Bensimon Byrne has a historic fight on its hands after being appointed agency of record for the mixed martial arts fighting organization UFC Canada.
The Toronto agency will oversee all creative, digital marketing, media planning and buying and promotional initiatives around UFC pay-per-view events in Canada. That includes the upcoming UFC 129 in Toronto–the first mixed martial event to take place in Ontario since the province legalized the sport last year.
The agency and its subsidiaries, Mighty Digital and Narrative Advocacy Media, will be charged with raising UFC’s Canadian profile and developing its pay-per-view business.
“The nature of our thinking for that event, although it’s far from put to bed… is that it’s historic,” said David Rosenberg, Bensimon Byrne’s chief creative officer. “There’s only going to be one first-ever UFC event in Ontario. The work that we do will recognize that.”
Rosenberg described UFC as a “fantastic brand” and a “marketing machine,” and lauded its ability to stage large-scale athletic events incorporating a “huge degree” of organization and marketing skill. “It’s wonderful to be associated with them, and whatever help we can bring them we’re thrilled to be able to do,” he said.
Bensimon Byrne has a longstanding relationship with UFC Canada’s director of operations, Tom Wright, who served as commissioner of its longtime client the Canadian Football League between 2002 and 2006.
“It was all about going to an agency I had a tremendous amount of confidence in,” said Wright, who originally tapped Bensimon Byrne to oversee media planning and buying for UFC Canada within two-and-a-half weeks of joining the organization in May 2010. “I felt that it didn’t matter if you were talking to the most senior or more junior person in the entire organization, they completely understood my brand, completely understood what our needs were, were very responsive, proactive and creative,” he added. “It was an easy choice for me.”
Bensimon Byrne’s role was subsequently expanded to AOR status after it approached the organization with local marketing ideas incorporating everything from promotional to digital executions.
“They came back with some very specific Canadian solutions to some of the opportunities we had in this market, and their creative was terrific,” said Wright.
Bensimon Byrne unveiled its first creative for UFC Canada in December, with a newspaper ad promoting a bout between Montreal native Georges St-Pierre and American fighter Josh Koscheck at UFC 124 in Montreal. The double page spread featured an image of a gloved fist on one page and a picture of Koscheck on the facing page, accompanied by the message “For a preview of the St-Pierre vs. Koscheck fight at UFC 124, open and close newspaper repeatedly.”
Wright said that UFC advertising typically adheres to traditional fighting imagery–he described it as “two fighters toe-to-toe, chin-to-chin”–but Bensimon Byrne’s work provided a novel twist.
“What I loved was that they were able to respect that tradition but really take the brand and the creative elements to some new places,” he said.
