It was dubbed by some as "The Fight of The Century."
The main event was Pacquiao vs. Mayweather, but as marketers and advertisers, our attention was just as much on the metaphorical right hooks, being thrown by brands amidst the surrounding hype, as we were with the physical jabs thrown in the ring. As with any major event, newsjacking was rife, with some very clever examples and many forced associations wedged into the wider discussion. So which brands joined Mayweather in the winner's circle in the wash up from the bout? Digital marketing technology firm Amobee Brand Intelligence analyzed the online and social media conversation generated as a result of the Pacquiao/Mayweather fight, and their findings were this:
A (Burger) King Is Crowned
Did you see notice this guy strolling out as part of Mayweather's entourage (alongside Justin Bieber)? That's right, that's The Burger King himself. It reportedly cost Burger King $1 million to get His Highness into the group, and Amobee's numbers show that the discussion generated as a result of the somewhat surreal placement was significant. Looking at May 3rd, the day after the fight, in comparison with May 2nd, digital consumption around Burger King increased 1,343%.
"Additionally," according to Amobee, "in the last month, between April 3rd - May 3rd, already 27% of Burger King's consumption has been related to that mascot appearance at the fight. Basically Burger King got over a week's worth of publicity, just by sticking their mascot in the background of a shot at a high profile sporting event." Is that worth a million dollars? Maybe it is, it definitely got people talking, and it's an interesting case study in that they've effectively newsjacked a trend in real life. You wouldn't associate Burger King with boxing normally, but that juxtaposition is precisely why this activation was successful - people immediately wanted to know why on Earth The King was there, how did this come to be - thus generating the massive increase in discussion noted above.
The Fight vs. Other Sports
The NFL Draft was the next highest attention-generating sporting event held on May 2nd, with the Pacquiao/Mayweather fight generating 4.2 times more digital consumption than the draft coverage. The fight also thoroughly beat out the Yankees/Red Sox game, the Kentucky Derby and a great NBA Finals nail-biter between the Clippers and the Spurs, all of which generated less than 8% as much digital consumption as the fight. This highlights the massive scale of the Pacquiao/Mayweather bout, and the global attention is gained. During the four-hour duration of the fight, there were almost five million tweets sent relating to the event.
"I'd like to thank my sponsors..."
A big winner in brand lift was obviously the MGM Grand, where the event took place. The venue was mentioned in 14.4k tweets during the fight. Nike also came out pretty good, mentioned in 9.2k tweets, as did Tecate, the main official sponsor of the bout, mentioned in 4.3k tweets during the duration of the event. The upcoming Jake Gyllenhaal boxing movie "Southpaw", also an official sponsor, was mentioned 1.6k times across the Twittersphere in relation to the fight.
Mayweather's sponsors also saw significant lift, with Hublot and Fanduel, both of whom Mayweather specifically mentioned in his victory speech, noted in a combined 2.7k tweets stemming from the bout. All in all, the volume of mentions was quite high, particularly for some brands that are not prominently mentioned across Twitter usually, exposing them to a wider audience as part of the emerging global conversation surrounding the event.
Celebrity Smackdown
And then there's the tangential celebrity relationships. As noted earlier, along with The Burger King himself, pop star and former YouTube sensation Justin Bieber was also part of Mayweather's entourage. No doubt fuelled by the 63.3 million 'Beliebers' following him on Twitter, Bieber was mentioned in 100k tweets related to the Pacquiao/Mayweather bout. In what was a surprise to most, talk show host Jimmy Kimmel came out as part of Pacquiao's support crew, a move that resulted in Kimmel being mentioned in 69k tweets on the night. NFL superstar Tom Brady also got 30k Twitter mentions for his part in the event - Brady was interviewed as part of the pre-fight lead-up and attended both the bout and the Kentucky Derby on the same day. Jamie Foxx, for whom the online discussion mostly centered around his rendition of the national anthem, was mentioned in 12k tweets, while former World Heavyweight Champion Mike Tyson was also mentioned in almost 10k tweets, possibly, in some part, due to this semi-viral story and accompanying video, wherein a drunken fan attempted to get a selfie with Iron Mike (and Mike was having none of it).
Of other significant interest, from a social media perspective, was the controversy surrounding illegal streaming of the event via Meerkat and Periscope. This issue had already been raised, with warnings issued to users who'd streamed the premiere episode of the new season of Game of Thrones, but it took on a whole new face in this instance, with many pay-per-view fans upset that others had watched for free what they'd had to shell out for. It's definitely an element to watch in the rise of live-streaming - could it be enough to force the providers to shut down their services during major sporting events? That seems extreme, but the controversy surrounding streaming of the Pacquiao/Mayweather fight has also inadvertently raised awareness of this being an option for people not willing, or able, to pay to see such events via traditional, and accountable, means. You can bet the rights holders will be watching the numbers of the next major event, and sending out scouts to track down potential copyright violators online - but with so many users tapping into the live-streaming craze, it could prove difficult to stop.