Why Blood Sells & Brands Are Buying Into It
Benjamin Potter, CD & co-founder of sports content agency CLICKON, on boxing and brand appeal.
World heavyweight champion and recent winner of WBA and IBO titles, British boxer Anthony Joshua, has taken home £15 million in endorsement deals from 13 sponsors including Under Armour, Beats by Dr.Dre, Lucozade Sport, StubHub, Jaguar, LYNX and Sky Sports.
The recent Joshua/Klitschko fight has proven that ‘blood sports’ are both popular and lucrative. Post-war attendance records were broken, with the fight broadcast in over 140 countries worldwide and over 90,000 in attendance at Wembley alone. The Joshua/Klitschko fight was predicted to generate over £60 million with brands digging deep to tell the story of Anthony Joshua: creating innovative, emotive and empowering content.
With a re-match on the cards, let's look at why blood sells and why advertisers are buying into boxing again.
Under Armour
The sportswear brand has been in partnership with Anthony Joshua for three years, creating work that spans social media, video and print advertising. Most recently the Inspired by Greatness campaign likened Joshua to Muhammed Ali, inter-splicing Ali's iconic speeches with those of the rising star during training. Released ahead of the big Joshua/Klitschko fight, the advert capitalised on the growing interest, tension and momentum.
Beats by Dre
Beats' most recent campaign, BE HEARD, features Anthony Joshua alongside other athletes including Serena Williams, Lebron James and Owen Farrell to inspire and honour the connection between sport and music. The sponsorship deal also yielded some interesting initiatives such as Joshua’s personal playlist, so that aspiring boxers and fans could train to the very same tracks.
Lucozade Sport
Made to Move chronicles Joshua’s journey to fighting champion: from birth, to an active toddler, a keen runner, football player, motor sportsman and then to his time in jail, later a bricklayer and his embarkment into boxing alongside this. His tumultuous past, from his arrest in 2010 to his rise to heavyweight champion of the world six years later, makes for an emotive, raw and authentic piece of content. It's undeniably one of the best celebrity endorsements in a long time.
StubHub UK
Having kicked off with #NoHype in 2015, Joshua's latest outing for Stubhub, #LiveBoxing, is set in urban surroundings as well as the ring, giving a sense of journey and also relatability. In the film, Joshua touches upon his inspirations and heroes, as well as how the fans give him motivation to succeed.
LYNX
Joshua has starred in numerous ads for the male grooming brand including 2016's Men in Progress, 48” and Street Pulse. The relaxed and direct-to-camera style offers fans unique access and insight to the sports star.
With his rags-to-riches story, work ethic and mission to inspire the younger generation, Joshua is gold dust for advertisers. Recent analysis from sports index platform Brandtix revealed Lucozade Sport, Beats and Under Armour were Joshua's most talked-about sponsors across social media, and as boxing has evolved from a small story buried in the back pages of a newspaper to front page news, brands have capitalised on this movement.
It seems that the success of the Joshua/Klitschko fight has given audiences a new taste for blood, with speculation about a rematch and who might step up next to face Joshua in the ring. Promoters and advertisers are salivating at the thought of the revenues to come - and boxing is clearly no longer on the ropes.
Membership
