The Fight for Brand Supremacy

On rewatching the excellent Netflix documentary ‘The Last Dance’, I was reminded of the stratospheric influence that Michael Jordan had on culture during his dominant decade in the 90’s.

What sits at the heart of the documentary narrative is the overwhelming sense of Jordan’s drive, his determination to be the best, and his refusal to let anyone fail to meet his incredibly high standards, irrespective of how much of an a-hole it makes him appear to team-mates. 

It’s a story of ultimate high-performance and commitment, an inch-by-inch improvement to turn the Bulls from perennial underachievers to the greatest team alive.

And with Jordan at the heart of the team’s meteoric rise, his celebrity grew to unprecedented levels.  The episode in which the story of his relationship with then-upstart Nike – having snubbed Converse and been snubbed-by Adidas (on my days) – brilliantly unpacked how brand Air Jordan was born, and more broadly the media and cultural influence of arguably the world’s greatest sportsmen of the era.

For Jordan though, he was always very clear on why he was able to command such attention – his commitment to elite performance on the court.  Without his excelling at his craft, he knew that there would have been no Nike deal, no Air Jordan brand, and no global mega stardom.  Without his talent in the game, the brand wouldn’t have been.

Fast forward 25 years to last weekend and a boxing match in Diriyrah, Saudi Arabia.

​Tommy Fury and Jake Paul squared up for a pay-per-view bout that had been brewing as a contest for years. Tommy, part of the Fury fighting family, against the brash American Paul, both unbeaten fighters, headlining in the desert like Anthony Joshua and the Ukrainian Alexander Usyk had done a year previous. 

Tasty.

The difference this time however was that although both fighters were unbeaten, they were both at the start of their careers and no world titles or belts (apart from a hastily created random WBC thing) were on the line. 

Two, 8-fight novice fighters, on paper at the very start of their careers (Paul hadn’t at this stage even fought a boxer), given top billing, with no titles at stake, and half a million people parting with good money to watch on the TV.

What on earth?

Like it or loathe it, in pure marketing terms, this was simply a brilliant example of long-term brand building with a peak activation within a fan passion point.

The media was boxing, the brands were Jake Paul, Tommy Fury and (arguably) the kingdom of Saudi Arabia, and the audience were the subscribers to the social world of both fighters. The sporting goal? To generate as much revenue as possible and to further raise the profile of both fighters.  Not one for the purists, I grant you, but boy did it generate.

A purse of $10m shared between (novice!) fighters, and an early approximation of $25m generated view pay per view.

Unlike MJ, this wasn’t generated because of the ring craft of either man or because they were top ranked champions or contenders - in fact Steve Bunce, BBC Radio Boxing correspondent, described both as ‘..probably being around the 250th best boxers in their weight divisions..’

Both men had cultivated their brands very differently and - even in the case of Fury who has been brought up in the culture of boxing his whole life - rather than seeing the sport of boxing as their way to reach the top are leveraging the sport to further their success in other ways.

One, an American social media celebrity turned professional boxer, the other a professional boxer turned reality TV star.  In Jake Paul’s case, tens of millions of followers that he has cultivated over the years and that he puts to great use in the promotion of his fights, and many argue that him bringing his following to the sport of boxing is no bad thing. 

Yet the purists – and hands-up, I’m one – feel like it’s in bad taste when so many boxers at that level will be earning a tiny fraction of that purse throughout their careers, with few alternatives to making money.

But like any brand involvement in culture – be that sports or music or gaming for example – the key to a successful engagement is being net positive for fans.  Both provided great soundbites through the build-up, created sharable content for fans, and kept the hype building up to the event.  And – similar to the exhibition fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather – I have to admit that the show was good (although I didn’t part with any cash for it) and delivered as a pretty even if low-quality tear-up.

Not good for boxing, not bad for boxing, just a piece of branded entertainment via boxing that proved quite good fun – and there are many examples of brand activations that don’t hit that mark.

Chris Jefford is CEO of creative agency Truant London.