The Growing USMC-UFC Partnership
Amy McCullough of the Marine Corps Times writes about the growing relationship between the UFC and USMC on the sponsorship level, and how the two organizations share a similar target demographic in young people aged 17-24.
MARINE CORPS BASE QUANTICO, Va. — The Marine Corps has formed a formal partnership with the Ultimate Fighting Championship that promotes more interaction between Marines and famed mixed martial arts fighters, and calls for a series of new recruiting advertisements that emphasize similarities between the two organizations.
The goal, Marine officials say, is to engage the UFC’s rapidly growing fan base of 17- to 24-year-olds by highlighting the Marine Corps Martial Arts Program and the parallel “sense of shared brotherhood” exhibited by Marines and pro fighters alike.
“The ideologies behind UFC and the Marine Corps now are very similar in a lot of ways — not just in the fighting techniques and mixed martial arts aspect, but … we both share that warrior ethos,” said Gunnery Sgt. Pauline Franklin, a spokeswoman at Marine Corps Recruiting Command. Pro fighters, she added, “are very intense people who like to push their limits, and they focus hard on training and believe in commitment, honor and courage.”
Below is the latest advertisement which attempts to highlight the similarities between the USMC and UFC
Payout Perspective:
MMAPayout.com has long advocated a greater degree of integration between the UFC and its sponsors, and the USMC clearly understands how to activate upon its sponsorship of the UFC. The more a sponsor can associate its own brand with the personalities and other artifacts of the UFC culture, the more successful it will be in attracting the attention of the UFC demographic.
It’s simply not enough to throw up a Bud Light advertisement, for example, during a TUF commercial break. A-B Inbev has to leverage that UFC theme in order to reach the UFC customer. Now, of course, there’s a question of funding – commercials and customized activation strategies are expensive – but that brings us back to the topic of current trends in sponsorship; being prepared not just to invest in a sponsorship, but also in the activation and evaluation of that sponsorship.
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The USMC article points out that this relationship wouldn’t have happened even just a few years ago, which is clearly a sign of the times right now. It’ll be interesting to see whether those that oppose MMA and yet support the war, will condone the USMC essentially using the UFC to recruit young people.