Throughout my career, I’ve been exposed to sales, marketing and social media campaigns. And when it comes to a product, or service, the best game plan wins. I’m not an expert, nor have an inside scoop on what goes internally at the UFC, but I believe there is a tremendous amount of opportunity for the UFC to build stars with a new marketing plan.
Passion and grit can catapult an individual a long way. No one epitomizes this more than Dana White. In 2001, Dana White had a vision and dedication that mixed martial arts and the UFC would be huge one day. He convinced Lorenzo Fertitta to buy the UFC, which meant automatic debt, but White believed in the upside. It was a high risk, high reward deal. The results speak for themselves: The UFC has an estimated value of $1 billion and recently signed a 7 year deal with FOX. Those estimates are low considering the UFC is not even close to peaking. Within the next 5 years, the UFC will be a $5-$10 billion business. But despite this exponential growth, the UFC still lacks that big punch star. Major League Baseball has Albert Pujols, the NBA has Lebron James, the NHL has Sidney Crosby and the NFL has countless superstars.
The UFC needs to push new marketing initiatives in order to build the next big star. From my perspective, the fighters are marketed as a whole instead of taking some top stars and campaigning them individually, i.e. sponsorship, TV spots, fitness articles, guest spots on shows, etc. With the power of marketing, social media and communications these days, the UFC has every opportunity to broadcast their fighters to the populous. However, the current strategy employed does not seem to be working, as Yahoo’s leading MMA/UFC journalist Kevin Iole points out Lesnar’s retirement leaves UFC short on stars.
In the very center of the UFC is Dana White and I literally mean the center of “everything.” He promotes all the fights, appears and commentates on every Ultimate Fighter show, runs all press conferences, flies more than Sir Richard Branson, films footage for blogs and attends fan conventions.
Above all else, White is the face of the UFC. There are plenty of fighters with star power, but you see and hear more of White than any fighter in the company. Commissioners and promoters for other leagues, are seen but not heard, or are heard but not seen but White is both. He does not need to give up his day to day activities, but he should use his energy and time to promote market the next star. Do it all himself? No, he promotes the fights, someone else in the company needs to do work as well, but it is ultimately his decision.
Off the top of my head I can name several fighters who could be the face and star for the company. Unquestionably Jon Jones, Frankie Edgar, Junior Dos Santos, Jose Aldo, Dominick Cruz (arrogance can reap attention), Urijah Faber and the obvious, George St. Pierre. White is sitting on a gold mine with Jon Jones, but the company has the emergency brake on with Jones.
With Brock Lesnar gone, another star needs to blossom and White needs to promote, market the fighter and throw him in the face of active and passive fans. I’m not saying that White’s intent is to control every detail of the organization, but he could step back a few steps and push other stars into the spotlight.
Eventually White will have to bounce some of his existing responsibilities because the sport is getting too big. With fights on several continents, being promoted strategically in different cities, White won’t be able to maintain everything. For example, White should have at least handed the Ultimate Fighter off a couple of years ago. He shows up to assess fights for the Ultimate Fighter, but most anyone employed by Zuffa (parent company of the UFC) has the capabilities to do that and drive the show. Joe Rogan, or Kenny Florian would be a strong replacement for White on the Ultimate Fighter. They know the fight game, have media experience and are enormously popular with fight fans. This is one example.
There are stars in the company and the UFC and White need to map a new marketing game plan. Fans come to watch fighters fight, but they flock to the stars. White needs to define his next stars, step back, use his skills and throw potential stars out into the wild.