Digital Marketing Strategy Proposal – Matchroom Boxing

This strategy proposal is for Matchroom Boxing, a UK based boxing promotion company who are currently in the process of expanding into the US market.  This proposal will look at certain digital marketing initiatives that can help with penetrating the US boxing market.

Strategy

Matchroom’s decision to move into the US at this time is due to the fact they have one of the most exciting talents in Boxing today, Anthony Joshua. Joshua holds three of the five heavyweight belts and the goal of himself and his promoters have been to unify the division. Joshua fights for one of the belts in March and providing he wins, it will set up a fight with unbeaten American champion Deontay Wilder. Eddie Hearn, Joshua’s promoter, in an interview with IFL TV said he wanted to build the profile of both Joshua and indeed Wilder in America to maximise returns from the fight. Therefore, the goal now is to build these profiles to a point where there is a very high public interest both in the UK, US & worldwide. Matchroom have made one major step in signing broadcasting deals with two major US boxing broadcasters HBO & Showtime. With the recent set up of Matchroom USA as well, a successful show with these two fighters and a strong undercard could leave Americans with a very positive impression of Matchroom and would be a great foundation to increase brand awareness in the US. Due to the PPV model of Matchroom, these big PPV nights in boxing can create a terrific fan base and platform for a promotion to build from.

As of 26/01/18 off Official IG pages

Influencer Marketing

One digital marketing initiative on the rise is influencer marketing. eMarketer in 2016 revealed brands spent somewhere upwards of $570 million alone on influencer marketing on Instagram. Matchroom can use this to their advantage to help them build Joshua’s brand in the US. Joshua and Hearn have built Joshua’s brand very well in the UK attracting big brands such as Beats by Dre, Jaguar, Under Armour and many more. The way influencer marketing works is brands choose a public figure of influence to represent their brand and influence the public to become a customer of that brand. However, Joshua and Matchroom could greatly benefit from reversing the role and encouraging those brands that are popular in America to increase their content on Joshua. The fact of the matter for Matchroom is the bigger Joshua’s brand in the US becomes the bigger Matchroom’s become. This is in part due to the public figure promoter Eddie Hearn has become and whenever Joshua is in the public discussing boxing, Hearn is with him. One brand in particular that comes to mind is Beats by Dre as the demographic is in line with a sports demographic and is a huge presence in America. This is very obvious from their IG page. All their content is athletes wearing Beats.

Taken from BeatbyDre Instagram Account

 As you can see, their page is full of athlete’s such as LeBron James, Tom Brady and the Williams sisters wearing their products, and Joshua has featured on there before also:

Taken from Beats IG Account

There would be great benefit for Beats as well. Joshua wears Beats to many public appearances and it would be great brand exposure for Beats to be associated with Joshua in the build-up to what is one of the most highly anticipated match-ups in boxing today and it is in the hugely appealing heavyweight division. This match up will attract a lot of media attention globally equalling high brand exposure for Beats. Personal appearances at Beats events, advertising campaigns and exclusive interviews  with Joshua would be great at increasing his awareness in the US and would lead to more brand exposure and advertising for Beats.

Matchroom Boxing App 

The second digital marketing initiative I would suggest is an app. Apps are becoming increasingly popular and for Matchroom it could be a huge asset. An app can provide a hub for boxing news, fighters and upcoming events. It is easy to update and people can access it with one click and get all the news they need providing they have internet. It also gives your organisation a presence and pushes branding out to a wider audience due to the global availability of app stores. Matchroom also have the perfect platform to promote an app as they have some big events with broadcast partners on the horizon and they will be able to advertise it on the boards behind fighters during the press conferences, in ring sponsorship and be able to discuss it in the media. Furthermore, no other boxing organisation has an app, and there isn’t a successful app for boxing news either therefore this would give them a competitive advantage and differentiate themselves from other promotions.

Apps cut out waiting times, they are quicker than a web page as a lot of the info is stored in the app already, it increases visibility as it is constantly on a customer’s phone, it increases consumer engagement, making it easier for customers to interact with the brand and find out information on the brand, such as fights, champions, and general news. Lastly it reduces marketing costs as you can post information on the app, and with alerts people can receive notifications to their phone whenever there is news. This would be the best way for Matchroom to improve communications with their audience.