WrestleMania 2015 Case Study

No other wrestling event quite encapsulates the excitement of WWE fans across the world quite like WrestleMania.

The biggest wrestling event of the year is always going to attract worldwide audiences, but imagine what the outreach could be with the help of an agency such as iThinkMedia?

Huge.

Here at iThinkMedia we thrive upon events such as WrestleMania and it was for this reason why we embraced the brief given to us with such optimism.

The Brief

WWE currently have over 5 million followers on Twitter & nearly 25 million fans on Facebook.

Our brief aimed to build upon WWE’s existing audience to:

• Raise exposure/awareness
• Drive web traffic
• Gain social followers
• Drive PPV sales

What platform did we use?

So, I think everyone can agree given WWE’s substantial following on social networks that Twitter & Facebook are the best places to start.

There is no doubt that there has been a rise in the mobile user in recent years, so while working alongside WWE UK, we also targeted mobile as a platform.

Twitter

Despite having over 5 million followers at our disposal, we still wanted to target new audiences.

Before starting this we asked ourselves some questions:

Who is the target audience?

First things first, we needed to identify potential new followers so that we can target them and push content in front of them.

We found users who are following influencers in the wrestling circle and targeted them.

How will we attract them?

Promoting an event as large as WrestleMania isn’t an easy task and requires persistence and creativity.

We created a plan of action:

• Launch follower drive campaign
• Promoted tweet cards
• Promoted videos

Why are we doing this?

I’ll start with the obvious one – The follower drive campaign aimed to increase their social following.

However, this isn’t the end of the journey for our target audience.

Once on the page WWE’s Twitter account will present them with exciting news, videos and event details.

This is just one of many thumbnail images we used to promote the video.

In addition to this, the various tweet cards, videos and paid ads that we created are also put in front of their new fan base.

Facebook (Premium)

25 million.

That’s a huge amount of people, enough to fill Wembley stadium 278 times.

These loyal, enthusiastic fans certainly cannot be ignored and that’s why their loyalty is rewarded with engaging content.

Much like Twitter, we promoted match cards and video ads to entice the audience and prompt them to visit the WWE site or book up the event.

Success?

Well, here at iThinkMedia we are proud of our social management for WWE.

WrestleMania is as big as it gets and we understood the importance of the task from the get-go.

Our relationship with WWE continues to grow, as does our performance:

Cost Per View: 80% reduction in CPV costs.
Cost Per Follow: Over 72% reduction in CPF costs.
Cost Per Click: Over 30% saving on CPC costs.

Not only have we cut the costs, but we have also doubled the typical engagement rate for these campaigns.

As wrestling fans look forward to the WWE UK tour, here at iThinkMedia, we are looking forward to the next challenge.

Did you see any of our promoted ads on Facebook or Twitter? If you did, leave a comment below.