school of the web - assignment 9 - fighting talk

I was interviewing Paul Colman for something else, and then at the end, I thought I should try and grab him for an Account Planning School of the Web brief. Because he's smart and he's a client, so that's a useful perspective.

So Paul decided that what we should think about is, how do we make MMA a more popular sport?

Here's our conversation - paul_mma.mp3, and it's always worth checking out Paul's conversation with Alexis Demetriades.

So the task is really simple - you need to come up with a 5-year plan that will make MMA a top 5 sport in the US and the UK. Present your solution however you want to, put it on your blog, or send us a file (but the file needs to be less than 3MB). Since I'm assuming a lot of you won't know a lot about MMA (I don't) you probably need to do quite a lot of research and digging around the internet and start thinking yourself into a different mindset. No more rules or clues than that.

Anyway, have a go. I think this'll be really interesting. This one needs to be done by the end of August. Assignment 8 is with The Design Conspiracy folks for judging etc. All will be revealed when I get back from hols.

Comments

[Ben]

That's a great brief.

At the end of the year would you consider an APSotW get together?

[Colman]

No holds barred assignment - I like it!

There is a ton of stuff on youtube - search for; mma, mixed martial arts, ufc, pride, bjj, submission fighting, vale tudo.

I think the conversation pretty much lays out my thoughts. Here are some links to be getting on with...

http://p102.ezboard.com/fsfuksubmissionfightinguksfukmmaforum

http://www.cagewarriors.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=11

http://www.sherdog.com/

http://onthemat.com/home.php

http://www.mma.tv/

[Tim]

And of course http://www.ufc.com/ - The ultimate fighting franchise is owned by Spike TV here in the states - so Spiketv.com will be a good resource as well.

Good assignment, I'm looking forward to it.

[Colman]

Good point Tim.

And Pride from Japan...

http://www.pridefc.com/pride2005/index_new_temp.php

Cage Rage, the biggest UK show...

http://www.cagerage.tv/

[Anton]

Russell

Do I just enter this or do you need an email address from me and vice versa?

Would love a go

[Colman]

They are open to all (I believe).

[russell]

Anton - just pile in. Send me something when you're done.

[George Nimeh]

Call me a cynic, but making MMA a top 5 sport in the US is a very tall order. Even getting into the top 10 seems like a long-shot.

1) NFL (National Football League)

2) NBA (National Basketball Association)

3) MLB (Major League Baseball)

4) NCAA football (college football)

5) NCAA basketball (college basketball)

Rounding out the top 10, by the way, are NASCAR (stock car racing) PGA Tour golf, Tennis, wrestling and pro hockey. Track and field, figure skating, bowling and a bunch of other TV-sports are in there somewhere.

Here is the problem: Money. Media dollars. Multi-million dollar, multi-year broadcast contracts. Cable rights. Sat distribution. Pay-per-view rights. Print deals. Endorsement contracts. And so on.

There is no way of breaking into the top 10 in 10 years, let alone the top 5 in 5 years. Unless your plan includes about a billion dollars of funding. And even that will not be easy. Sports/leagues like the XFL have had tons of cash, but it still didn't work.

~G~

[Jack McManus]

MMA will be 3 behind NFL and NASCAR in 5 years