The Campaign

Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) is a full contact combat sport that showcases a wide variety of fighting techniques and skills. The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the leader in MMA, the world’s fastest growing sport, and has seen phenomenal growth in markets including Brazil and China. However, interest from India has been limited and comes only from niche groups. UFC’s research suggested that India’s lack of MMA culture wasn’t the reason but a lack of understanding and awareness. UFC has a plan to grow in India in partnership with Sony Six, the official telecast channel, and approached the agency with a unique opportunity to bring a new sport to a country that lives and breathes cricket. Besides being the fastest growing sport in the world, UFC has reinvigorated the fighting business, tainted by the issues within global boxing, creating a unique, and grounded, brand – how the sport is run, and the people behind it, was a story that needed to be told to the target audience. UFC needed an introduction that differentiated it from other sports, placing MMA firmly in the mindset of a young action sport loving audience, inspiring interest and ultimately leading to the kind of figures it experiences in other markets. A secondary objective was to make the sport attractive to other brands with sponsorship opportunities in mind. Looking professional, credible and exciting was critical. It was clear that creating awareness and educating the audience through the launch was needed to announce a new game in town.

The Brief

The goal, and how we would be judged, was simple, to help the world’s fastest growing sport raise awareness and connect in a new market. The agency was also tasked with exploring ways of making the brand more attractive to potential sponsors. The aim was to connect with the fanatic love of sport that is displayed in the younger population. This meant understanding that it can mean more to the target audience than just a sport. Our knowledge was built around UFC original research, desktop based quantitative methods, and our nuanced understanding of sports in India.

Results

The results for the launch event helped UFC explode onto the India scene, and included: A unique launch event attended by over 70 media across mainstream, business, regional, radio and digital media. Resulting in 54 pieces of exposures across media outlets. The stories included in-depth features and profiles of the new sport and helped build awareness and positioning of UFC with target audiences. Six detailed briefings resulted in multiple stories focusing on UFC India plans, scope of MMA in the Indian market, profiling of UFC fighters and the business behind the sport. Over 60% of the coverage mentioned UFC as the fastest growing sports organization globally and as the leading MMA promoter in the world. Feature stories on fighters highlighted their training schedules, food habits, backgrounds and the prize money that they have earned. This highly personalized and emotive narrative made UFC and MMA highly relevant to the target audience.

Execution

The agency recreated the UFC live fight environment at the press conference – with fighter weigh-ins, UFC gaming consoles, UFC punch meters set-up for the audience to experience their fighting skills; and a screen split sideways for the fighters to enter in the same way that they would at a real UFC fight. Two celebrated UFC fighters – Rich Franklin and Benson Henderson, took part in the press conference. The former brought his personal story as a college lecturer, communicating that over 75 per cent UFC fighters are college educated. This was an important connection point for our target audience. Besides The Octagon press conference, the core message delivery took place with the flamboyant and professional Lorenzo Fertitta, UFC Chairman & CEO, the two fighters and ManJit Singh, CEO of Multi Screen Media, through staggered one-on-one interactions with select media including Hindustan Times, Reuters, MiD-DAY, Sports Illustrated, ET Now, amongst others.

The Situation

The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the leader in Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) across the globe. Having established a strong presence in America, and various European markets, UFC has begun to explode in both emerging markets of China and Brazil. However, despite the potentially massive market in India, MMA has made a relatively small impact in the sporting and cultural world. Despite this there is potential because of India’s history of contact sport, from wrestling to boxing, and its passion for the one’s they take to their heart, such as Cricket. What was needed was creativity and positioning.

The Strategy

The launch, in keeping with the UFC brand, needed to have impact. It also needed to clearly define what UFC is – sport or entertainment, real or staged, violent or professional. And it had to convey the excitement and audience experience that sees as many as 10,000 people turn up for fights in Las Vegas. The strategy centered on recreating the UFC experience and replicating UFC’s most visible identity, “The Octagon”, which was built for the press conference. As a prelude, media invites reflected the shape and were octagonal as well. The launch event and press conference had journalists and photographers seated on theatre benches around The Octagon – dispensing with the classic press conference layout. Journalists commented on the unusual format and excitement of a press conference where the speakers made it a wholly interactive experience.