Affliction Bombs On Broadway, Part Two
(photos attached)
By Eddie Goldman, for ADCC News
Back in September, I ventured out to Times Square to see the giant billboard the Affliction mixed martial arts promotion had put up for their October 11 show. That show, which was eventually postponed, had as its main event a heavyweight fight between Andrei Arlovski and Josh Barnett.
At that time, as I wrote on this site (http://www.adcombat.com/Article.asp?Article_ID=16404), I conducted an impromptu and unscientific survey to find out what male passersby thought this huge billboard, totally in sight and easy to read, was trying to promote. I then asked three men chosen at random, and this was the response: "Each politely stopped, gazed above at it, and gave the same response: Even after looking at it in person, they had absolutely no idea."
Now Affliction is back in the same place on this same corner on Broadway, with a similar looking billboard hyping their January 24 pay-per-view show featuring Fedor Emelianenko facing Andrei Arlovski. And I, too, went back to this same corner on Broadway Friday night to gauge the reaction of male passersby to this new billboard.
This time I was joined by my colleague Keisha Morrisey
(http://www.bloodlineboxing.blogspot.com/), who is also a correspondent on No Holds Barred. We were coming from the weigh-ins at Madison Square Garden for Saturday's Joe Calzaghe-Roy Jones Jr. fight, and a party celebrating the 50th anniversary of Boxing Digest held nearby. While we were walking to the subway, I asked her to accompany me to this latest marketing test. While primarily working in boxing, she has also covered numerous mixed martial arts events and news conferences, including those of Affliction in New York, so she agreed.
This time we stopped four males (again, since these shows are not mainly aimed at women, it would prove little if they failed to react to the billboard). All four seemed to fall in that 18-34 demographic group, which marketing and advertising types believe should determine the fate of the world.
We asked them all, very politely, the same thing, if they knew what this billboard was about. Unlike September, we actually got four different responses from these four men.
The first, when asked if he knew what it was for, simply replied, "No."
The second replied, "Wrestling," meaning, of course, the fake
professional "wrestling".
The third man, who seemed the surest of the lot, replied, "Boxing." After answering, he actually came back to us and repeated his answer, again quite politely.
The fourth man replied, "A TV show." Technically he was the closest, although Arlovski's bared fangs and Fedor's glaring head hardly brought to mind a mixed martial arts pay-per-view.
The tally: While standing in clear sight of this Affliction billboard, none of these four men could even identify what sport it was for, let alone what specific event it was hyping and how to watch it.
Such is the genius of the product of all the high-priced marketing, advertising, and public relations people Affliction has hired. Great job, folks. We are certain that this will all make this January 24 pay-per-view just as successful as their first financial bloodbath was.
But who are we to speak when all these fancy "experts" are blowing more bundles on billboards such as this one? Indeed, what do we at the ADCC News know about mixed martial arts compared to them?
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Eddie Goldman -- No Holds Barred
http://eddiegoldman.com
Starlite Boxing's Sweetscience The Video Channel Online http://www.youtube.com/ELEmpress1
EL Boxing Empress Keisha Morrisey's Myspace http://www.myspace.com/Keishadivine
Honorable Keisha Morrisey http://www.keishamorrisey.com
©®™ 2007, 2008 All photos by "EL Boxing Empress" Keisha Morrisey- Empire Morrisey Studios, for Bloodline Boxing Communications Entertainment and Starlite Boxing's Sweetscience Magnews-Online Publication all rights reserved
