Marketing For Dummies

I thought I'd do my next blog on something that was basically a counterpoint by Dave to my last blog on here. TNA's marketing department seems to be run by children, and not those super babies from Brazil, we're talking your typical child who eats worms and craps their own pants from time to time.

I was looking on iTunes on Tuesday morning, the day after Brodus Clay danced his way all the way from Planet Funk, telling people to call his mamma on Monday Night RAW, and what do I see under Jim Johnson's artist page? Check it out: Here

That's right, his entrance theme is already online to download as an mp3. Now, when I put in WWE on the iTunes US store, I get a wealth of options to browse. Albums and songs (from actual albums to individually released themes with custom cover art), TV seasons, which are actually pay per views and DVD specials, that allow you to buy matches individually instead of buying a full 3 hour event, great for events where there was one good match and a bunch of filler. Wrestlemania for example is listed as $17.99 (HD) or $14.99 (SD), to purchase the whole show, but if you're just after a single match, it'll set you back $2.99 and $1.99 for high or standard def respectively.

If I put in TNA on the other hand, I get a series of listings for TNA iMPACT from 2006 – 2010 and iMPACT Wrestling (the most up to date shows) which is a good idea, however, despite the show airing in high definition on television, it is only available in standard, personally, I'd prefer to download the shows legally in high definition, but alas, I'm not able to, and since Challenge TV only airs in SD here in the UK, my only option is really to download it elsewhere. There are also listings for TNA Epics, the short lived series which had potential, but was never fully utilised, and the TNA video vault which is a very good idea. It has a large selection of pay per views from 2008 onwards as well as some TNA DVD releases such as Best of the Bloodiest Brawls (with the latest release I can see being Slammiversary 2011) and more, all for a very low price of $3.99, this is an OUTSTANDING OFFER, but had I not been nosing about on iTunes, I'd never know it was there, I don't ever recall TNA telling me on their weekly iMPACT broadcasts that this is available on iTunes.

Now, TNA Wrestling executives need to pay attention to this next part.

YOU PRODUCE TNA XPLOSION FOR INTERNATIONAL MARKETS, YOU HAVE A RUNNING TOURNAMENT WHERE THE WINNER GETS A TITLE SHOT AT ANY CHAMPION ON IMPACT, BRILLIANT USE OF THE SHOW, BUT NOBODY IN THE USA GETS TO SEE THE SHOW AS IT DOESN'T AIR IN THE UNITED STATES, AT ALL.

Now, maybe it's just me, but you're producing this show every single week, you're producing it and sending it to international markets such as the UK where it airs on Challenge, so why not, and here is the novel idea, upload the show to iTunes weekly and allow you're fans to download the show, get the TNA name out there, you are effectively giving away a free match or two per week as well as highlights for iMPACT, you can also throw some TNA adverts in there to sell some t-shirts or DVDs or any other type of merchandise you want to put out.

I'll admit, I hate seeing WWE showing the adverts for their own DVDs and pay per views each month, but I expect it, they're advertising a show that is giving them a chance at making money.

So iMPACT regularly gets 1.6m viewers, imagine this, you advertise your iTunes store with the video vault highlighted. If 3% of those people who weren't aware of the existence of the store go over there and even buy a single event from there, that is 48,000 people spending $4 each, that is $192,000 revenue. Now, I don't know what percentage Apple gets, but even if it were 25%, TNA would still benefit with $144,000 of PROFIT.

If you advertised t-shirts which on average retail about $20, even if only 1% of the people who see these adverts buys a t-shirt, $320,000 made, now isn't that better than $0?

I am a huge TNA fan, I want them to succeed, I want to see them continue to grow, I want to see them becoming a genuine competitor to WWE, but while they are looking so bush league in this respect, it isn't going to happen.