Helen Yee- the journalist’s personal brand

Helen Yee is a bilingual sports reporter quoted, featured, and credited by the likes of ESPN, Fox Sports, TMZ, Forbes, Sports Illustrated and more. Helen’s grown her profile through becoming a focal voice across combat sports, mainly MMA, as she’s often seen interviewing UFC fighters. She’s occasionally featured as a reporter at boxing events, too, including Mayweather vs McGregor, KSI vs Logan Paul 2 and Tyson Fury vs Deontay Wilder. She’s also the spouse of The Schmo, whose personal brand I covered last week. However, this week’s focus lies on how Helen has built her personal brand and how she’s successfully engaging with her audience.

Featuring on the Schmozone

Helen’s spouse, David Schmulenson (A.K.A. The Schmo), has a podcast called The Schmozone, which sees Helen co-host it too. The podcast has an array of athletes as guests, predominantly MMA fighters, where Helen and David discuss various topics. Some include training regimes, thoughts on other fighters alongside recent events involving them. 

Typically, when a couple collaborates on content together, it’s proven to perform well. For example, content creator Mike Majlak and adult film actress Lana Rhoades used to be a couple, and Mike regularly created vlogs of them together. They ended being some of his highest viewed YouTube videos. 

Helen utilising long-form interviews is also an effective way to amplify her journalism style to her audience. Often enough, most of her most viewed content will be YouTube videos/clips of her having short conversations with fighters during media days, weigh-ins, and post-press conferences. Although, as an audience expands for a creator/journalist/online personality, their audience grows an appetite to explore that individual’s personality. Plus, it opens another monetisation stream through sponsorship opportunities and affiliated marketing.

Not only is it beneficial for Helen’s brand, but it allows Yee’s audience to explore the personalities of their favourite fighters in a relaxed environment. Helen and David have interviewed some credible personalities in the fight game, including Alexander Volkanovski, Dan Hooker, Javier Mendez, Brandon Moreno and more.

Founder of Eyes on the Game

Eyes On The Game is a sports show produced and hosted by Helen where the journalist expresses her views on MMA. The majority of Helen’s content is represented via her interviews with M.M.A. fighters across the U.F.C., Bare Knuckle Fighting Championships and more.

As a journalist, it’s imperative to build your brand to stand out to other journalists so that new audiences can recognise you. For example, last week, I emphasised how The Schmo’s colour schemes were integral to his personal brand, which helped propel his profile in the sports industry. Whereas Helen’s stand-out feature is her calm approach to building rapport with the guest she interviews.

Athletic career

Away from journalism, the Las Vegas born is also a bilingual 2x state champ in swimming. She occasionally expresses her progress via social media relating to competition and training. Currently, she’s returned to the gym for training following a setback with injuries.

Through her updates, she’s received endorsements from the M.M.A. community, including 2x champ Henry Cejudo, Lauren Murphy, Jon Anik and more. Small kudos like this could gradually transform into Helen bridging a gap between the MMA and watersports audience through her journey as someone wanting to qualify for the Olympic swimming trials.

This is also personalised content that naturally helps connect your audience to solidify your online community.

Helen’s successful journey as a sports journalist falls for various reasons. However, here are the key points to learn from Helen’s journalism career, supporting creators/athletes/journalists to build their personal brand.

  • Sharing personalised content is effective in building a highly-engaged community.
  • Identify methods where you can capitalise on emotional connections with your audience.
  • Stay open-minded to collaborating with like-minded individuals to enhance fan engagement.

I hope you found this blog valuable; what was the biggest insight you’ve taken away from Helen Yee’s career?

The Schmo- the journalist’s personal brand

The Schmo, formally known as Dave Schmulenson, as he describes is ‘a much-needed breath of fresh air in sports journalism’. David has interviewed many large-scale sports personalities, including Deontay Wilder, Tyson Fury, Dana White and more. David formed ‘The Schmo’ as a new character in sports journalism, predominantly focusing on MMA. He is well known to get the athlete’s point across by injecting humour with self-deprecation, a unique reporting style that’s proven to be eye-catching. This blog will discover Schmo’s journalistic flair in more depth, initiatives he’s utilising to build his personal brand, and how he engages with his audience.

Branding

The Schmo has a vibrant personality already, from what we can see. With the bright orange tint in his shades, the classy looking suits alongside his sport & comedy approach to journalism. That’s enough to give off an eye-catching impression for sports fans watching a journalist for the first time. 

He’s incorporated these assets into his branding colour schemes which you can see through his social channels (Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube). According to Pickney Marketing, colour increases brand recognition by 80%; therefore, it’s essential to get it right to maintain consumer attention. 

Even on his YouTube channel, he’ll have his theme tune catchphrase (it’s the Schmo with the pro) alongside speaking in a self-deprecating but humorous tone. 

The way Schmo presents himself helps him gain a humanistic reaction from the athlete he’s interviewing. It’s common in large-scale sports such as football, American football, basketball etc. When athletes attend press conferences and media outlets, they don’t showcase their true selves due to how sensitive their profile is. Schmo’s journalism style has produced viral moments amongst the MMA community, including an interview with middleweight Darren Till five months ago, which adds more traction to the US journalist’s profile. 

These are three principles upcoming journalists should consider when building an audience to solidify your community, establish your name in the industry and stand out to other reporters. 

The Schmozone

The Schmo is married to fellow sports reporter Helen Yee. Together, they’ve created a podcast called ‘the Schmozone’. They both interview athletes, predominantly personalities across the MMA world and discuss topics such as training regimes, thoughts on other fighters alongside recent events involving them. 

Usually, when couples collaborate on content together, it’s effective to build an audience. For example, social media personality Mike Majlak and adult film star Lana Rhoades used to be a couple, and Mike often produced vlogs of them together. They ended being some of his highest viewed videos on YouTube. 

The Schmozone does have a twist. When interviewing his guests, the Schmo reverts to his regular self, David Schmulenson. 

Long-form podcasts for David are beneficial for many reasons. They show another side to David, and when your audience begins to expand, your followers develop an appetite to see your content evolve. It makes sense for David to host a long-form podcast to capture more content from his guests rather than catching them for a quick chat during a weigh-in, media day etc. 

Merchandise

Schmo also has a few pieces of merchandise available on his website. Face masks, bomber jackets and t-shirts are available for his supporters to purchase. 

There are hardly any affiliated links directing consumers to his online shop on his YouTube videos and social channels. That’s likely because it’s not his core product, and he wants to build more awareness and engagement through his journalism. 

I’m sure once he continues to expand his audience, he’ll consider expanding his merchandise, perhaps including collectable Schmo sunglasses, as it’s appearing as a traditional brand item for him. 

So, what have we learnt about the Schmo’s personal brand? 

– Take your time identifying relevant colour schemes when developing your personal brand. 

– As your audience increases, think about ways you can portray your skills through different avenues. 

– Identify methods to encourage humanistic reactions from your interviewees.

Josh Cohen- The Journalists Personal Brand

Many will know him as ‘the Pink Suit Guy’, but Josh Cohen is a sports reporter who predominantly covers MMA and is a media personality for ESPN South Florida. The Pink Suit Guy lingo stemmed from a UFC press conference for the trilogy of Dustin Poirier vs Conor McGregor. Josh asked a bold question to Conor regarding his recent MMA record, and Cohen happened to be wearing a vibrant pink blazer when he took to the mic. Since then, Josh has made a few more appearances at UFC Media Days, which have intrigued me about how he’s developed his profile as a journalist and how I think he can maximise impact through his personal brand.

 Becoming the ‘Pink Suit Guy’

Since provoking a harsh reaction from Conor McGregor at the UFC264 Press Conference, that moment has propelled him into a meme marketing sensation.

The clip alone has generated over 400k views across YouTube and has been formed into different pieces of content. Combat sports animation artist, Mojahed Fudailat, created a content piece on the exact episode taking place, which accumulated 380k+ YouTube views. Josh also appeared at the UFC268 Press Conference, seeing Kamaru Usman vs Colby Covington 2 as the main event. He adopted a similar approach with asking Colby a question which also made Colby retaliate aggressively to the journalist.

Cohen has also been a hot topic across the online MMA community by being the subject of many memes, especially on Twitter. Memes have rapidly become one of the most significant shared pieces of content online. A similar effect happened with Eddie Hearn becoming recognised through the ‘No Context Hearn’ Twitter account amongst casual combat sports fans. Josh could utilise this opportunity to give his reactions to certain memes, which opens further engagement with new audiences and brand awareness.

Despite Cohen receiving backlash about his controversial journalistic style, he’s spotted an opportunity to form a Cameo account that could provide a monetisation avenue from his 11k+ social media followers. Cameo is a platform where many other athletes such as Floyd Mayweather, Lisa Leslie and Isiah Thomas have signed up to share personalised video messages with their fans for a fee. Despite Josh not having the reach that these athletes possess, it’s an initiative that could prove lucrative as he builds his personal brand.

The Lover and The Fighter Podcast

Josh has collaborated with UFC pioneer Din Thomas to create ‘The Lover and The Fighter Podcast’. The two MMA journalists cover pre-fight build-ups fighter focus sessions alongside hot topics across the UFC community.

As a reporter, it’s vital to offer different avenues to your audience to check out your content. Most of Josh’s followers will likely solely recognise him as the ‘the pink suit guy at UFC264’. The fact he co-owns a podcast with Din could be beneficial for legitimising his name in the MMA community rather than being purely known for a moment that went viral.  

To summarise, Josh has become a hot topic across MMA through his viral UFC264 press conference moment. Since then, he’s capitalised on increasing brand awareness and has even more opportunities to grow a niche micro-community of combat sports fans.  

How can Showstar Boxing maximise its first event through content creation? 

On March 5th, the YouTube Boxing scene returns home to the U.K. with a new promotion, Showstar Boxing, presenting a U.K. vs U.S.A. card seeing content creators from both nations taking on each other in the ring. YouTube boxing has gone from strength to strength in recent years with Jake Paul’s meteoric rise, himself becoming a promoter for none other than Amanda Serrano alongside various influencer exhibition events. Despite the growth, there are areas of critique that need to be outlined to enhance the legitimacy of YouTube Boxing. For example, the Jake Paul vs Ben Askren fight headlined by streaming app, Triller, gained many critiques surrounding it being too entertainment-focused, a lack of professionalism, and labelled ‘cringy’. This blog will discover what Showstar has done well to meet the YouTube boxing communities’ needs alongside how they can amplify their event through content creation.

What has Showstar Boxing done well so far? 

Fan-led decisions

Creating a fan-led event. Across Showstar’s social channels, they’ve run through various polls asking their followers what fights and commentators they’d like to see on occasion. Examples include securing fights such as Deji vs Alex Wasabi, King Kenny vs Faze Temper and The W.A.D.E. Concept as the U.S. commentator. As traditional boxing fans would agree, one of the sports issues has been creating events driven by the fans in recent years. By doing so, they’ve built an online community influenced by genuine initiatives fans of influencer boxing want to see. This increases the likelihood of a boost in sales alongside brand awareness and engagement.

What content will make a powerful impact on event promotion? 

Pre-fight documentaries

For KSI vs Logan Paul 2, streaming service, D.A.Z.N., co-produced a fight documentary entitled ’40 days’ for both fighters. It covered both boxers’ fighting camps, including training footage, vlogs and their mentalities entering the fight. It was uploaded to both creators’ YouTube channels, accumulating 15.4m views.

Documentaries have proven effective at promoting a theme of authenticity, interest, and awareness to the content they’ve produced. YouTube Boxing thus far has been a mix of showmanship and athleticism, two values that are key towards its success. If each fighter or at least the four involved in the main and co-main event can get coverage of their camp’s training camps, fighter interviews, and other behind-the-scenes clips, this will prove beneficial for driving sales and engagement for the event.

What I find fantastic about the U.F.C. embedded series is that it provides exclusive access for fans, which can enhance their engagement with their favourite athletes. Suppose Showstar could advise or produce something similar for the creators featuring on this card. In that case, it could prove beneficial for building up engagement and enhancing a professional look for the event.

Fighter Interviews and media day

Traditional boxing events have press conferences; however, what will make the difference for Showstar is them being moderated by those who truly understand the creator space. For example, U.K. YouTuber True Geordie moderated the KSI vs Logan Paul 2 U.K. Press Conference. True has been following the YouTube Boxing extravaganza since KSI stepped in with Joe Weller in London. These initiatives make a cultural impact that entices the viewer to follow the event due to the authenticity, professionalism, and chemistry the interview empowers.

The W.A.D.E. Concept became a fan-selected commentator for this event; utilising him for interviewing fighters during the build-up could prove an effective move. W.A.D.E. is a YouTuber who’s gradually risen to become a pivotal voice of the YouTube boxing community through his fight reactions fighter interviews alongside other fight-related content. Thus far, he’s gained, 149k subscribers and 14.9k+ social media followers. Not only has he built a solid following, but his content also comes across as authentic, knowledgeable and professional, which would reflect well under Showstar Boxing if he’s involved during fight interviews and press conference moderation.

Face-to-Face’s

Sky Sports Boxing built a reputation for this, getting the two fighters in a room confronting each other without any audience other than a moderator. It’s an element of ‘close and personal’ content which enhances the appetite for the main event through both fighters speaking their mind about their thoughts on each other.

For the KSI vs Logan Paul 2 card, this D.A.Z.N. YouTube video accumulated 6.8m+ views. That itself demonstrates the appetite boxing fans have for content like this. Furthermore, considering this is an influencer-led event, the face-to-face moments are an opportunity to create viral moments which can expand reach to non-traditional audiences.

With previously promoted YouTube Boxing exhibition events, such as Social Gloves: Austin McBroom vs Bryce Hall, Triller Fight Club: Jake Paul vs Ben Askren and Social Knockout, what’s been lacking is professional production behind an influencer-led event. Understandably, it’s a challenge to balance professionalism with such a highly valued entertainment exhibition. However, it’s the factor that can make or break your target audience’s interest in it. Therefore, if some of these principles are followed by Showstar Boxing throughout its event promotion, I’m sure we’ll be in for a well-produced fight card.

Sports industry trends to look out for in 2022- content isn’t king, it’s golden

We’re seeing properties such as Matchroom Boxing investing more time, effort, and cost into their content creation. The leading boxing promotion launched an independent media production arm, Matchroom Media, earlier this year, focusing on live production, programming, and content creation surrounding Matchroom-related events.

The rapid rise of influencer-led sport has also inspired many athletes to take their content more seriously. For example, athletes such as Israel Adesanya, Ben Foster, Sean O’Malley, and Ryan Garcia have invested their time forming YouTube channels and Podcasts to better connect with their audiences. It also helps them establish their personal brand to a wider demographic, which relates to marketability, sponsorship opportunities, and even net worth. This year, A study by the Harvard Business Review found that a 5% increase in retention can increase revenue by 25-95%.

Short-form video app, TikTok, broke new ground this year as it overtook Google as the world’s most popular website. TikTok has arguably become the hub for viral content where over 1 billion users have registered with the site to date. The platform also announced they’re going to launch a delivery service entitled ‘TikTok Kitchen’ and aim to release the service in 1,000 locations by the end of 2022. We’re in an era where brands are pivoting into media companies to broaden their monetisation streams, and creators are leading the way to influence this change.

Content has also never been consumed in the extent of formats we find today. From audio, video, articles, Twitter threads and more. We’re openly seeing more sports brands being creative with their tone of voice alongside announcing key updates for their fans. Spartak Moscow is a prime example, especially with its Twitter page. There’s a risk of it damaging a brands integrity. However, it’s also a chance to engage better and strengthen your online community.

2022 will see a year where the relationship between content creators and athletes will work hand in hand. The level of effort placed in an athlete’s personal brand will reflect on their commercial appeal, sponsorship value, and other endorsement opportunities.

Sports industry trends to look out for in 2022- Athlete-driven marketing

2021 saw some of female sports greatest ambassadors fly the flag of prioritising mental health. None other than Naomi Osaka did so by withdrawing from the French Open, which drew divided opinion across the globe. Some thought it was a noble initiative to endorse athlete’s protecting their mental condition and physical. However, others critiqued the tennis player because her actions were deemed ‘unprofessional’. Osaka was fined $15,000 to withdraw and not to honour her contractual media obligations.

Four-time Olympic gold medallist, Simone Biles, is another athlete who has put her mental health first ahead of competing. During the Tokyo Olympics, she pulled out of the women’s gymnastics team final to ‘focus on her mental health’. Biles shared she didn’t want to continue; she didn’t trust herself as she used to and didn’t want to risk getting an injury at such a clinical moment.

We also witnessed the England national football team reach the Euro 2020 final but were cut short by Italy. Although, that wasn’t the biggest disappointment of England’s Euro 2020 campaign. Twitter reportedly deleted over 2,000 racist tweets in the wake of the tournament. Plus, the UK was announced as the largest country of origin for the abusive tweets on the final night. The nation spoke out about how appalled they were at these horrific events, including UK’s Home Secretary, Priti Patel. Although, England player, Tyron Mings, responded to the Home Secretary and expressed his upset about Priti’s earlier message about England’s anti-racism message being labelled as ‘Gesture politics’.

Despite potential controversies surrounding these events, they demonstrate the power behind athlete-driven marketing to empower social change. Simone and Naomi have now found themselves as mental health advocate’s alongside the England national team supporting social change. The likes of Marcus Rashford continues to trailblaze his efforts by working with politicians to support deprived communities. Ultimately, athlete’s raising awareness about social change will continue to raise the profile of organisations supporting social causes.

Sports industry trends to look out for in 2022- Influencer-led sport

From my perspective, this has been the most fascinating space to explore across the sports industry in recent years. The trend is most prominent across the combat sports space, especially with Jake Paul continuing in his stride to become boxing’s most valuable fighter. We also witnessed Jake’s brother, Logan Paul, take on none other than Floyd Mayweather in an exhibition bout generating over 1m PPV buys.  

Jake claimed many accolades in 2021, including being announced as the 3rd richest boxer in 2020, the US’s 10th most searched athlete on Google, his KO on Tyron Woodley becoming Showtime Sports most viewed YouTube video alongside reportedly earning £15m+ from boxing in 2021. Although, it’s arguable his selling power could be fading away if he continues to follow on with boxing vs MMA crossovers. His bout with Ben Askren reportedly generated 1.5m PPV buys globally, whereas his more recent fight with Tyron Woodley accumulated 0.5m PPV sales. His rematch with the former UFC champion gained a shocking 65k in PPV sales. Therefore, the question lies with how much longer can Jake Paul continue trailblazing the boxing industry?

Jake Paul isn’t the only party to benefit from this trend. TikTok rivals, Triller, staged multiple combat sports events last year, including Jake Paul vs Ben Askren, Legends II: Evander Holyfield vs Vitor Belfort, Triad Combat (headlined by Kubrat Pulev & Frank Mir) alongside Michael Hunter vs Jerry Forrest. Triller had received much backlash from fight fanatics, especially for their Holyfield vs Belfort card, where the likes of Eddie Hearn expressed the fight should never have happened due to Holyfield being 58-years old, an age where nobody should consider boxing! Since this incident, Triller’s reputation in the sports event landscape could be damaged commercially and professionally.  

History was made last summer with entertainment firm, Social Gloves, headlining the first-ever YouTuber’s vs TikTokers boxing event. Despite the anticipated excitement, the event was somewhat disappointing, considering it accrued 136,000 PPV buys compared to a projected 2.2m.

Another influencer boxing promotion entered the sector, known as Social Knockout, created the Middle East’s first influencer boxing event and the world’s first-ever Cryptocurrency only combat sports event. Consumers were only able to buy the event through KokoSwap cryptocurrency and photos alongside real-time moments during the event were only available to purchase through NFT’s. There have been two Social Knockout events thus far in Dubai, with the 3rd event rumoured to take place in the UK in 2022. The prospect of crypto-only events will be fascinating to watch in the influencer-led sport space, especially seeing the likes of Jake Paul, Logan Paul, and KSI increasing their investments towards NFT’s and blockchain currencies.

Combat sports has also led the way, with influencers pivoting into promoters. This year, Jake Paul set up his own promotion, Most Valuable Promotions, and he’s representing the no.1 Pound-For-Pound female fighter, Amanda Serrano. Jake has big ambitions to work with Matchroom Boxing to stage one of the most significant female boxing events in 2022, Amanda Serrano vs Katie Taylor. Amanda has gone from strength to strength since signing with Paul’s promotion as she’s being offered larger purses for events considering the brand power of Jake. After her fight on the Paul vs Woodley 2 card, she also announced that she officially became a millionaire. KSI also revealed he created his own boxing promotion in collaboration with Wasserman Boxing and the Sauerland brother’s last year; however, we’re still yet to see it come to fruition.  

Influencer-led sport has been experimented with across other sports. We’ve seen Triller sign a media rights deal with US rapper Ice Cube’s, Big3 three-on-three league. Wolverhampton FC has created a music label, Wolves Records, to promote upcoming music talent, and one of their first signings is song producer S-X. Formula E launched an influencer collective, The Offset, featuring creators including Joe Weller, Josh Denzel, Schme150 and Bimini Bon Boulash.

This trend has sprung many benefits to the industry. It’s opened sports like boxing to a younger audience; it’s taught traditional athlete’s the importance of personal branding and content creation to leverage brand value and monetisation opportunities. In 2022, other sports properties could adopt a similar model to Formula E in setting up an influencer entity alongside using creators to be the leading voice of the new generation.

Sports industry trends to look out for in 2022- the metaverse

We’re seeing more sports capitalising on NFT’s, fintech and blockchain currencies as a new monetisation avenue. This area will continue to accelerate as the sports industry evolves into the digital space. According to Deloitte, NFT’s for sports media are forecasted to generate $2bn+ in transactions this year, double the figure developed in 2021. Deloitte also predicts that 4-5 million global sports fans will receive NFT sports collectables. It’s also expected that exclusive video clips and player cards will be the most lucrative set of NFT’s to populate the metaverse.

One of the most significant sports blockchain movements lies with the iconic Staples Center renaming the Crypto.com arena. The Staples Center held approximately 240 events a year, including multiple Grammy Awards, NBA All-Star Games, boxing matches and more. It’s a new generation for the sports industry to diversify how they engage with their fans and reach new audiences. Affiliating themselves with blockchain and metaverse related entities is a major pathway for them to do so.

The fan token app, Socios.com, has registered 88 sports clubs this year. Some of their partners include PSG, the UFC, Detroit Pistons and more. Reports from the BBC suggest total spend on crypto fan tokens lies in hundred’s of million’s of dollars throughout 2021. By purchasing tokens, fans can gain special prizes for their club/property, including winning rare memorabilia, tickets and voting rights.

There’s pros and cons to the expansion of the sports metaverse. The advantages consist of it benefits sporting properties to build new monetisation pathways, which could ultimately increase the properties overall net worth alongside building a community of ‘super fans’.

Despite this move seeming appealing for fans who can afford to invest in blockchain, it could dilute the relationship’s properties have with their broader audience. For example, for fans to gain voting rights on behalf of their football club, they’ll need to pay additional fees on an app. It keeps fan engagement orientated around a transactional relationship rather than an authentic relationship, which in principle, should be what more properties are aiming for.

Long-term, I can see more sports clubs/properties welcoming blockchain payments to gain tickets, merchandise, and in-stadium goods. Whether it will work out for the better or worse, we’ll have to wait and see.

Hooked On Fight Content- 26.12.21

I hope you all had a VERY Merry Christmas, and you’re all into the festive spirit and enjoying yourselves all across the world! As always, here I am with another edition of fight content analysis as the sporting season doesn’t switch off. Therefore, get your reading caps on and tuck into some invaluable insights across the fight game!

Tyron Woodley creates an IG meme competition

Jake Paul’s round 6 KO has hit 9.9m+ views on the Showtime Sports YouTube channel from the weekend.

The knockout has become a viral meme. Despite this likely being a moment most fighters would want to forget, Tyron Woodley maximised this opportunity by running a giveaway campaign on his Instagram account.

The former UFC Champion offered $5,000 to whoever produced the best meme from him getting knocked out and has awarded it to the creator, Chris Ashley.

This is a practical example to demonstrate the power behind meme marketing, and it is a chance to develop further engagement with your audience.

Some MMA fighters have a strong relationship with alcohol

Mype Sports are one of the fastest-growing MMA meme YouTube channels, and they’ve smashed it with this compilation.

Some MMA fighters and alcohol have a strong relationship with alcohol that they can’t help themselves but supposedly consume some before fights. One example includes middleweight Paulo Costa blaming his loss to Israel Adesanya in 2020 because he was drunk the night before. Paulo’s PR team must’ve had multiple facepalms when the statement came out; however, it was a big talking point amongst the MMA community, for the better and worse…

Despite the controversy around promoting alcohol, Mype has found a synergy that can connect casual fans to their channel while promoting MMA. Many memes include drunk compilations, and Mype has applied this into an MMA context.

When building a brand, focus on the bigger picture, look at how you can apply your niche to wider concepts that will appeal to mass-market audiences.

Sean O’Malley recaps on the Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley rematch

Sugar Sean is back with another upload for the TimboSugaShow podcast where he’s talking about the rematch between Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley 2.

Something I appreciate that Sean does with his podcasts are he clips the key sections in the description box. This helps his audience find the key parts of content they’re looking for rather than listening through the entire piece and potentially opting out due to not seeing their desired discussion.

O’Malley is a fighter who takes his content creation game very seriously. From his podcast to vlogging, having his own merchandise and gaming, he’s building a personal brand to build himself to one of combat sports biggest stars.

Focusing on the bigger picture, sports fans are just as interested in their favourite athletes outside of competition and inside.

Paddy The Baddy starts a vlog series

Paddy Pimblett has uploaded his first video of his vlog series by popular demand from his fanbase. The content consisted of attending UFC268 as a fan, training footage, and spending time with close friends and teammates.

The video has gained over 221,000 views in the space of 4 days, making that his most-viewed YouTube video.

Vlogs are an effective way of connecting with your audience while you’re not competing in your sport. It’s a chance for your fans to access behind the scenes footage that isn’t covered by typical rights holders like the UFC, BT Sport, ESPN etc. It’s also an opportunity to build your profile in the sport, especially staying consistent with the uploads as personalities and star value influence athlete-driven marketing.

What was the best Boxing vs MMA fight this year?

Boxing promoters, Boxxer, put up a carousel of some of the sports greatest boxing vs MMA events and posed the question, which was the greatest?

Ever since Jake Paul has gotten involved in boxing, its relationship with MMA has skyrocketed to another level. It’s crossed over two audiences to tune in to a new generation of athlete crossovers. It’s encouraged other athletes such as basketball players, including Deron Williams featuring on the undercard of Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley 2.

The lesson to take away is that when you’ve built a brand, eventually pivoting into different industries is an opportunity to expand reach, brand awareness, and engagement.

That’s a wrap! What was your key insight from this week?

Hooked On Fight Content- 18.12.21

Another week of fight content emerges including promotion for Derrick Lewis vs Chris Daukaus, Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley 2 and more.

The Beast taking the mic at the UFC

None other than Derrick Lewis will be looking to get back to winning ways this weekend against Chris Dakaus at UFC Fight Night. 

Ahead of the bout, the UFC have compiled popular footage of Derrick taking the mic through an IG carousel. His most popular moment was when Joe Rogan asked him why he took his shorts off, and Lewis responded, “my balls were hot” which accumulated millions of views online. 

Moments like this are what can enhance the UFC reaching new audiences through viral and meme-related content. 

The build-up begins for Jake Paul vs Tyron Woodley 2

This weekend we will see if Jake Paul will go 5-0 in his unorthodox boxing career or whether Woodley will throw a spanner in the works to avenge his loss earlier this year to Paul. 

Docuseries’ is an effective way at sharing the story of athletes ahead of competition. It keeps fans enticed to the occasion and is a chance for creators to produce their own content through reactions and other content formats. 

We’re in an era where athlete-driven marketing is orientated around exceptional storytelling and sharing your personality amongst your audience to build a powerful online community. 

That was a nice kick

ONE Winter Warriors 2 had taken place yesterday and it saw Murad Ramazanov take on Zebastian Kadestam. Ahead of their bout, ONE promoted Murad hitting the bag in front of his son to inspire the young boy.

Ramazanov’s son said to his dad, “that was a nice kick” after a few kicks on the punchbag. The video has over 522k views which demonstrates the appreciation the ONE audience have for this type of content.

What made this clip so engaging is it triggers and emotion from the viewer. A bit of father and son bonding is something that many humans can appreciate and ONE have applied this concept for it to empower their brand and the sport of MMA.

Ever wondered what fighters think to themselves before fighting? 

Well, BT Sport might’ve answered that for you, to a degree! None other than Bella Mohammed is fighting this weekend against Stephen ‘Wonderboy’ Thompson at UFC Fight Night. 

The UFC BT Sport content team have created a parody voiceover of what is supposedly Belal’s pre-fight thoughts. 

The clip has over 32k views which demonstrate the engagement UFC BT Sport’s audience are showing towards content like this. 

Alex Volkanovski receives his black belt

Alex had a big achievement to share on IG this week, he’s finally got his black belt! This is a high accolade for any fighter as it gives them credibility in their respective martial art. 

The clip has over 200k views and demonstrates the engagement Volkanovski’s audiences have in following his achievements and journey. A key part of building a personal brand is taking your audience on your journey for them to be your community spirit. 

That’s a wrap! What was your key content insight this week?