The Big Interview: WWE

John Brody, the recently appointed EVP, Global Sales & Head of International at WWE, speaks to Sport Industry Group about his new role, continuing to grow the global brand, and delivering for commercial partners and fans around the world, ahead of SummerSlam this weekend…

After a few years at WWE you’ve recently taken on a new role that will see you and the organisation focus further on the European and Asian markets, what can you tell us about the latest plans and how the new appointment will impact the global strategy?

The business and growth for the different regions are still led by our regional officers and general managers (GM). Those GMs and their teams live, work and play in those regions so they are our connection to the market and are perfectly placed to know what is right for each region. In my expanded role I will be looking to further engage and create connections for our regional offices both here in Stamford (US) and further afield.

The GM’s are our real connection point to the world and we remain committed to the international marketplace, it’s a key driver for our company and its long-term success. There are no plans to change that either, it’s been a long-term evolution and, just on the strategy, the GM’s have always been in place, it’s just that now they will come to me and I will report directly to our chief revenue & marketing officer, Michelle Wilson, funnelling the experience of our team through to her.

Earlier this year you also brought in Lagardère Sports, is this part of the wider growth strategy?

We are thrilled to be able to bring Lagardère Sports into the WWE ecosystem and we think the support that they will be able to bring to our regional offices and GMs will assist in our growth that has been working efficiently and organically so far. Their relationships and experience from the 1,600 employees across 70 different countries will really add some additional connectivity for us as we continue to grow and expand our sales and sponsorship reach around the world. We’re thrilled to have them connected with us and are looking forward to seeing where we can go with them in the future.

You have a fairly unique commercial platform – particularly compared to models in the UK – positioned between sports and entertainment, and allowing you to activate your partners and athletes across your entire network, globally. What are the commercial advantages of that universal model?

We live in a very exciting point between sports and entertainment. The idea is one-stop shopping for all our partners, which means a number of things.

Here’s EVERYTHING you need to know about #SummerSlam Week in New York City! https://t.co/UetF85K1g5

— WWE SummerSlam (@SummerSlam) August 15, 2017

There’s a global opportunity, with activation across over 500 live events throughout the year, all around the world. Today, 60% of our fans bring at least one child to live shows and we pride ourselves on being family-friendly entertainment with our PG programming.

It also means connectivity to WWE Network and our subscribers; it means a tie-in with our television partners – be it Sky in the UK or NBC in the US, and other top broadcasters around the world; it means working with our Superstars as a component to a WWE partnership package and it means tapping into our social and digital connectivity.

We have more than 800 million global social media followers, in the last 12 months alone we had more than one billion social media engagements across our accounts. Across our television programming we’re in 650 million homes in 20 languages and more than 180 different countries. Add the 1.6 million subscribers we have through WWE Network and our ability to tie-in our partners to our Superstars, we think we have a property that is out there on its own.

According to Parks Associates, WWE Network is a Top five OTT service along with Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and MLB.TV. Overall WWE’s revenue is up 9% this year and our global sponsorship revenue is up 25% this year, which is significant growth across the business so we’re certainly heading in the right direction.

What is it that you think makes WWE stand out so much. With so much competition in the US and around the world, why are people heading to WWE?

What makes us different is the access we can give our fans and partners. When you become part of the WWE family you become part of the one-stop shopping. Within that, we can deliver access for and to our consumers all around the world.

In 2016, Forbes named WrestleMania as one of the five most valuable sports events – in the same company as the SuperBowl, the Olympic Games and the FIFA World Cup. We’re very proud of the fact that we rank as the number one sports channel on YouTube too. That’s ahead of FIFA, NFL, and NBA.

We’re still growing as well. For the first six months of this year our video views are up 18% and our social media followers have increased 19%. So, when it comes to why people are heading to us, I think it’s the connectivity to our fan base, and the fact that it’s an exciting time to be involved. People are voting by clicking.

Certainly seems that way. WWE created over 1,500 hours of original content, with fans viewing over 6 billion hours of it in 2016, so content is still king as far as you’re concerned?

We believe it’s the differentiator for us, and because it attracts such a diverse group of consumers it gives us some tremendous opportunities around the world.

And how does that transfer to delivering for your partners?

When you look at who some of our partners are, they are some of the biggest in the world. We also have an exciting new partnership in the gaming space with Rocket League, which has burst into the sports and entertainment space very recently and they looked to WWE to help them connect with a large global fan base.

They’re now one of our leading partners of SummerSlam, and we’re excited to have Cricket Wireless and KFC back as our co-presenting partners. So, as we get ready for what we believe is the biggest sports entertainment event of the summer, we’re well positioned across the global marketplace.

SummerSlam streams live around the world on WWE Network this Sunday, what can your global audience expect this time around?

From a partner perspective, we’re creating an event that has global impact and reaches a huge amount of fans. The aim is to allow our partners to tie in to that activity and exposure. We’ll see some fun marketing campaigns taking place around SummerSlam, starting with our co-presenting partners Cricket and KFC. Cricket Wireless will debut a new commercial with WWE Superstar Dolph Ziggler, which will be unveiled during the broadcast. During SummerSlam weekend, Cricket Wireless will use its sponsorship of WWE and its signature event to host an anti-bullying summit with students from Junior Achievement of New York taking place 19th August at Barclays Center. The event will provide attendees with an overview of the various types of bullying and ways they can combat it.

With KFC, we’re working with them and their existing brand campaign where different celebrities play the role of the KFC Colonel, so we’ll see that play out at SummerSlam. Rocket League will also have the culmination of a summer long tournament with WWE Superstars competing in the game and naming a Rocket League WWE champion.

DiGiorno is also promoting the launch of their new Crispy Pan Pizza across our digital and social assets during SummerSlam and 2K will debut the WWE2K18 game in front of global media guests on Friday before SummerSlam.

Overall, we have no less than six partners breaking new national and global campaigns, so it gives us the opportunity to work with them and create some differentiation with them to engage an amazing audience.