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Smackdown Marketing
BNH speaks with Jim Byrne, senior vice president of marketing and public relations at World Wrestling Federation Entertainment Inc. of Stamford
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Business New Haven
7/10/2000
By: Tammy Rachau
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What is your role in the marketing the WWF, and what media do you employ?
I've been in this position for close to two years. I have oversight over the company's marketing, public relations, community relations and government relations. For marketing, we use our own television network, which is nine hours of programming across first-run syndication, broadcast and cable. So we use our own programming as a medium for the message. We utilize print, in longleaf publications like magazines. We get a lot of press, primarily in the nation's top 20 tabloids. We utilize broadsheet publications as well, such as USA Today. We do some outdoor advertising. Radio is very important to us. We actually jam a whole lot of communications into our public-relations functionality. So, for example, if one of our WWF superstars is being interviewed on a radio show, we're certain to obtain the tune-in for our television shows or a promotion about a pay-per-view event that is upcoming. We almost use public relations opportunities as promotion and advertising as well.
Is most of your marketing directed toward other businesses or towards the consumer? What is your demographic among consumers?
We do have a business-to-business campaign, which is "The Best Built Brand in Entertainment." So that's our B-to-B slogan. But our advertising is mostly the pay-per-view events and tune in for two of our shows: WWF Raw on USA on Monday nights at 9 and tune in for Smackdown, which is our broadcast show on UPN at 8 p.m. on Thursdays.
The WWF has the No. 1 regularly scheduled show on cable. It is the No. 1 show on UPN. It is the No. 1 show with males from 12 to 24, and the No. 5 show with teens overall. We've been holding on to that supremacy for almost two years. We do target a specific group - primarily males from 12 to 36, and also females from 12 to 24. We do have women wrestlers in the WWF, and they've always been a part of our unique form of entertainment. Most recently, our stars include Chyna and Ivory. We often focus on the individual superstars. The emotional connection that the performers provide us is a way of connecting with this audience.
Is the WWF is in competition with the other wresting organizations?
We compete with all other entertainment. We compete for the attention of our audience. It's important to us, to our strategy. So we compete for people on Thursday nights that are going out to the movies. We compete with the programming on the networks and cable, whatever else that is on that our audience would be interested in. I think that one of the key drivers or paradigm shifts, with our company, was setting our sights higher than who our direct head-to-head competitor was for years. So we really came to a point where we realized that we competed with Hollywood, a night out on the town, Blockbuster [video stores]. As soon as we started thinking about all of the various ways in which our audience could be torn in different directions, we created - or [WWF Chairman] Vince McMahon actually created - the most compelling form of entertainment available on television today. This unique hybrid called the World Wrestling Federation is part game show, part talk show, part cartoon, part action-adventure, part soap opera - there's nothing else like it on TV.
Who are the people involved in the marketing at the WWF?
The chief strategy person in all of our affairs, including marketing, is Vince McMahon. Every single person in this company is a marketer at heart and by nature. But the specific marketing team consists of roughly a dozen people.
Vince McMahon is the chairman of the board of the WWF. With his wife Linda McMahon, he co-founded the World Wrestling Federation as it is known today in 1982. But Vince is a third-generation promoter in the business. The fourth generation is also active in the business today. His son Shane McMahon is president of our new media division, and Vince's daughter Stephanie McMahon is an account executive in our North American sales office. Marissa McMahon, Shane's wife, is director of publicity for the World Wrestling Federation. So the fourth generation is firmly in place.
The wrestlers themselves are very involved with promoting the WWF. They do electronic appearances on shows like Entertainment Tonight, Access Hollywood, Extra! and Inside Edition. They have been on the covers of dozens and dozens of magazines, from TV Guide to Entertainment Weekly to New York magazine to Cigar Aficionado to Business Week. Business Week recently ranked us the No. 3 hot growth company in America. Our CEO, Linda McMahon, was on the cover with one of our WWF superstars, Cane.
How does the XFL fit into the future of marketing the WWF?
We're dialing up all things entertainment, concurrent with a completely separate sports organization called the XFL. The XFL is the X Football League. [The 'X'] doesn't really stand for anything in particular. The X Football League kicks off on February 3, 2001. There will be eight teams from eight different cities. The thing that will set this league apart and make it different is the style of play. It is a wide-open game called "smashmouth" football. It's a brand of football that resembles the way football used to be played. There is a whole generation of young people that have never seen that kind of wide-open game played.
Also in the future, we're going to be getting into developing action-adventure series and talk shows and late-night programming. All of these projects are very much in the early development stage at this point. We are really going to be expanding the entertainment operations, as well as our new sports league.
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