think of this week's breakdown?

• 👍 Loved this one

• 😐 Meh - was ok.

• 👎 Not interesting to me.

If you’ve read this far, why not see how else I can help you:

• Follow me on Twitter for more marketing stuff:

• Connect with me on LinkedIn to follow my business journey:

• Want to work with me? Start HERE.

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

Don’t forget to subscribe to get next week’s breakdown straight to your inbox!