Does the UFC even promote cards anymore?

[cws80us]

They've been resting on their laurels for many years. Basically doing the very bare minimum necessary to fulfill their contract with ESPN.

 

[BangBang]

One thing that has impressed me over the years is how well they (UFC) have promoted their events.

That last press conference lasting 14 mins? was a shocker. I thought I'd accidently skipped fwd (wasn't watching live).

At least make some effort, lol.

 

[CieloLuce]

It's all about the brand now and not the fighters. I have ESPN+ and I haven't seen any big promotion for this card just little snippets of backstage interviews. If that's promoting then it's bottom of the barrel.

 

[CC27]

You see it on ESPN and social media. Honestly not sure what else you expect. Like they're gonna come knock on your door or something.

 

[CC27]

There are different definitions of promoting. Something like Conor/Khabib gets commercials everywhere and plastered on NYT square. These apex cards won't ever get that. The only big difference to me is they don't push PPVs on tv anymore, but no one watches tv.

I swear the people who complain about "promotion" don't specifically say what UFC isn't doing. They are on their social media about every fight that comes up. Makes the same behind the scenes videos and press conferences. The fighters are typically more boring, which comes from so many non-US top fighters.

cause they arent on cable/satellite PPV anymore and with social media you dont really need it.

Days of custom commercials running on basic cable are long gone.

 

[gosuasus]

It's clear that Dana fired a lot of PR people during early COVID despite lying he won't. UFC is shit in the last 5 years. I watch 4-5 cards a year.

 

[GordoBarraBJJ]

Why promote legitimate fighting when you have powerslap

 

[HI SCOTT NEWMAN]

Yeah you're so right, they put very little promotion into events anymore, they just do the bare minimum, Dana doesn't even care either, he is so busy with other things like power slappy and his new boxing org, he totally lost his passion for UFC, he's just going through the motions.

If you guys remember back to the Spike days when they has UFC Fight Night cards, it was everywhere, they would even promote the Spike cards heavily during PPVs, and there were so much interviews and ads and buzz. Now its virtually non-existent for UFC Fight Night cards

 

[Spounman]

ESPN is dog shit and Dana is too busy gambling

 

[Guy LeDouche]

ESPN is on most of the day at my work TVs they play UFC commericals non-stop if there is a big card coming up. So I guess there’s that.

But I agree, the UFC makes no attempts to win new younger fans, they try for international markets and big payouts from corpo America or the Middle East

 

[Neck&Neck]

UFC is so big it doesn’t need to be promoted now

 

[BangBang]

UFC is so big it doesn’t need to be promoted now

That's what they said about Cisco Systems before the dot com bubble burst!

(jking)

 

[Only Here for Attachments]

Trading cards: yes
Fight cards: no

 

[Tito Tapped]

What's it matter, you're going to watch no matter what. They don't need to market towards you.

 

[Mongoosemk12]

True, they are milking ESPN deal with putting on cards with no names in apex. But I ask you, what did they use to do but aren't anymore? "They need to promote" is too generic of a phrase, what specifically should they do?

I know not everybody likes it, but I feel like the embedded series and countdowns are a great way to promote fighters by showing their lives outside of the cage and gives the viewer a way to get connected/invested in the fighter's personality as well as their fighting abilities. Imo that's something they used to do to build stars instead of just hoping for the best and giving them favorable matchups. They could easily do that stuff for these smaller fighters, especially during fight week or at the PI but they just don't.

 

[Mongoosemk12]

One thing that has impressed me over the years is how well they (UFC) have promoted their events.

That last press conference lasting 14 mins? was a shocker. I thought I'd accidently skipped fwd (wasn't watching live).

At least make some effort, lol.

14 minutes is just fucking sad.

 

[Mongoosemk12]

Yeah you're so right, they put very little promotion into events anymore, they just do the bare minimum, Dana doesn't even care either, he is so busy with other things like power slappy and his new boxing org, he totally lost his passion for UFC, he's just going through the motions.

If you guys remember back to the Spike days when they has UFC Fight Night cards, it was everywhere, they would even promote the Spike cards heavily during PPVs, and there were so much interviews and ads and buzz. Now its virtually non-existent for UFC Fight Night cards

Dana used to even do street events with ticket give aways, or all the military partnership hooked a lot of guys in their target demographic. They don't do any of that anymore.

 

[Tweak896]

I know not everybody likes it, but I feel like the embedded series and countdowns are a great way to promote fighters by showing their lives outside of the cage and gives the viewer a way to get connected/invested in the fighter's personality as well as their fighting abilities. Imo that's something they used to do to build stars instead of just hoping for the best and giving them favorable matchups. They could easily do that stuff for these smaller fighters, especially during fight week or at the PI but they just don't.

I do love embeddeds they are pretty fun. But I'll say for me it takes a really good fighter or interesting personality to watch it all week. So I watch it for the better ones. Maybe if they increased the quality Id do it more and even watch for non ppvs

 

[TRUS8888]

bro this promo felder is doing on buckley is some of the most cringe shit ive ever heard.

 

[anuscakes]

cause they arent on cable/satellite PPV anymore and with social media you dont really need it.

Days of custom commercials running on basic cable are long gone.

It's still as big of a thing as it's ever been. Live sports brings the biggest ad revenue and contracts on cable these days. Same goes for streaming platform ads, which you never see the UFC promoted on either. If Cable commercials we're dead, companies wouldn't be paying so much for live sporting content, specifically for the ad demographics they bring.