Is Using a Public Downfall Good For Marketing?
- jmfrancosky
- Jul 20, 2016
- 2 min read
When a company is crafting a marketing campaign for their next product or event, you usually want to take the positives to share with the public in order to bring them in to buy. What happens when the main point of your marketing campaign goes south for you? The typical response is that the companies associated with that main point try to cut contact in order to save some face. For instance, when Charlie Sheen was big in the news about going off the deep end, spouting numerous quotes about “Winning” and drinking Tigerblood, a healthy majority of companies that have utilized his brand separated to eliminate any downstream effects.
World Wrestling Entertainment (otherwise known as the WWE) has recently taken a different approach to promote their upcoming Pay-Per-View event called WWE Battleground taking place on Sunday, July 24th on the WWE Network. For the last few months, WWE Superstar Roman Reigns was painted as the next person to claim the “franchise” title from current holder John Cena, holding the WWE World Heavyweight Championship and headlining multiple previous Pay-Per-View events. Prior to the promotion for Battleground, Reigns was cited as breaking the Wellness Policy and was suspended for 30-days as this was his first violation. (World Wrestling Entertainment 2016)
So given the example with Charlie Sheen you would imagine that WWE would cut their ties to Roman Reigns at least for the 30-day time period, but instead WWE has used this slip up as a major storyline plot point for the main event between the current WWE Champion in Dean Ambrose and Seth Rollins. In the buildup to the event, other superstars have worked the suspension into their promos, bringing it up on an almost constant basis on how Reigns ‘failed’ the WWE Universe. Instead of marketing the event for its positive aspects, it is capitalizing on the negativity to drive increased registrations to the WWE Network in order to watch the exclusive Pay-Per-View where Reigns is set to return. Only until after the numbers of ticket buys and registrations over this time period prior to the event will we see if this gamble was worth it.
World Wrestling Entertainment. (2016, June 21). Roman Reigns suspended. Retrieved July 13, 2016, from http://www.wwe.com/article/roman-reigns-suspended
Comments