Marketing and PR for Events Introduction CW1

-

Who am I and What is my objective?
UFC octagon; Google Images 2018

As a 1st year Events and Festival Management Student, I have been assigned to create a blog in which i analyse two events from different industries and the marketing tools, used to promote them.
 I have chosen a sport event in Las Vegas USA and a cultural festival located in South Africa. The reason why i chose the UFC fight between Ferguson and Nurmagovedov is due to my recent interest in the MMA industry. I found myself watching more and more often different fights and began to pay attention on the advertisement procedures the organisers use to promote the event, as well as the logos and banners of numerous sponsors, placed at the octagon where the fighters face each other.

Afrika Burn 2017



As for the second event, I wanted to challenge myself and explore a more different event than the ones we often see on the media. Something that represents the culture and history of a nation. A festival which combines history and modernism. ''Afrika Burn'' is a good example of this combination and it's event promotion is quite different as well. It tries to avoid payed advertisement and sponsorship, in order to preserve the antique vibe and experience.


Nothing is for sale but ice at the event. Nothing. There are no vendors, no advertising or branding. It just doesn’t fit in. It’s not even a barter economy – it’s a decommodified zone with a gift economy that’s about giving without expecting anything in return.
Afrika Burn website (2018)












Dana White press conference; Google Images 2018
Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) is the fastest growing sport in the world. It all started in 1993 as a professional mixed martial arts (MMA) organisation. Currently UFC is the biggest MMA promoter, offering a variety of MMA events which have sold out some of the biggest arenas across the globe.

 Since 2001, a man known as Dana White (born in Manchester, spent most of his life in Las Vegas, Nevada) became UFC's president with a current net worth of 500 million $. He became the face of UFC. Through his marketing strategies and capabilities ( interviews, conferences, press releases), he helped UFC grow magnificently within the sports industry.

Within this blog, a Marketing research will be conducted on one of the most eagerly awaited fights: 
Ferguson vs Khabib


T. Ferguson action shot; Google Images 2018
  • Tony Ferguson
    Born on the 12th of February 1984, professional MMA fighter, competing in the lightweight division (146 to 155 lb/ 66 to 70 kg). He has been professionally fighting since 2008 and won the Ultimate Fighter 13 in 2017. After he won, he set a new record for most consecutive wins in the lightweight division with 10.






Khabib Nurmagomedov action shot; Google Images 2018
  • Khabib Nurmagomedov
         Born on the 20th of September 1988, is a Russian undefeated MMA fighter. He is a two time Combat Sambo World Chamption and a Judo black belt, who currently fights in the Lightweight division of UFC. Furthermore, he currently holds the record for longest undefeated streak with 25 wins and 0 losses.
   Afrika Burn






The 2nd event which will be analysed in order to conduct it's marketing tools is ''Afrika Burn'', which is often said to be the African version of 'Burning Man''.


A performer at ''Afrika Burn''; Google Images 2018
What is Afrika Burn?
 The event was created in 2007. The owner of the event is '' Afrika Burns Creative Projects Non Profit Company'' (NPC) .
 The event takes place at the  Tankwa Karoo National Park. The original name of the event was ''Afrika Burns'', but because the name received a lot of negative feedback, on July 16th, 2008, the name was officially changed to ''Afrika Burn'', which still preserves it's identity. The event represents a
 community of people which gathers to explore art and creativity through creating costumes, burning structures, performances, music performances etc. All of this comes to life thanks to the support of local volunteers.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          
What is the San Clan and it's relation to the event?
The San Clan; Google Images 2018
 The San are the oldest inhabitants of South Africa and have lived there for over 20 000 years. The meaning behind the word 'San' is a group of hunters who share historical and linguistic connections. 







                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                


Cave painting by the San Clan, discovered by Dr. G. Dunn




The upbringing of the San Clan was brought by a discovery of an ancient cave image, discovered by Dr. Greg Dunn, who is an  american artists and neuroscientist. This particular Image is used a symbol for the ''Afrika Burn'' event, which represents the African community and experience and the founders of the event have the approval of the San community to use the image.
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                     

                                                                                                           

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

UFC Marketing Research

-
Image
Marketing Research Definition of Marketing:  The action or business of promoting and selling products or services, including market research and advertising. Event Marketing Planning:  When planning an event, the organisers must have a clear structure of how plan it and which steps they are required to take in order to execute it successfully. One of the main Marketing tools, used in the event industry is the ''Marketing Mix'' by Booms and Bitner (1986): Even though the Marketing Mix was conducted in the 80's. it is still relevant nowadays and is considered the base of event event planning process In regards of the UFC fight between Ferguson and Nurmagomedov, we can begin the target audience analysis and work our way deeper into the marketing process and tools. What is Target Audience? It is a group of people who are most likely to attend the event. The segmentation of the audience consists of the following characteristics:  ...
Read more
-
Image
                            Social Media Marketing  Social Media marketing uses a variety of platforms to promote a certain event. In the case of the UFC fight, we can analyse the social media platforms of the company, of Dana White and the fighters. Through that, we can estimate how many viewers they have and how big is the impact of the social media on event promotion.   The immense success of UFC's Social Media Marketing Tools, has helped expand the further in other countries such as Brazil, Japan, Australia, etc.  You can see in the previous post in regards of ''Traditional Marketing'', a few screenshots of press conferences. They were retrieved from UFC's YouTube channel, which shows the marketing combinations used. Due to many people not being able to travel abroad for every event, the YouTube channel makes sure to keep the fan base and the reporters/journalists updated with the ev...
Read more

UFC results

-
Image
As you were probably able to see, the UFC 223 title match was a chaos. Of course, as mentioned in the previous posts, changes due to injuries or health issues can occur, but considering it was last moment, I was surprised how Dana White (refer to 1st post for bio) was able to arrange everything and despite the negative comments, which you can see in my previous posts, he was able to find a fighter for Khabib Nurmagomedov. Khabib vs Al LAquinta, MMA Fury Website (2018)  The fighter was Al Laquinta, an American MMA fighter, who has been a professional fighter since 2009 (according the Official UFC website).  The outcome of the fight was as expected: Khabib Nurmagomedov won the title and the belt of course. So thankfully, now I can in a way make a closure on this event that focus a bit more on ''Afrika Burn'' and make the comparison that has been eagerly awaited.  Dana White kept everybody posted, as well as many official UFC journalists and UFC supporters. There wer...
Read more