Client
The Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the largest mixed martial arts (MMA) promotion company in the world and considered the highest level of MMA competition globally. The UFC produces events worldwide and is a globally popular multi-billion-dollar brand with apparel, training centers, video games and media operations.
Details
UFC was seeking to grow its online merchandise sales through its online store (ufcstore.com) as an additional source of revenue to complement the pay-per-view and live events.
Challenge
The main challenge was to identify the digital audiences that want to purchase UFC branded merchandise. This does not always match the same audience that would purchase the pay-per-views and the live events. ELMNTL needed to pinpoint the specific subsegments that would not only drive revenue to the online store, but also to hit specific revenue and profitability goals set by the client.
Solutions
We analyzed consumer behavior using all of the available digital channels that the UFC manages. This includes website analytics, previous campaigns, and market research.
Armed with this information, we worked closely with the UFC strategic team to coordinate with their overall event and marketing calendar. From there we were able to build an advertising strategy focused on the digital channels that would produce the highest immediate yield which includes the following channels:
Google Search
Google Shopping Ads
Retargeting
On these channels, ELMNTL created campaigns that focused on:
Specific product types.
Individual fighters.
Seasonal promotions.
We optimized:
Geographic targeting based on the event locations and fan base of the headlining fighters.
Day-parting and campaign timing based on event and fight timing.
Fight outcome-based campaign launches.
With each campaign, we were able to accumulate knowledge on the top performing search terms, ad copy, products, and fighters to optimize the campaign’s ability to increase revenue and profitability.