Using non-sports themes to further reinforce athlete-driven personalities
The UFC has explored many ways to better connect with its audience. A big theme contributing to this includes question and answer sessions; The UFC has decided to create a series covering this called No MMA Questions. The clue is in the name, MMA fighters answer questions that explore their personality. they include topics like their favorite food, places they like to travel, hobbies, and more.
The above episode garnered over 349,000 views.
What can we learn from this?
Sports fans seek humanistic connections with their favorite personalities, and Q&A content has proven to be effective in delivering this.
Because of the appetite that sports fans have for it, they can use it in their content moving forward. For example, holding regular Q&A sessions among their followers/subscribers. This will help expand their reach and engagement with new and existing audiences.
Combining content that can be compared
It goes without saying that sports fans want to feel as close as possible to the fighting action offered by combat sports. However, some brands in the combat sports space have taken it to another level through the above example. Combining two similarly themed videos into one using a symmetrical format allows fans to compare the clips, potentially driving engagement for the brand that’s publishing it.
What can we learn from this?
If you are an athlete or work for a brand that represents an athlete, produce content that shows their growth, for example, if a fighter prepares for a fight, creating a symmetrical graphic with one image representing what stage of the competition they are in he was in 1 – 2 years ago to this day. This exposure of the personalities to the audience will allow them to gain further insight into their careers and learn more about who they follow.
Memes continue to keep combat sports content in high spirits
Memes are a great way to get your message across to your audience in a humanistic way. Memes have proven to be some of the most shared content on the internet, so this tweet from ONE Championship gained a lot of engagement.
What can we learn from this?
To create humanistic connections with your audience, memes can help with this by highlighting your audience’s sense of humor. While providing a meme contributes to your brand relevance, for example, the context should fit well with your caption.
Behind the scenes content
Behind-the-scenes (BTS) content is another smooth method to allow your audience to feel as close as possible to the sports action and how the moments are created. Some include footage of operators in action, conversations of fighters between their camps, emotions of fighters after events, and more.
What can we learn from this?
BTS content works well considering the frequency with which it is used for action sports content. Therefore, if you are someone who represents an athlete and want to give their fans more insight into their lifestyle, you can arrange a shoot with them while they are working out, conducting a short Q&A session while they are on their way to training or similar.
Story
A story can be delivered in a variety of ways: short and long. Fighters are beginning to use their platforms more to cover their story, often delivered through long-form documentary-style videos.
What can we learn from this?
For an athlete to have a strong impact on their sport, and athletic ability is a key factor, it also depends on their marketability, which often helps sell themselves to grow their fan base. For example, using some footage of an athlete training and then recording depending on the topic of discussion is an effective way to create a story for your audience.