‘Every revolution starts with a fight’ – well that’s the tagline of the striking Reebok/UFC marketing campaign promoting the UFC bantamweight battle between Ronda Rousey and Holly Holm.
Led by chill-inducing long form film that tells the fighters’ stories: from Rousey witnessing her first judo bout when she was 11, to a 16-year-old Holm aiming her first shots at a punching bag.
The tension builds along with the score as the story follows both women slowly finding their calling.
Cinematic in scale and style, this October campaign sets out a lifelong collision course between the two fighters and aims to drive awareness of and interest in Reebok athlete Rousey’s seventh defence of her 135-pound title on 14 November.
The online and on-air three-minute film, titled ‘Revolution’, was created by production firm Mothership and the objective is to drive pay-per-view sales for the bout.
The Mothership Media team was led by director Neil Huxley, VP Tiffani Manabat, line producer Michael Angelos, production supervisors Ben Oswald, Adam de Monet and Joe Faulstich, plus assistant director of photography Larkin Seiple, first assistant director Mike Saffie and production designer Abigail Potter.
The digital production company was Digital Domain 3.0, sound design was by ECHOLAB, mixing through Margarita Mix and the original track was ‘Experience’ by Ludovico Einaudi, Daniel Hope & I Virtuosi Italiani.
The fight promo film is running in tandem with a Rousey Reebok campaign built around the same bout.
Rousey, 28, was the first American woman to win an Olympic medal (bronze) in judo at Beijing 2008 and then turned to mixed martial arts.
After posing for ESPN the Magazine, Maxim and Sports Illustrated in 2013, she joined the Ultimate Fighting Championship in 2013 and is now one of 50 women in the 500-strong UFC stable.
Reebok signed Rousey on 16 December 2014 as an athlete ambassador.
October saw Reebok run a new social campaign that saw the sportswear giant ask fans to send messages of support for Ronda Rousey to @Reebok with the #MoreThanTape hashtag and these messages will then be printed on her handwraps for both her training and for the fight.
#MoreThanTape │ Support Ronda Rousey http://t.co/OxnFLVWN92
— Aleida Roman (@AleidaRoman93) September 19, 2015
@DPS518 Remember that time you tweeted a message for Ronda? You’re message made the cut, David! #MoreThanTape pic.twitter.com/4rx6dip2Xo
— Reebok (@Reebok) October 20, 2015
Special tweet delivery! Win your very own roll of @RondaRousey‘s #MoreThanTape athletic tape: http://t.co/UAnSSKpHuR pic.twitter.com/vTChC1q5Hm
— Reebok (@Reebok) October 15, 2015
‘My hand wraps mean so much more to me than most fighters out there. Each ball of tape I create after a training session equates to a day of hard work and another step toward achieving my goals as a fighter and human,’ said Rousey.
‘To have the support of my fans printed on something that means an incredible amount to me is really inspirational, and I can’t wait to receive the hand wraps during training camp.’
This campaign, by Venables Bell & Partners, was spearheaded with a simple Instagram post which has since gained 14,000 likes and in total the campaign has already generated millions of social impressions across all platforms.
This targeted, inventive social initiative is part of Reebok’s revamped social strategy.
Where once the brand boasted thousands of different social platforms and channels for each sub-brand and market, 18 months ago it overhauled its strategy to a quality-over-quantity approach focused on relationship-building.
This has seen the brand benefit from an 8,000% growth in social engagement.
Indeed its Instagram account alone has grown from less than 2,000 followers to more than half a million in 18 months.
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It might follow something of a traditional formula – one that has provide successful in films like Rocky and Million Dollar Baby – but it is poignant, personal and has the added advantage of authenticity.
Even the casting has an element of reality: not only does the young Rousey’s judo instructor mother Dr AnnMaria De Mars play herself, but also the teenage Rousey is played by her younger sister Julia De Mars.
In our opinion, this isn’t just the best female fight promo ever, but one of the best fight promotions of all time.
Plus, there is a sense of power derived from the sense of alienation that so many women feel when they work in a male-dominated space.
And the statistics suggest that this is the most successful marketing initiative since Reebok first partnered with UFC in December 2014.
The film has racked up 1,968,547 YouTube views since its launch in the first week of October – a record for UFC.
It’s the sort of committed, emotional and epic piece of storytelling might just help change the minds of sponsors who traditionally are reluctant to back female fighters.
Certainly Reebok has put its money where its mouth is when it comes to sponsoring both Rousey and the UFC.
Reebok signed its exclusive $70m, six-year sponsorship deal with the UFC at the end of 2014 and the sports apparel brand unveiled its UFC Fight Kit on 30 June.
By linking with a niche, but fast growing property like UFC, Reebok both leverages itself as a challenger brand against its big beats rivals Nike and Adidas, and positions itself to benefit from a sport exploding across social media and starting to move into the mainstream.
A recent Scarborough survey reported that more than 5% of the entire US population identifies as avid UFC fans.
The partnership sees the sports and fitness brand become the exclusive outfitter and apparel provider for the world’s top mixed martial arts property.
The deal extends beyond shirt logos, venue branding and merchandise sales, but sees Reebok become part of the UFC’s culture and community – thus offering in-depth engagement.
The Reebok/UFC apparel line spans exclusive ‘Fight Week’ training gear, ‘Fight Night kit’ and UFC fan gear – all developed in conjunction with UFC and its athletes, specific Reebok UFC ambassadors and fans.
Another interesting aspect of the deal sees a percentage of Reebok/UFC product sales donated to Fight for Peace – a non-profit that blends boxing and martial arts training with education and personal development in communities affected by crime and violence.
Interestingly, the deal sees an opportunity for individual fighters to generate their own share of royalty income from new athlete-specific products created through the Reebok partnership.
This interesting deal sits somewhere between the traditional sportswear brand kit supplier contracts and the Red Bull style property and event ownership model.
Links
UFC YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/UFC
UFC Twitter:
UFC Facebook:
UFC TV:
Reebok UFC USA:
Reebok UFC UK:
www.reebok.co.uk/UFC
Reebok Instagram:
Reebok Pinterest:
https://www.pinterest.com/reebok/
Reebok Twitter:
Reebok Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/reebokuk?brand_redir=20788456835
Mothership Media:
Venables, Bell & Partners:
