Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light brand has signed a three-and-a-half-year deal to sponsor the Ultimate Fighting Championship mixed-martial arts league, the companies revealed last week.
The agreement will substitute Bud Light, one of the country’s best selling beer brands, for a previous sponsor, Miller Brewing Co.’s Mickey’s malt liquor brand.
The size of the A-B sponsorship deal was not disclosed. In terms of marketing at UFC events, Bud Light signage will appear on the center mat and on the vertical bumpers of the octagonal ring starting with the “Ill Will” bout at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas on May 24.
Beginning this year, Bud Light ring signs will appear during each of the UFC’s 10 annual pay-per-view events, as well as at UFC press conference and pre-fight weigh-ins. Bud Light will also serve as presenting sponsor of two UFC pay-per-view events annually during the life of the pact, as well as serving as the official beer sponsor of the four or more UFC Fight Nights broadcasts.
Anheuser-Busch will also have the right to run UFC-themed in-store and in-bar promotions for Bud Light, although no details of those plans have been disclosed.
Bud Light will have branded company in the UFC ring. In January the UFC announced another long-term sponsorship agreement with Milwaukee-based Harley-Davidson. The motorcycle manufacturer will also position its logo on the center mat and have visibility both in UFC matches and at other pre- and post-fight events.
Both Bud Light and Harley-Davidson will also serve as sponsors for World Extreme Cagefighting events broadcast live on the Versus network. The UFC and WEC brands are jointly owned by Zuffa LLC.
The Harley and A-B deals represent the largest sponsorship agreements in the UFC’s 15-year history. The league’s broadcasts have been drawing increasingly larger audiences—cable measurement firm SNL Kagan reported that the UFC took in $220 million in pay-per-view revenue in 2006, up from $40 million in 2005.
But as Promo outlined in a May 2007 feature “Fight Club,” http://promomagazine.com/eventmarketing/marketing_fight_club/index.html) the UFC and other “extreme fighting” groups such as the International Fight League have also encountered marketer resistance, largely due to their early reputations for bloody, unrefereed, no-holds-barred competitions of the Thunderdome variety.
The leagues have been trying to smooth over those gutter origins by adding weight classes and referees, shortening rounds, and installing larger rings. Nevertheless, mixed martial arts has still found it difficult to appeal to advertisers. Two of last year’s UFC sponsors, Xyience energy drink and Amp’d Mobile, have both filed for bankruptcy.
Anheuser-Busch looked at the changes incorporated into UFC competition and decided that they were enough to open the door to sponsorship. Interviewed on CSNBC’s “Squawk Box” business program, A-B vice president of global media and sports marketing Tony Ponturo said, “We think the UFC and Dana White, their president, have really had a great vision of trying to make a broader audience.” He noted that the UFC had instituted a tap-out rule and stipulated that fighters could only fight once a night.
“These kind of changes still keep the excitement of the sport, but they also make it reasonable so that it doesn’t get out of control, and that makes us comfortable,” Ponturo said.
He added that among beer drinking males 21-27, mixed martial arts competitions rank behind only National Football League games as an audience draw.
“As a marketer, you have to observe what your consumer is doing,” he said. “We’ve been hearing about the UFC from our employees, and our wholesalers have seen the excitement in retail when the bars show the pay-per-view fights. This sport is growing.”
Ponturo said the brewer was not shifting marketing budget from boxing sponsorships to fund the UFC deal. But he admitted that Anheuser-Busch has been spending less on boxing promotions in recent years as the sport’s popularity has ceased to grow.
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