DAZN Delivers Punch For Sponsors: Over 1.2 Million People Watched Canelo Vs. Jacobs Stream

I wear many hats within my professional life as a brander, marketer, producer and connector. In addition to being a boxing insider and participant in the sport as a manager of prospects, contenders and world champions over the past 25 years, my true love is in the marketing and promotional realm. I have been on both sides of the table when it comes to buying and selling sports sponsorships and nothing is more beautiful than watching multiple entities work together to execute a successful campaign.

The Canelo Alvarez vs. Daniel Jacobs fight that took place in Las Vegas on May 4 at the T-Mobile Arena was more than just a mega-fight. Canelo and Jacobs were a vehicle for many brands to piggyback the success of streaming partner DAZN's success and the more than 1.2 million people worldwide that watched live as Canelo defeated Jacobs in a 12 round middleweight unification bout.

It's moments like this when partnerships deliver a knockout punch (pun intended) for all parties involved. In an age where results can be measured in real time via a number of metrics that advertisers have at their fingertips, it's no surprise that the post-fight numbers not only reflect an increase in exposure, but they're in line with what DAZN reported yesterday.

NUMBERS GAME

According to DAZN more than 1.2 million people worldwide watched live across the company’s eight current markets. In addition to the United States, home to the vast majority of the viewership, the fight was also available to DAZN subscribers in Austria, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan, Spain and Switzerland.

During fight week, I published a story on how brands were the real winners from the exposure around the fight and the post-fight metrics reinforce that theory. I mainly focused on Tecate Beer and DAZN who both had a prominent footprint surrounding the event.

Tracy David, the head of marketing for social analytics platform ListenFirst said, "Immediately around the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight, DAZN greatly increased their social media audience highlighted by DAZN gaining 80,415 new followers on their social media channels. This is a great example not only how the night was a great success for DAZN, but how associating with a popular sporting event, can be leveraged into developing a longer-term conversation between brands and their audience."

DAZN can also thank Uninterrupted, the athlete empowered brand founded by LeBron James and Maverick Carter. Uninterrupted produced The first edition of 40 DAYS, the documentary series that put a spotlight on the build-up to the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight. The series is just another example of how executive producers DAZN, Golden Boy Promotions, LeBron James and Maverick Carter were able to work together and help fans connect to this fight. As part of an ongoing global media partnership with DAZN, Uninterrupted will be producing a slate of content in the boxing space, elevating the stories of today’s most well-known boxers.

TECATE CLAIMED THEIR CORNER. AND THEN SOME. 

Welcome to a historic night! Welcome to #CaneloJacobspic.twitter.com/ASg5ayNs0r

— Tecate (@tecate) May 5, 2019

According to ListenFirst, Tecate generated 8,680 new fans on owned channels. This can be attributed to a number of things, one being that Tecate's activation during fight week was hard to miss. From the press conference to weigh-in, to fight night, Tecate illustrated what I would consider Brand Activation 101.

PREMIUM TECATE GUEST AND FIGHT FAN EXPERIENCE 

Between May 3 to May 5, there were 445,186 tweets around the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight coming from 354,127 unique profiles which had an average of 12,215 followers. There was potential impressions count of 134 million around those tweets. Demographically, the audience from these tweets was 83 percent male and 17 percent female; with 77 percent of the audience being millennials, 13 percent  being Gen X and 7 percent of the audience being Gen Z.

The Tecate fan footprint increased on May 4 and May 5, with 8,680 new fans (a 2,212 percent jump), and 8,522 of those fans coming from Facebook.  Tecate's top content on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube were about the Canelo vs. Jacobs fight and generated 35,925 responses including (likes, comments, shares) across channels, a jump of more than 36x from the previous two days.

The activation around the MGM Grand during fight week was prevalent as Tecate took the opportunity to provide fight fans with special offers throughout the week.

NUMBERS DON'T LIE

Across social channels, DAZN's fan footprint grew by 80,415 followers comparing May 4 to May 5 to May 2 to May 3; a jump of 280 percent from the previous two days, with the majority of new fans on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube. Conversation volume was also up by 53,103 mentions on Twitter, and online search for DAZN was also up 235 percent with 37,172 Wikipedia page views.

What these metrics tell us that DAZN is providing the viewership that is undeniably playing a role in moving the needle for their sponsors. I'm already looking forward to seeing what's in store for Anthony Joshua vs. Andy Ruiz and Gennady Golovkin vs. Steve Rolls.