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WrestleMania Goes Mobile
April 19, 2016
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Earlier this month at AT&T Stadium in Dallas, Vince McMahon and the WWE drew a record crowd of 101,763 to watch WrestleMania 32. If your recent awareness of wrestling has involved Hulk Hogan in a courtroom -- although both are spectacles -- the squared circle offers some valuable mobile insights.
Here's a look at the record setting event as reported in the Miami Herald.
- Most social event in WWE history, according to Nielsen Social with 2.5 million mentions on Twitter throughout the day and 1.3 million mentions during the broadcast alone, an increase of 50% and 18% year-over-year, respectively.
- More than 250 million video views across WWE.com, WWE App and social media during WrestleMania Week, an increase of 122% year-over-year.
- Reached 1.82 million global households on WWE Network alone, making it the most-watched WrestleMania in history, with pay-per-view data still forthcoming.
- WWE Network subscribers viewed 21.7 million hours during WrestleMania Week or 12 hours per subscriber during the week. This compares to 15 million hours last year, a year-over-year increase of 45%.
Masters of the show, the WWE has an even better understanding of the business and the changing media landscape. With over one million subscribers to their own WWE Network, the company is positioning itself for the future of video consumption. "Ultimately, the current cable world will splinter, and controlling your own distribution network will be incredibly valuable."
When the day comes that WWE Raw stops airing live each week on USA, the WWE subscriber base will accelerate towards its target of 4 million monthly subscribers as they continue to build a multi-platform content strategy.
Yet, buried in the recent WrestleMania coverage was Vince McMahon's most important move, hiring a SVP of Data Strategy.
Pamela Murrin comes to WWE from Time Warner Cable, and she previously held senior level positions at HBO and American Express.
In this newly created role, "Murrin will be a key member of the WWE senior management team, responsible for leading an adaptive and innovative data analytics practice."
The product in the ring might be pre-determined -- don't call it fake, as Shane McMahon jumped from 20 feet in the air before crashing onto a table at WrestleMania - but the importance of identifying those who matter most is clearly very real.
However, the record breaking consumption during WrestleMania Week wasn't evenly distributed across subscribers as reported in the headlines.
15-20% of the audience drove 80% of the 21.7 million hours. Generating insights about these heavy users and leveraging these Super-Fans is job #1 for Ms. Murrin.
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