Odd Lack of Promotion for Brock Lesnar vs. Randy Couture
by Michael Rome on Nov 7, 2008 5:00 PM EST
in MMA News
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After UFC 90, Dana White did an interview with Steve Cofield where he indicated that they had no intention of doing a big media push for Lesnar and Couture, because the fight would sell itself. It looks like he was serious.
A little over a week out, there has been no substantial push to hype this fight. The best piece on it so far was done by ESPN, not the UFC. Initial plans to do a 24/7 fell apart supposedly because the staff is so overworked that they did not get the show off the ground in time to get on the Spike TV schedule.
ESPN will actually be covering this fight, though to what extent remains unclear. They are counting on traditional media to push this over the top, but if there was one clear lesson of last year it was that a day's worth of ESPN exposure makes basically no difference for buyrates.
The last week is really what matters when it comes to fights, because people tend not to think about things weeks in advance. Still, that is a logic better applied to your typical UFC than to a super fight like this one. They've decided not to do any co-promotional deals with WWE, even though that is clearly where the extra buyers come from when they do well, probably because they're in denial over that fact.
I still think the show will do well, but I think it has virtually zero chance to set the kind of records Dana was predicting.
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I don’t see this fight card setting any records as well especially for ppv.
I do see the Penn vs St. Pierre fight setting records – the record breaking success that Dana is predicting for the Couture/Lesnar fight.
"My job is a decision-making job, and as a result, I make a lot of decisions." --George W. Bush, The Decider, Lancaster, Pa., Oct. 3, 2007
Hmm, i guess my first comment was a little too harsh. Noted, i understand now. Anyways, this card will get huge coverage from the internet sites and blogs, i don’t think it needs major coverage from main stream media. Anyone who has interest and would get the PPV probably knows about this fight by now. I don’t expect it to do record breaking PPV numbers, but it’ll do well. I feel like an idiot for thinking Randy is going to get hurt, because I felt the same way before his fights with Sylvia and Gonzaga.
When you say they planned to do a “24/7” I assume you mean a multi-part Countdown that apes HBO’s product even more heavily… are we still getting a regular Countdown?
I believe that is true...
as in everything you said
Contributing Editor - BloodyElbow.com - SBNation's mixed martial arts headquarters.
by Brent Brookhouse on Nov 7, 2008 5:53 PM EST up reply actions
Wait. I thought the UFC has nothing to do with the production of the countdown shows. I thought they let an outside production company handle it as well as the All Access.
by The Bronzeville Bully on Nov 7, 2008 7:49 PM EST reply actions
No, they screwed it up by not working with Spike in time to clear three weeks worth of spots, and as a result couldnt get a 24/7 program.
Yeah
You can’t preempt hits like Manswers, re-runs of Kung Fu: The Legend Continues and America’s Funniest Farts
I don’t ever see the UFC doing a PPV that will get over 1 mill buys again. I think the best they will get is around 800k. All these big PPV’s will just stack more people in a house to watch the event instead of people having small get-to-gethers.
Always the nay-sayer :(
It may be a while before we see a 1mil+ ppv due to the world economy etc.. but for every eyeball watching at a mates house, there is a potential new customer for future cards.
Aiming for 1mil+ and only getting 800k does not make the card a failure.
I never said the card would be a failure if it only did 800k buys. Shit, 250k+ buys is good.
I’ve met a lot of new “eyeball” or “potential” UFC fans. They don’t order it and will not. They just find friends houses that order it.
I consider myself a hardcore fan, and I watch every fight new and old that I haven’t seen, but anway that was off topic….
It’s easy for me to get 8-12 people at every UFC PPV, it’s usually just me and 1 other person if it’s a free televised fight! Which I’m sure no one watches!
For the Couture Lesnar i’ve already got a guaranteed 20 people, they have been switching shifts and doing whatever to see this fight. I’m praying the Undercard is some good fights or that’s a lot of bored people looking for a fight!
To follow what you said, the names themselves, plus a little hype by me, is selling this card to new people. I don’t know if there is any way to truely know how many eyeballs are gonna be watching this fight, but i’m not sure if Dana not advertising and promoting will hurt the amount of people who were already going to buy this fight
all you gotta do is...
silva/cote did 625k, with zilch for promotion and no espn exposure. i dont think 91will break the record, but i think it could do a million. the 24/7 show would have been ideal, but they are planning on doing that for bj/gsp, so look for 94 to hit the high mark.
from Dave @ The Wrestling Observer
There are tons of ads now for Lesnar-Couture. At least locally, they are all over CNN. It’s the first time Zuffa itself has gone heavy into purchasing local cable ads, particularly hitting the major markets during Raw tomorrow night.
I dont get it, I havent seen any advertising. Even the promo they show before TUF is really weak. They could really pump this up and probably get a huge buyrate. Any PPV that sells itself would probably be helped more than other fights with a little advertising, especially with Lesnar on the card. Also, its not that big a deal but they havent put out a wallpaper since Liddell/Evans. I usually put those on my computer to remind me when the fight is coming and to get pumped for it. Why not do these little things that would get people more into it, I dont understand it.
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