John Brody, WWE’s executive vice president of global sales and partnerships, recently talked about WWE’s marketing approach and how WWE has quadrupled its total revenue on brand partnerships dating back to 2011.
The article courtesy of Front Office Sports talks about WWE doing very well across demographics that marketing partners are going after such as the Gen Z and millennial generations. The known advantage WWE has over competing professional sports leagues is the ability to leverage its top talents due to not being unionized.
John Brody said, “Our secret sauce is the personality of our superstars that are world-class athletes and trained actors. We also have a willingness to lean in and integrate partners into our matches. Do you think NHL or MLB would allow a brand to activate on-field during a game? No way.” WWE company SEC filings show that WWE has earned $48.3 million in advertising and sponsorship fees through September 30 this year.
Brody continued by saying that they have multiple ways to utilize advertising through TV, Social Media, and WWE Network. KFC is a big part of the WWE’s strategy as seen last week at the TLC PPV. Some fans sat ringside behind a KFC decorated table watching a live tag-team championship match while eating KFC Fill Up boxes. Steve Kelly, KFC Director of Social Media, talked about this, saying “They voted with their voices by shouting KFC repeatedly during the match. Really what brought us together was a desire to create content marketing materials, but to do it with a little bit of a chuckle.”
Kelly ended his interview by saying, “WWE has done a great job of staying close to its fan base and doing weird and fun activations. We don’t want to be a thorn on the side of fans by showing up in uneventful ways too often.”
You can read the entire interview here. Do you think WWE has stepped up their marketing and advertising game across the past few years? Let us know in the comments below.
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