Dear Dana:
Sunday Night was WWE’s annual Summer Slam event. A familiar face, Brock Lesnar, won the main event by defeating John Cena for the WWE World Heavyweight Championship.
Do I follow WWE? No. I use to and know a lot about their history and development, but have little to no idea about current story lines. Why do I know about the event and who won? For a number of reasons. The most important reason is that WWE did some serious cross promotion with some UFC champions that night.
Jon Jones did an ice bucket challenge with the Big Show and Mark Henry while wearing a WWE shirt. Ronda Rousey was photographed backstage with Brock Lesnar and Paul Heyman along with being shown on camera with the four horsewomen during the PPV.
Why Does This Matter?
The reason why these champions being at a WWE event is a big deal is because the WWE is bigger than the UFC.
I know you’d probably disagree with that Dana, so I’ll throw out some stats to back up my opinion.
– the WWE (formerly WWF) was founded in the 50’s and reached mainstream success in the 80’s (approaching 35 years of popularity)
– the UFC was founded in 1993 and reached mainstream success in the mid-2000’s (approaching 10 years of popularity)
– Monday Night Raw averaged 4.16 million viewers weekly in 2013 (52 events), with all-time ratings topping at 8.1 million on May 10th, 1999
– In 2013, UFC on Fox averaged 3.3 million viewers (4 events), FS1 events averaged 0.83 million viewers (7 events), and PPV prelims averaged 1.12 million (13 events), with all-time ratings topping at 5.5 million for UFC on Fox 1.
I know that the UFC sells more PPV’s than the WWE does, and that’s a great accomplishment for the UFC. The fact is that on a weekly basis, millions of more people are tuning into WWE programming than they are UFC programming. PPV sales are only a difference of 200,000-300,000 people, where as the TV ratings are a difference of millions.
The WWE has also been around for a lot longer and has reached numbers both in PPV and in TV ratings that the UFC has never reached. The WWE has had a steady audience for over 30 years, meaning that current 40 year olds have the same memories of watching pro-wrestling when they were little that teens and kids in our generation have now. The UFC doesn’t have that type of history behind it. The WWE has a broader audience in both age and gender that the UFC needs exposure to.
Cross-Promote with WWE
Social Media
No company, television station or celebrity has done a better job with social media than the WWE has. Social media is the quickest way of informing fans of upcoming events, merchandise, advertisements, as well is a great way to create interaction between the stars and the fans.
The UFC has done a great job with handling their own social media account. The UFC has just over 2.0 million followers, but compared to the WWE, falls behind. The WWE has a whopping 4.57 million followers, more than double that of the UFC. Those numbers are eerily similar to the television ratings for each company. The top representatives for each company, Dana White and Triple H, come in at 2.92 million and 1.78 million respectfully (with Triple H’s account not being nearly as active as yours).
The heads of the company and the company itself aren’t the ones who drive ratings though. That responsibility usually falls on the athletes competing. A main event with a popular fighter no matter what company will draw ratings, especially if their event is being advertised heavily on social media. Here is a comparison of the most followed accounts for both the WWE and the UFC:
The Rock – 7.6 Million vs. Anderson Silva – 5.5 Million
John Cena – 6.4 Million vs. Vitor Belfort – 1.2 Million
Randy Orton – 3.6 Million vs. Minotauro Nogueira – 1.1 Million
Shawn Michaels – 2.5 Million vs. Georges St-Pierre – 1.0 Million
Stone Cold Steve Austin – 2.5 Million vs. Junior Dos Santos – 0.96 Million
CM Punk – 2.2 Million vs. Jon Jones – 0.92 Million
Chris Jericho – 2.1 Million vs. Chael Sonnen – 0.74 Million
The Miz – 1.8 Million vs. Ronda Rousey – 0.64 Million
Daniel Bryan – 1.7 Million vs. Shogun Rua – 0.62 Million
Rey Mysterio – 1.6 Million vs. Wanderlei Silva – 0.61 Million
WWE Total: 32.0 Million Followers UFC Total: 13.29 Million Followers
Yet again, we see that the WWE clearly draws more attention through social media than the UFC does. Only 4 fighters in the UFC have reached the 1 million follower mark, while the WWE has over 20 wrestling personalities above 1 million. That means more brand exposure to more people, more re-tweets, and ultimately, more viewers.
I’m not saying that you should have your athletes step between the ropes and receive choke slams and power bombs. What I suggest is that you be more open to your athletes getting involved with the WWE, maybe with a storyline or a surprise appearance on RAW.
The more a fighter’s face is shown, the more well known they become, the more followers they get, the more interest they garner, the better ratings they’ll receive, and in the end, the UFC gets more exposure and creates a star.
The two fighters closest to that star status are Ronda Rousey and Jon Jones, and both most likely received a boost in popularity with their appearances on WWE programming and on the WWE’s social media accounts.
Brock Lesnar showed that WWE fans and UFC fans aren’t too different from each other. As a former WWE fan who made the switch with Lesnar to the UFC, I heavily advise advertising your brand to WWE fans. It’s the best way to boost slumping PPV sales and TV ratings, as well as ensure that there will be a future generation of people interested in the sport of Mixed Martial Arts.
Thank you for reading. Please take a moment to follow me on Twitter – @MikeHutchLWOS. Support LWOS by following us on Twitter – @LastWordOnSport – and “liking” our Facebook page.
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