"Strategies For Boxing Promotions Are Evolving; Mayweather Vs Alvarez Is Proof"

From Sports Networker

Analysis by Zachary Graham in SRM 435 (section 2)

The boxing industry is currently at a crossroads; the golden era of boxing is over. Tyson is gone, Ali is gone, Sugar Ray is gone, and now lightweights and international fighters dominate the sport. With MMA coming on stronger than ever, and with the sports juggernauts like football, basketball, baseball, and even soccer the boxing window may be closing. However this article describes an alternative solution, change the way the sport is seen, and most importantly promoted to the public.

Boxing has always benefited off having superstars, and none may be bigger or better than Mayweather. Mayweather is pound for pound the best fighter in the world, and his record proves that. He also is one of the richest athletes in the world bringing in $41,000,000 for this one fight. However Floyd is getting up there in age at 36 years old, Boxing is realizing that they are going to severely miss the attraction of “Money Mayweather.” Boxing is also putting one of its brightest stars Canelo up against Mayweather, as what could be the passing of a torch.

Boxing is trying new tactics and old ones more effectively to promote this fight unlike any fight in years. One tactic is now that Showtime is owned by CBS they have a great opportunity to market the new commercials during football Sunday. As well you will be seeing a promotion during the big game between Alabama and Texas A&M, hopefully appealing to new fans. They are also trying some old school tactics by running the fight in over 500 AMC theaters. They are trying to promote the idea that watching it in a theater is similar to actually being there. They are also running an eleven city tour that goes to all the major big cities, including Mexico City, appealing to it’s largest demographic. These tours will be open to the public and hopefully will drive up the hype and make fans tune in on fight night. Finally the last thing they are doing is weeks before the fight they are stealing a page out of the NFL’s playbook with a behind the scene look into their training and lives. Similar to Hard knocks of the NFL on HBO, or the Association of the NBA, and even Ultimate Fighter of the UFC; “All Access” is trying to help new fans associate with the real person. This article is relevant to this class because it specifically discusses the ins and outs of marketing for a sport other than the usual juggernauts of the sports industry. Marketing for the NFL is easy, but when trying to keep an aging sport relevant like boxing, marketing can have its challenges. Marketing for boxing requires new creative ideas, as well as re-visiting old ones and improving them. 
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Analysis by Joel Simms in SRM 435 (section 2)

Sports! Sports! Sports! People just love sports so much that the sport industry in generating more and more money every year. This is what you would think that would happen in each sport, but boxing is steadily on the decline in viewer ratings and generating revenue. Why? People believe that Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) fighting is more interesting than boxing because MMA is new to the sport industry. As the society evolves and people are prone to like new things, sports have to evolve as well in order to have fans excited about sports. Boxing is trying to use different promotional strategies to target the boxing fans and fighting fans in general who love to see two people go head to head in a ring throwing punches at one another. 

There are several ways that boxing is trying to bring back high television ratings and sales. One way is by having commercials broadcasted during another sporting event such as a football game on Sunday. The advertisements that are aired during football games can allow football fans to become interest in boxing because of the violence or physicality connection between the two sports. They have started using this promotional strategy with the Floyd Mayweather versus Canelo Alvarez title fight. I think from a marketing standpoint that airing commercials during footballs will allow people to maybe be interested in outcome of the fight, but maybe paying to watch the fight on paper view television is too early to say. I think in the long run, if they continue to air fights during football games, in the future more people would want to watch boxing since they are being repeatedly shown the sport.

Another way to promote boxing is by having city tours where the boxers will have a press conference and interact with the fans. These tours seem to be fun especially when the boxers face off one another. Face off in boxing means the two boxers stand face to face looking at one another with very seriously faces. In my opinion I think this is funny because I know some fighters do not be as serious as there face would show, so why would they act so serious? I believe from the marketing standpoint that the boxers are supposed to portray this image of intimidation and anger that allows fans to see how serious of a fight it will be. Having the city tours allow fans to get hype for the upcoming fight and see the seriousness of the fight.

Last, but not least, having televised segments of the boxers is a great way to reach out to people who do not know the accomplishments of the boxers or history. One thing I know is that most people enjoy watching television and since these broadcasted episodes are free with cable, people are able to watch the segments without paying. From a marketing standpoint, I can understand why boxing is trying to use new promotional strategies to attract more fans and that is simple because boxing is competing with other sports. Trying to generate more revenue and sales is hard when your competition is growing in the industry, so in order to compete and stay relevant, business strategies have to change and excite people. The way boxing is changing or evolving in the promotional aspect relates to the class material we learn in class. The change in boxing promotions relates to the topic of sport promotion and sales, and it relates to the journal articles all we have read online. In the Allstate article, they did a Tailgate Tour which is similar the city tours that the boxers do. One article I read was about sports starting to broadcast segments such as “The Journey” which has famous stars, Magic Johnson and Drew Brees on the episodes. Just like that of “The Journey”, boxing is using segments to attract fans and this is related back to the online journal readings. I believe boxing was end up declining at times and increasing at times because it is hard to appeal to the youth when you are competing with Mixed Martial Arts violence. The society has the concept that new is better and boxing is trying to attract fans to watch boxing.