27/04/2017

Ahead Of The Big Fight > A Bevy Of Brands Bet That Anthony Joshua Is Boxing’s Next Big Thing

As British heavyweight Anthony Joshua takes on Wladimir Klitschko in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley Stadium on 29 April, his sponsors seek to capitalise on a man they are backing to become one of world sport’s biggest stars.

 

Win, lose or draw, Joshua will trouser a cool £15 million from the fight, but his commercial sponsors are investing considerably more in marketing their partnerships.

 

It’s arguably the biggest boxing match in UK history: as well as the 90,000 ticket holders, the match-up will be broadcast in the UK via pay-per-view on Sky Sports Box Office (where it is expected to break the channel’s current PPV sales record of 1.15m)

 

 

and on RTL in germany, wwhile in the USA its is being broadcast via both Showtime

 

 

and HBO (only the third time the American rivals have shared a fight).

 

 

Both broadcasters, brands and boxing experts believe that the London 2012 Olympic gold medalist and current IBF world champion has the boxing skills, determination and courage, the personal appeal and character, the backstory and the future to become the sport’s biggest star and perhaps even return boxing to sport’s top table.

 

His boxing skills and personal appeal are further helped by his growing personal digital and social media fan base. He is still some way behind the current elite athlete social A-Listers (like Christiano Ronaldo and LeBron James), but he is steadily building on his own impressive follower metrics: his Facebook page has 1.5 million likes, his Instagram feed has 2.2 million followers and his Twitter feed boasts 900,000 followers.

 

Of his three core social channels, it is Joshua’s Instagram feed which has turned into a prime advertising platform.

 

For example, Lynx’s latest ad amplified on Joshua’s own Instagram feed has racked up a solid 380,000 views.

 

Stay fresh, stay humble #FindYourMagic #Lynx #ambassador

A post shared by Anthony Joshua (@anthony_joshua) on

 

From luxury watches and premium car companies, to sportswear brands and deodorant products, Anthony Joshua’s sponsors reflect his move towards a genuine mass market appeal.

 

Amoung AJ’s leading commercial partners, perhaps the three campaigns generated the most engagement are by energy drink brand Lucozade Sport, sportswear sponsor Under Armour and headphones partner Beats.

 

Lucozade Sport’s Joshua fronted ‘Made To Move’ spot has notched up 3.5m Facebook views (plus thousands of comments and reactions), plus a further 25,000 views on YouTube (see case study).

 

While sportswear partner Under Armour’s flagship big fight campaign film, called ‘Inspired By Greatness’, has generated 1.3 million views on Facebook, 460,000 YouTube views, plus a further 308,000 on Instagram (see case study).

 

While Beats By Dre’s core ‘Be Heard’ spot boasts 540,000 Facebook views (and thousands of likes), 100,000 Instagram likes and 11,000 YouTube views (see case study).

 

In total, there are at least 13 commercial partners backing Joshua for this fight:

> AJ Elite Series

> Altitude Mask

> Audemars Piguet

> Beats By Dre / Apple Music

> BXR Gym

> Dafabet

> Jaguar Land Rover

> Lynx

> Lucozade Sport

> Sky Sports

> StubHub

> Texo Construction

> Under Armour

 

Audemars Piguet

 

Swiss watchmaker Audemars Piguet work with Joshua as a high profile public figure to show off their timepieces both in advertising, across the digital and social spaces and at events. Outside of the ring and the gym, Joshua shares pictures on his social channels of himself wearing the premium watches.

 

Altitude Mask

 

Dubai-based Altitude Mask manufactures masks that help to boost endurance levels and thus increase performance levels in athletes. Joshua has been using the brand’s products for several years.

 

When he signed his partnership deal with the company he said: ‘New technologies and training techniques are really important for any modern athlete. Any gains that can be taken from working with partners like Altitude Mask are key. I have used the mask for some time and I am really pleased to be making this a more solid partnership.’

 

 

Beats By Dre / Apple Music

 

See case study

 

BXR

 

Marylebone based BXR is a state-of-the-art gym (with a monthly membership costing a minimum of £150-a-month) that was opened by Joshua, his promoter Eddie Hearn and DJ Mark Ronson. At the opening event Joshua said: ‘I spend the majority of my life in the gym, so I know what is required to make a truly great one. I can’t wait to kick off my London sessions at BXR.’

 

 

Dafabet

 

An Asian betting company, Dafabet is based in the Philippines but has been moving into the European market in recent years. Initially it added UK football clubs (including Aston Villa, Sunderland, Everton, Blackburn, Burnley and Celtic) to its sponsorship roster, but it has now added Joshua to its marketing partnership stable to boost its sports fan marketing campaigns. The deal sees the brand’s logo adorn Joshua fight shorts (see Dafabet partnerships web page).

 

EQ Nutrition

 

Nutritional supplement company EQ Nutrition partnered with Joshua ahead of his title fight with Charles Martin. EQ, which sells protein supplements and multivitamins and other products aimed at improving the nutrition, flew out supplements to Joshua on holiday and in return received good coverage on his Instagram account. The brand’s website says: ‘EQ Nutrition will be supporting Anthony Joshua with their wide range of sports performance supplements, which include high grade recovery proteins, and pre-training energy formulas, to support his gruelling training regime and promote quicker and more effective recovery.’

 

 

Jaguar Land Rover

 

‘When I pull up in a Jag, it’s like a watch. Certain watches, everyone has, but there are certain watches only a few people know about,’ said Joshua when asked to describe what feeling driving a Jaguar gives to him.

 

The brand is using sports stars like Joshua to broaden its appeal from its core middle-aged male consumer target (as represented by fellow sports endorser and Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho – see case study) to younger and more diverse demographic segments.

 

‘The Jag is a car certain people know about. It used to be that it was a car for the established man, who’d been in the game for years and treated himself to a Jag, but now they’re crossing right the way across the board.’

 

 

 

Lucozade Sport

 

See case study

 

Lynx

 

The brand’s own mission to ‘challenge the perceptions of the modern man and celebrate masculinity’ is explored in a series of Joshua fronted Lynx commercials.

 

For example, Joshua reveals the moment he believed he could and would become a professional boxer in his strand of Lynx’s digital ‘Men in Progress’ campaign back in June of 2016.

 

In the commercial, Joshua spoke about his time sparring with professional fighters while he was still an amateur.

 

‘I was giving them bloody noses, black eyes and I started realising that I got a little bit of talent,’ he said.

 

 

 

 

Sky Sports

 

Back in February 2017, Joshua became an ambassador for Sky Sports in a partnership that sees the boxer participate in Sky Sports’ Academy Initiatives which are based on ‘Helping young people to reach their potential across the UK and Ireland’.

 

‘Sky have been with me since the start of my professional career. They’ve followed me every step of the way and I am pleased to be joining such a great and ambitious organization,’ said Jshua when he penned the partnership.

 

‘As a Sky Ambassador I believe I’m in an incredibly strong position to inspire others, especially the next generation, to unlock their future potential and give something back.’

 

 

StubHub

 

The online ticket marketplace StubHub has a deal with Joshua which sees it own the rights to sell his tickets in an agreement with the fighter and Matchroom Boxing.

 

‘We have forged a great working relationship and I am excited to be moving into the next stage of my career with such a committed partner,’ says Joshua on the partnership.

 

‘I am pleased that my fans will continue to have a great platform to access face value tickets.’

 

 

Texo Scaffolding

 

One of the more surprising sponsors in the boxer’s stable, Essex based contractor Texo Scaffolding bid for and won the rights to sponsor Joshua’s IBF world title fight against Charles Martin the O2 Arena in April 2016 and thus Joshua made his ring-walk wearing Texo’s logo.

 

‘It was a great piece of publicity for us, as our website almost went into meltdown, as literally thousands of people logged on, presumably to see what we were all about, explains the owner of the contractor, Robert Hayward.

 

 

Under Armour

 

See case study

 

Links:

 

Anthony Joshua

https://www.ajboxing.com/profile/partners/

https://www.ajboxing.com/

https://twitter.com/anthonyfjoshua

https://www.instagram.com/anthony_joshua/

https://www.facebook.com/anthonyjoshuaboxer/

 

As for Klitschko, despite years of building them up at the top of the fight game (he has been the world’s dominant heavyweight since 2005 and the second longest reigning heavyweight champion of all time after Joe Louis), his personal social platforms have a smaller reach than Joshua’s.

 

His Facebook page has 1.8m followers, his Twitter feed has 320,000 followers and his YouTube channel 27,000 subscribers.

 

In addition to pushing his personal brand through the hashtag #Obsessed,

 

 

 

 

 

he is also pushing his own clothes range too.

 

 

Klitschko has been a fairly popular pitchman in Europe, particularly in Germany where the Ukrainian is now based.

 

He also fronted several initiatives for a range of brands including some of his usual corporate backers, such as his long-term German broadcast partner RTL,

 

 

 

and German fashion retailer S Oliver (for whom he is promoting their new ‘sweat suit‘.

 

Indeed, he became an official brand ambassador of S.Oliver back in April 2014 for his world championship fight against Alex Leapai.

 

This sponsorship deal saw Klitschko wear branded combat trousers and jacket in the ring, while his support team was also equipped with S.Oliver clothing.

 

Plus, ahead of the fight, S.Oliver supported the fighter and his team in training as well as during the media days and the fashion label also had branded the boxing ring with its logo at the champion’s gym in Going (Austria).

 

‘Klitschko is an excellent partner and international ambassador in order to increase S.Oliver’s brand awareness, especially in our growth markets of Central and Eastern Europe’ says S.Oliver CEO Reiner Pichler.

 

He also uses his social channels to pitch for other linked brands such as his training camp hotel,

 

 

and several other lower key other commercial alliances like 11 Mirrors.

 

 

But he also produced what was one of the pre fight promotional periods most surprising stunts.

 

At the last official promo press conference ahead of the clash, Klitschko recorded his personal fight prediction on a USB stick and then announced he was sewing it into his ring walk robe which he would put up for sale at a memorabilia auction after the fight to raise funds for the Klitschko Foundation.

 

 

Links:

 

Wladimir Klitschko
http://www.klitschko.com/home/
http://klitschkofoundation.org/en/
https://www.facebook.com/KlitschkoOfficial

https://www.youtube.com/user/KlitschkoChannel

 



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