Dana White, President of the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC), has helped bring Mixed Martial Arts out from the underground and into mainstream America, while building the biggest brand in sport. Prior to purchasing the company from Semaphore Entertainment Group (SEG) along with fellow partners, Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, the UFC was on the brink of bankruptcy. Forming the parent company, Zuffa, LLC, Dana, Frank and Lorenzo secured appropriate sanctioning in Nevada from the State Athletic Commission and tried to re-introduce Mixed Martial Arts to the masses.

Seven years later, UFC has overtaken boxing as the premiere combat sport, appealing primarily to males 18-34, while soaring past WWE in 2006 in pay-per view sales in the process. WWE and its chairman Vince McMahon have controlled the pay-per view market since their entrance in 1985, with Wrestlemania, but with a 200 million pay per view buy year in 2006, UFC finished the year ahead of WWE in sales.  So how did Dana White do it?  How did he create one of the strongest brands in the pay per view market in under 10 years?  

Maybe he is a marketing genius. Maybe he knew exactly what males 18-49 would want to see because he’s one of them. Maybe he only helped purchase the UFC because he managed fighters, Tito Ortiz and Chuck Liddell and ended up getting lucky.  One can’t argue the similarities in the strategies Dana White has used to upstart the UFC and what Vince McMahon has already used in the WWE.  What if one day, while Vince and Dana both worked with Spike TV, they crossed paths in the hallway and Vince McMahon dropped his playbook unknowingly. Maybe Dana picked it up and that’s the reason UFC is sitting on top of the mountain?  What would such a playbook contain?  Here are a few ideas:

#23: Build the Brand to be Bigger than the Sport Itself

The WWE is the biggest brand name in professional wrestling and is synonymous with Sports Entertainment. WWF became the most recognizable brand in Wrestling once Vince began expanding the company nationally in the early 80’s. Despite competition from the likes of World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and Extreme Championship Wrestling (ECW), WWF remained the brand mainstream American identified with when referring to professional wrestling.

Dana White has gone about promoting Ultimate Fighting Championship, the same way. UFC has become such a powerful brand that it is often confused with the actual sport, “Mixed Martial Arts.”  Mainstream American still has a difficult time differentiating UFC from competitors such as Elite XC and Cage Rage Championships.  National news coverage, along with a SPIKE television deal has allowed Dana White and his cohorts to position UFC atop of the sport, leaving competitors no other recourse but to mention UFC in their own broadcasts, as Elite XC did in their initial broadcast. (Elite XC was subsequently sued by UFC, in part due to likelihood of confusion in the marketplace)

Dana still has away to go to catch Vince in this category though. In 2000, the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) sued the World Wrestling Federation and resulted in Vince having to change the acronym to WWE (World Wrestling Entertainment). Led by an ingenious marketing plan (“Get the F out of here”), Vince recreated his brand dominance by 2002, and has had the most recognizable brand in professional wrestling on two separate occasions.

#37: Use Television to Create Up and Coming On Screen Talent

Reality television creates stars. It’s a well known and common recipe that many television producers continue to use over and over again. VH-1 has revitalized their channel programming with reality television that not only spikes the ratings, but creates a spark in careers for the artists that appear on them.

It makes sense that Dana White would create The Ultimate Fighter television series, a reality series where MMA fighters compete against each other to win a six figure contract with the UFC. According to several reports, Dana pitched the idea to networks after being featured in a reality television series, American Casino, and seeing how well the series worked as a promotional vehicle. Maybe he followed a blueprint Vince laid down several years earlier when he came up with something similar entitled “WWE Tough Enough.” Tough Enough was a reality series produced by WWE, which featured WWE hopeful’s competing for a wrestling contract, airing on MTV.

The Ultimate Fighter series is a flagship show for the UFC brand, as it creates new talent by introducing them to the fans early enough in their career for fans to grow attached to the talent in their development stage. Ultimate Fighter has enjoyed much more success than Tough Enough did, as Dana was able to avoid some of the pitfalls Vince ran into by being the original. (I guess hindsight is 20/20)

#48: Create Myself as an Onscreen Character/Personality

Vince McMahon created the on-screen, overbearing character Vince McMahon in 1997. He’s used his charisma to create and further on-screen storylines, and making himself the most recognizable face in sports entertainment in the process.  It makes sense, since wrestlers will attain a certain level of success and eventually leave the business. (e.g. The Rock) Vince, however, will be around as long as his company is.

Dana White, while creating the previous mentioned Ultimate Fighter series, decided to steal this page and put himself in front of the camera. Along with Joe Rogan and maybe Randy Couture (no longer with UFC by the way), Dana White might be the most recognizable face in the sport now. He’s placed himself ahead of most fighters in his company, compiling more interviews and more profiles than any fighter next to Chuck Liddell (who’s arguably on his way out of the sport).  As long as Dana is around (presumably as long as he wants), then UFC will always have a recognizable face.

#56: Great Feuds = Revenue

Pro Wrestling 101 says that if you give the fans a great feud, money will follow. Vince studied this and gave the fans some of the greatest pro-wrestling feuds of all time. Shawn Michaels v. Bret Hart, Stone Cold v. Vince McMahon and Undertaker v. Kane.  The idea is to build up hate amongst two competitors over a lengthy period of time, until the fans crave their upcoming match up and are willing to pay 39.95 at a pay-per view to see it culminate in a match.

Dana and the UFC seemed to catch on to this idea around the time of UFC 40, which would set the then benchmark of pay-per view buys for the company with 150,000 for the Ken Shamrock/Tito Ortiz fight.  Ortiz, then the top draw of the company, had a legitimate feud with legend Ken Shamrock over his post fight antics.  Dana hyped the fight around their mutual disdain for one another and struck magic.  UFC used the Ultimate Fighter television series to document the rivalry amongst these two stars to have another fight at UFC 61, which resulted in a then record of 775,000 buys.

#87: Buy out your competition to defeat them

WWE and its main competitor WCW (World Championship Wrestling) had an intense ratings war in the early 90’s.  At one point, WWE lost out to WCW, 84 consecutive weeks in weekly ratings.  However, after regaining its position as the top brand in professional wrestling, WWE found itself in position to purchase all of WCW’s trademarks and archived footage as well as contracts to particular wrestlers.  It was the move that cleared the way for Vince to dominate all of professional wrestling, and despite the smaller promotions fighting for a position in the market, there isn’t anyone big enough to compete with the monster he’s created.

Dana must have been studying this page closely as well.  On March 27, 2007, Dana White and the UFC made a deal to acquire all assets of PRIDE Fighting Championships from Dream Stage Entertainment, widely considered their biggest competitor. After the purchase, Dana raided the roster for contracts of fighters he wanted to sign to the UFC and ultimately has made his brand that much stronger as a result. As with the purchase of WCW, UFC purchased PRIDE to further its own dominance within its own industry.

#98: One Pay-Per View per month is the way to go

In order to stay competitive with WCW, Vince and the WWE was forced to stretch WWE pay-per views to once a month throughout the year. Previously, it was common for WWE to host four to five per year. However, once it became common practice to have one per month, Vince’s marketing became the key to its success. During each pay-per view broadcast, a preview would be on hand for the next event with its location. Every television broadcast would promote the event throughout the month, and after it happened, the broadcasts would promptly begin promoting the next event. The goal was get fans to not want to miss an event, instead of randomly ordering one.

UFC has only recently moved to a pay per view month standard. Previously, the events were random, which made it difficult for fans to follow and therefore difficult to order. Now, during the actual pay-per view broadcast, there will be a trailer for the next event with location. UFC.com regular carries a link for the website which features a trailer for the next event, and Dana uses his television programming to promote major events.

#101: A Superstar is a Superstar, Even if Someone Else Made Them That Way

When Ken Shamrock made his WWE debut on February 24, 1997, he was already a household name. Up to that point he had competed in Pancrase Hybrid Wrestling and the UFC.  He was billed as “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” because of his career in Mixed Martial Arts and he became a household name in professional wrestling as a result. Shamrock was one of the few superstars that Vince didn’t actually help create, but instead just help build on.

Shamrock’s success and Vince’s strategy in acquiring a popular MMA star (he also tried his hands at Dan Severn at the time as well) is very similar to recent moves by Dana, who acquired former WWE superstar Brock Lesnar. Brock debuted in WWE in 2002 and went on to be one of the biggest names in the entire professional wrestling world before he quit at Wrestlemania 20 in 2004.  Dana White recently announced the signing of the former WWE heavyweight champion to the UFC because of his accomplished amateur wrestling background. I’m sure his fame from professional wrestling didn’t hurt either. As with the case of Ken Shamrock for Vince, a superstar is a superstar, you just have to recognize it and take advantage of it.

Maybe Dana White didn’t need Vince’s playbook and came up with his own strategy to become number one in his market. Maybe it’s just a coincidence that it’s striking similar to his only pay-per view competitor. Maybe they’ve never even met before, much less crossed paths at SPIKE TV.  But what if they did?  Not a bad blueprint to follow.