Why doesnt Strikeforce promote their fights?

[CrimsonGhost56]

i was listening to the mma hour before and frank shamrock was a guest

Ariel: Sometimes I don't feel like Strikeforce does anything to promote these fights. Not to put you on the spot but, for example, there is a strikeforce challengers show on friday. Do you know who's fighting?

Frank: Not a clue.

Ariel: That's bad.

Frank: I agree.

i think a lot of people are in the same boat as frank. if rob didnt make the thread i wouldnt of even known it was happening this week.

yeah there was some stuff for the diaz-noons event but zero for the challengers show this week. i know challenger shows dont have the big names on them but there are still some quality fights and fighters on the card. these smaller cards are great for younger or lesser known fighters to gain some exposure but SF hasnt promoted it one bit. those dudes need to get rob on the payroll.

[Warner2BruceTD]

This makes it all the more amazing when the Challengers shows pull in surprising amounts of viewers. Clearly (besides the internet hardcores), it's channel flippers who see two guys fighting in a cage, and leave it on. Because SF is not reaching the fan base at all.

Remember when Strikeforce was on NBC on Saturday nights? I bet you don't, because they never did any promotion. But anyway, the show was pulling down crazy numbers, retaining something like 70% of the "Poker After Dark" viewers at 2am. NBC couldnt believe it, and thought they were onto something potentially big.

NBC was skeptical, and after some digging, saw that the local programming (which in some markets was a TEST PATTERN) at 3am was also holding a good chunk of those viewers.

The conclusion? People were falling asleep during Saturday Night Live & Poker After Dark, and the TV was left on until the morning.

[Liquidrob]

Because Showtime is a different beast, how much promotion are you going to do for a Showtime? Look at there shows, they don't do it for boxing, they don't really do it for there regular shows, maybe a little for Dexter, Weeds, etc...but those shows became popular more from word of mouth than promoting it

How many more viewers will you get promoting a Challengers card? How much will you spend to do it, it doesnt make sense to throw money into promoting these cards like the UFC does, it is not PPV so you don't get the return

The shows on CBS are the ones that need to be promoted because CBS sells advertising, Showtime does not do that

[Liquidrob]

To add on to that, look at the ratings they get for MMA and compare it to boxing, the Showtime boxing contract costs way more than there MMA contract for Strikeforce and they pull similar ratings

So they can get similar ratings for less money for MMA compared to Boxing, I think when the deal is up with Showtime, Strikeforce will be able renegotiate for a better deal with Showtime or shop around, Strikeforce tries to make money on there shows, so they won't spend a lot of advertising either, but if they get a better deal they probably will promote more

Strikeforce has done more recently with cheaper ways, like the Collision Course video's, the 'Fighter Exchange' with Sherdog, etc...

[Warner2BruceTD]

There are cheap ways to promote shows like this...internet banner ads (cheap), bumpers before & after every other movie/program on the Showtime family of networks (free), get with promotional partner CBS and try to get them to stick a 5 second voice bumper on the NFL & college games (advantageous to CBS to push the brand), youtube videos (free), etc.

I get what rob is saying from the SF perspective, but Showtime is guilty too. The free preview Challengers show did big numbers, clearly non subscribers were aware they had a chance to watch, but now how do you get them to invest in the channel and subscribe?

[Warner2BruceTD]

To add on to that, look at the ratings they get for MMA and compare it to boxing, the Showtime boxing contract costs way more than there MMA contract for Strikeforce and they pull similar ratings

So they can get similar ratings for less money for MMA compared to Boxing, I think when the deal is up with Showtime, Strikeforce will be able renegotiate for a better deal with Showtime or shop around, Strikeforce tries to make money on there shows, so they won't spend a lot of advertising either, but if they get a better deal they probably will promote more

Strikeforce has done more recently with cheaper ways, like the Collision Course video's, the 'Fighter Exchange' with Sherdog, etc...

I've been thinking this myself.

HBO would love to stick it to Dana, but HBO is also very uppity and does not want to be precieved as showing something that isnt the market leader. Maybe ESPN is ready to make the leap, I don't know.

All the more reason to hire Heyman's promotional company, or just hire him outright. He wants to be involved in MMA badly, but if his recent negotiations with TNA carry over, he would want an ownership stake. Shit, he tried to buy SF outright a few years ago.

[Liquidrob]

There are cheap ways to promote shows like this...internet banner ads (cheap), bumpers before & after every other movie/program on the Showtime family of networks (free), get with promotional partner CBS and try to get them to stick a 5 second voice bumper on the NFL & college games (advantageous to CBS to push the brand), youtube videos (free), etc.

I get what rob is saying from the SF perspective, but Showtime is guilty too. The free preview Challengers show did big numbers, clearly non subscribers were aware they had a chance to watch, but now how do you get them to invest in the channel and subscribe?

Strikeforce has a crap load of banners on Sherdog right now, the biggest MMA community there is, MMAJunkie, etc..so they do that, I think the Sherdog/EA/SF team up for the Fighter Exchange is a good thing for advertising

I think Showtime is happy with SF/MMA, CBS hasnt shown that interest though, I think they might do 1 more show, but they may not

Stuff we don't know is how many people have Showtime for MMA? Do they poll stuff like that? I read in the past Showtime got a nice bump in subsricbers when they started doing MMA, not sure if it was during EliteXC days or when they signed with Strikeforce and Fedor came on, only the Showtime guys know that

[clovett]

Why doesn't Strikeforce promote their fights?

They do through Liquidrob!!!

[Liquidrob]

I've been thinking this myself.

HBO would love to stick it to Dana, but HBO is also very uppity and does not want to be precieved as showing something that isnt the market leader. Maybe ESPN is ready to make the leap, I don't know.

All the more reason to hire Heyman's promotional company, or just hire him outright. He wants to be involved in MMA badly, but if his recent negotiations with TNA carry over, he would want an ownership stake. Shit, he tried to buy SF outright a few years ago.

Coker said Heyman will be apart of Strikeforce soon, not sure what roll though, he has put out some good promo's the past couple weeks for them

I agree about HBO, they would be great for Strikeforce with a bigger subscriber base, they can than do some PPV's

[Warner2BruceTD]

If I were in charge of Strikeforce (and I should be, btw), I would sit down with Showtime and make the following proposal:

-I would plan two major, high quality shows, with Fedor, Cyborg, Diaz, Hendo, beg Gina to fight one more time and pay her whatever, everyone. The first would air during a free preview week, the second show a month later. The second show would have a slightly better lineup and the better main event.

-During the first show, I would PROMOTE THE FUCK out of the second show, in a completely annoying manner, to the point it would be impossible to watch and not know the time & date. I would put exciting stand up fighters on the first show (think Scott Smith, Cyborg, etc). NO WRESTLERS. The first show would also have a tournament of some type that culminated on the second show.

-Now you can get a real measurement on how many new subscribers MMA was bringing in based on the number of the second show, which would feature the "cant miss" main event, the touranment final, and something with H. Walker, Batista, Lashley, etc, and a big hardcore type fight.

If you gain subscribers, its a win win for everyone. If you don't, status quo, which for now isnt a bad thing anyway because everyone is happy.

[Liquidrob]

If W2B were in charge of Strikeforce every show would start with a 6 man Luchador match

[Warner2BruceTD]

If W2B were in charge of Strikeforce every show would start with a 6 man Luchador match

BOOK MISTICO

Biggest drawing year of the past two decades in 2006

[EmpireWF]

There's only so much SF can do .Why promote a Challengers show with nobody on the card? What are they supposed to do exactly?

They should be promoting the fuck out of 12/4 and there is some time for that, but who knows.

I still think Strikeforce and Showtime should produce a one-hour or half-hour Preview special before their big shows. An in-studio deal with fighter interviews, analysis from Frank/Pat/others and overall hype. Do it the week before the show and run that shit a million times on all the Showtime networks, even see if they can reach out to the other CBS-owned media properties to push it even more. You're telling me CBS affiliates around the country won't be able to air a preview special at 3am, 4am? Even if it costs something, how much could it set you back?

[Liquidrob]

The lack of preview shows is not good

They did a Diaz vs Noons one online, it was pretty good, they had enough footage to air a 30 minute show on Showtime, why didnt they do it? It was already made

Fedor vs Rogers had a Fight Camp 360, very well done, they need to do it for every major card, Fight Camp on the main eventers or a preview show, they did them for EliteXC in the past

That would be something Strikeforce would ask for in a new deal, those shows add so much because the casual fan needs to have an emotional attachment to the fighters in order to care about the fight

Showtime has done 8 Fight Camp 360's I believe for the Super Six

[Steel Mamba]

You have to take into consideration what the upside for this event truly is. Even if you push it hard how many people are actually going to tune in? Does the risk outweigh the reward? Is this the type of event that will help bolster Sho and bring in more money? Is this even the event you want to market to the casual fans for a potential first impression?

Also, nothing comes free. Sho Adv takes a preview slot away from another show, so it comes down to pecking order again. Shooting youtube promos cost money, you need someone to shoot, edit, and produce it, plus the logistics of flight and hotel to get the footage you want. A simple highlight reel would be cheaper to make, but if some of these guys are new to SF, are you going to pay their previous orgs for footage rights? Advertising on sites like Sherdog definitely isn't cheap either.

There's a lot to it, and IMO all things considered they need to scrap the Challengers series and start running more cards in general. Put these upcoming guys on the undercard. If no one is watching the Challengers series then it defeats the purpose since it can't be used as a medium to generate new stars when not enough people are watching it.