Dominic here.
June 23 was the final Waseda Marketing Forum of the academic year, which went off with a bang with World Wrestling Entertainments (WWE) VP of East Asia Marketing, Ed Wells. Before arriving at the WWE a year and a half ago, he worked at major entertainment companies like Fox, Viacom, Nickelodean, MTV, and Disney, and is the consummate entertainment marketer. WWE is his latest, and possibly most exciting assignment yet.
The WWE has come out of a gradual transition from what many remember as the World Wrestling Federation, and has become a fully integrated multimedia company with a market cap of nearly 900 million USD. Mr. Wells presented some pretty shocking facts about the WWE's success: they are publicly traded company on the NYSE, they broadcast in 145 countries in 30 languages, they are the United States' longest running weekly episodic show, they are the #1 program on their respective channels, and for the past three years they are the number two searched entity on Yahoo!, behind Britney Spears and beating out Barack Obama, even during an election season.
Mr. Well's presentation was entitled "Marketing to the masses in an increasingly diversified marketplace," but what he wanted to focus on was "marketing in the day of the incredible shrinking budget," a topic that was perhaps more relevant and universal for the audience. He listed three important factors for marketers to remember; creating an emotional connection, integrating and leading, knowing your assets, and knowing your limits.
Emotional Connection - As an entertainment company, their wrestling broadcasts contain distinctive characters and storylines. The success of a talent ( a wrestler ) is not solely judged by the wrestling ability, but also by their ability to connect with the audience. "You either make it pop, or you don't. If you don't you can expect to be phased out." The ability to emotionally connect with the audience is what makes the fans of the WWE so loyal in following their favorite stars through different mediums, and makes them so varied in age, race, and gender.
Integrating and Leading - As a multimedia entertainment company, Mr. Wells displayed the media assets through the form of a wheel, which listed mediums like television, magazines, pay per view, talent, internet, mobile, etc. Every one of these mediums is an entry point for their audience, but it is even more important to lead the audience to go around the wheel, following the WWE through different mediums. Leading them around the wheel has to be logical to the user. "Does it make sense in a multinational setting?"
Know your assets - In the day of slashed marketing budgets knowing what assets you can utilize is important. Agencies can be expensive. The WWE tries to keep as much of what do in-house, from production crews to marketing.
Know your limits- The caveat. There are people that can do things better than you, and it is essential that you utilize their expertise. In Japan, collaboration is an important tool to reach the market, as the WWE recently did with popular local artists to create t-shirts promoting their brand.
The WWE will have a tour in Tokyo at the Budokan on July 7th and 8th. Check out their website here, tickets are still available.
June 23 was the final Waseda Marketing Forum of the academic year, which went off with a bang with World Wrestling Entertainments (WWE) VP of East Asia Marketing, Ed Wells. Before arriving at the WWE a year and a half ago, he worked at major entertainment companies like Fox, Viacom, Nickelodean, MTV, and Disney, and is the consummate entertainment marketer. WWE is his latest, and possibly most exciting assignment yet.
The WWE has come out of a gradual transition from what many remember as the World Wrestling Federation, and has become a fully integrated multimedia company with a market cap of nearly 900 million USD. Mr. Wells presented some pretty shocking facts about the WWE's success: they are publicly traded company on the NYSE, they broadcast in 145 countries in 30 languages, they are the United States' longest running weekly episodic show, they are the #1 program on their respective channels, and for the past three years they are the number two searched entity on Yahoo!, behind Britney Spears and beating out Barack Obama, even during an election season.
Mr. Well's presentation was entitled "Marketing to the masses in an increasingly diversified marketplace," but what he wanted to focus on was "marketing in the day of the incredible shrinking budget," a topic that was perhaps more relevant and universal for the audience. He listed three important factors for marketers to remember; creating an emotional connection, integrating and leading, knowing your assets, and knowing your limits.
Emotional Connection - As an entertainment company, their wrestling broadcasts contain distinctive characters and storylines. The success of a talent ( a wrestler ) is not solely judged by the wrestling ability, but also by their ability to connect with the audience. "You either make it pop, or you don't. If you don't you can expect to be phased out." The ability to emotionally connect with the audience is what makes the fans of the WWE so loyal in following their favorite stars through different mediums, and makes them so varied in age, race, and gender.
Integrating and Leading - As a multimedia entertainment company, Mr. Wells displayed the media assets through the form of a wheel, which listed mediums like television, magazines, pay per view, talent, internet, mobile, etc. Every one of these mediums is an entry point for their audience, but it is even more important to lead the audience to go around the wheel, following the WWE through different mediums. Leading them around the wheel has to be logical to the user. "Does it make sense in a multinational setting?"
Know your assets - In the day of slashed marketing budgets knowing what assets you can utilize is important. Agencies can be expensive. The WWE tries to keep as much of what do in-house, from production crews to marketing.
Know your limits- The caveat. There are people that can do things better than you, and it is essential that you utilize their expertise. In Japan, collaboration is an important tool to reach the market, as the WWE recently did with popular local artists to create t-shirts promoting their brand.
The WWE will have a tour in Tokyo at the Budokan on July 7th and 8th. Check out their website here, tickets are still available.
Leave a comment