WWE Trying To Get Back Old Fans

[EdwardKnoxII 0]

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/a...torumblewithwwe

 

Media Kitchen Ready To Rumble With WWE

 

World Wrestling Entertainment's selection last week of Media Kitchen to handle planning and buying is part of a drive to lure former fansómen who loved the franchise as teenagersóback to the ring.

 

"Every meeting I go to, there is someone that says, 'Oh my God! I used to be the biggest fan.' " said vp of marketing Daniel Levi. "There's still an emotional connection between that person and WWE. We want to get them re-engaged."

 

Media Kitchen, the media arm of MDC Partners' Kirshenbaum Bond + Partners in New York, joins Kanter International in Philadelphia on WWE's $8 million account. Kanter was hired last year to work on brand strategy. WWE handles creative in-house.

 

Media Kitchen will help tout the client's two weekly TV programs, Spike TV's Monday Night Raw and WB's Smackdown!, as well as promotions like its "Raw Diva" search, a quasi-beauty pageant that kicks off July 19. The shop bested four other finalists, Havas' MPG and Publicis' Optimedia, both New York; and independents Harmelin Media in Bala Cynwyd, Pa., and JL Media in Union, N.J.

 

Instead of pursuing viewers outside its demo, WWE will troll familiar waters for current, former and would-be fans. Kanter's first task was to find out where onetime Hulk Hogan fans spend their time and money. Among the results: videogames.

 

"We know from our research that there is a big crossover between videogamers and wrestling fans," said Levi, noting both lure men with "action, fantasy escapism and the ability to control that kind of an outcome."

 

-- DEANNA ZAMMIT

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

Interesting.

 

Television-wise, I wonder if it's enough to get them reengaged?

[Guest Man Of 1,004 Modes]

Is it REALLY worth getting back a bunch of fans who will ditch again in a year?

[Art Sandusky 0]

Financially, yes.

 

It's incredibly true on the "I used to be a fan" thing. I know VERY few people my age or older who didn't watch wrestling at one point or another. Everyone also lists the Undertaker as one of their old favorites, so when I tell them that he's the Deadman again, they say they'll tune in.

 

Either way, it probably would work better to get old fans back than try and get new ones. Old fans already have an air of familiarity with the product.

 

Still, shame on Yahoo for saying Smackdown is on the WB.

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

Is it REALLY worth getting back a bunch of fans who will ditch again in a year?

I agree that they will, because if someone says "I used to be the biggest fan", they obviously didn't.

[Art Sandusky 0]

Or they couldn't handle the crap they've been handed on a consistent basis for the last two or three years. I sometimes wonder if we're really patient and understanding or just stupid.

[Guest Mulatto Heat]

Everyone also lists the Undertaker as one of their old favorites, so when I tell them that he's the Deadman again, they say they'll tune in.

So where are they? He's been Deadman for awhile.

 

It's still only diehards and Hispanics who are tuning in.

[Art Sandusky 0]

I'm not saying they do watch again, but that they're at least interested for a moment is better than total apathy or outright rejection. Believe it or not, telling people Hogan/McMahon was a match at Wrestlemania XIX got people I talked to looking interested again.

[Guest CronoT]

So, an advertising company "discovered" there's a link between video games and wrestling. There seems to be only two possible outcomes following that idea:

 

1. Wrestling will become more like video games, which would most likely mean being more outlandish, weirder characters, plots drawn out the point of obscurity, and impractical places that wrestling will happen in.

 

2. Video games will really begin to suck.

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

2. Video games will really begin to suck.

But fans blow their load over recent, more realistic wrestling games, no matter how bad the angles are.

[Ravenbomb 0]

1. Wrestling will become more like video games, which would most likely mean being more outlandish, weirder characters, plots drawn out the point of obscurity, and impractical places that wrestling will happen in.

or maybe the wrestlers will go around shooting cars with shotguns

[MarvinisaLunatic 0]

The plain and simple fact is that the majority of the "old fans" they want back were in their teens back in 1998 when wrestling was "cool" (1997-2000) and they grew up and became adults and it became uncool mainly because it sucked (2001-2003).

 

People still watching wrestling now in their 20s and 30's grew up on the stuff and will probably continue to watch wrestling because it is a part of their lives instead of being some sort of entertainment fad. The same thing is sort of true with Video games. When Video Games first became popular they were considered a kids thing. But the odd thing is that the kids became teenagers and the teenagers became adults but they didn't abandon playing video games. Sort of like the people who grew up watching wrestling and still watch it today.

 

Thats at least my opinion. I could be wrong, but I know that it pretty much applies to me (I've been watching wrestling and playing video games for about the same length of time and I still do both going on into my 20's..)

[Rob E Dangerously 0]

1. Wrestling will become more like video games, which would most likely mean being more outlandish, weirder characters, plots drawn out the point of obscurity, and impractical places that wrestling will happen in.

or maybe the wrestlers will go around shooting cars with shotguns

I'm looking forward to John Cena shooting down a helicopter with his rocket, raising his wanted level to four stars

[Silence 0]

Mordecai seems like an evil shitty character that could be in an upcoming Final Fantasy game.

 

I guess Benoit will be Wolverine in a new X-Men game and slash the hell out of Magneto (HHH) with his adamentium (sp?) claws, only for Magneto to energy blast him into defeat and break character by pouring water over his own head and spitting it, then cutting a promo in classic HHH Constipation style.

 

Magneto:"Wolverine-uhhhhhhh, you must now feud with......Juggernaut (Batista)! I just killed your push!"

 

*Juggernaut also breaks character and poses like he's Lex Luger like a fucking moron*

[Guest I Got Banned for Sucking]

I guess Benoit will be Wolverine in a new X-Men game and slash the hell out of M...

Oh, fucking yes!

[Silence 0]

I guess Benoit will be Wolverine in a new X-Men game and slash the hell out of M...

Oh, fucking yes!

So Benoit...errr, excuse me, "Wolverine" will be crossing over into a James Bond game and attack one of James Bond's allies in the British government?

[Guest Trivia247]

I was the biggest fan in the 80's and for some inexplainible reason I stopped watching after 96 pretty much faded away at the start of the Austin Hart feud, but I returned to wrestling at WM 14 and kept watching since then.

[BHK 0]

I was the biggest fan in the 80's and for some inexplainible reason I stopped watching after 96 pretty much faded away at the start of the Austin Hart feud, but I returned to wrestling at WM 14 and kept watching since then.

Nothing will ever top Austin/Hart, The Hart Foundation and heel Bret in the wheelchair.

[geniusMoment 0]

In order to get those fans back WWE needs to do something they will not do, they need to get back attitude. I do not mean crash tv, what I mean is get back to having hip or cool television instead of characters that non-fans will immediatly see as dorky. (Hurricane, Rosey, Frenchies, Mordechi, random bad foreigner) Having HBK prance around stage and having Jericho performing as a pussy babyface also does not help matters.

The reason Mick Foley was successful was because he connected with the fans, with his dorky persona. Yet, people do not want to watch an entire promotion filled with dorky characters. I am a huge wrestling fan but I will not watch a show I know Eugene will be on in front of my friends in fear of never hearing the end of it. A couple of years ago the WWF combined all out no rules action with bad ass characters, swearing and sophmoric humor (DX, Val Venis etc...) and sex appeal. (They still try to use sex appeal only they use it wrong. They seem to be under the preception that people cannot take straight T&A, that they need to always put some comedy in to lighten the mood. Fuck that, their demo wants straight T&A.) Now the characters all seem to be based on a fan base who play role playing games with their friends on Saturday nights. Their constant pro-America stuff may get them good press but it makes them come off as another dorky company. In order to get the demo they want they need to come off as an in your face I do not give a fuck promotion.

[SuperJerk 0]

I was the biggest fan in the 80's and for some inexplainible reason I stopped watching after 96 pretty much faded away at the start of the Austin Hart feud, but I returned to wrestling at WM 14 and kept watching since then.

Compared to most people who quit watching wrestling, a year-and-a-half hiatus isn't that much at all. You've actually been an extremely loyal fan.

[Masked Man of Mystery 0]

I watch Smackdown these days for one reason:it's the only wrestling I can see on a regular basis. Not having cable or DirecTV sucks. I so wish I could watch Impact. By the way, here;s how you get fans, WWE, do what the NWA did in its glory days: put on GOOD matches. I can appreciate Randy Orton taking the thumbtack bump, but I don't NEED to see Randy Orton taking the thumgtack bump. I NEED Randy Orton to be a good wrestler. there is so much fat on this roster that should be trimmed and we would have such a better show. By the way, whatever happened to HBK trying to get Am Drag into WWE? He's a natural Tajiri foe.

[Guest Coffey]

It's not going to happen. They watched for Hogan. He's done.

[nogoodnick 0]

I'm one of the old fans they're trying to get back. I first started watching WWF around 93-94. Everything that had to do with wrestling interested me. There was a period in 97-98 where I NEVER missed an episode of RAW. I pretty much based my whole week around when wrestling was gonna come on. Sometime around 1999 we didn't have cable for a while so I couldn't really watch that consistently but when I did come back I was kind of dissapointed with what I saw. I think the product has just gotten lame. Some of the superstars they're pushing today just plain suck. There are still guys that I like to see, like HBK and the Undertaker, but a lot of these new guys just have shitty gimmicks or are trying to hard. I just don't think it's as interesting as it used to be. I think that when WWF started dominating WCW in the ratings it started to decline. It just seems like they aren't trying any more because there is no competition.