Tuesday 2¢ – 10 Things B2B Marketers Can Learn from the Tyson/Paul Fight

Doing this so you don’t have to.

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Here, on LinkedIn, I joked:

“You can tell the Tyson/Paul fight was boring because even B2B marketers haven’t written ‘10 things to learn from the Tyson/Paul fight’.

Then I got some comments with suggestions, so I thought, wait..

Hold my beer…

Let’s give this a go.

Plus, you know what they say about good work coming from creative constraints, and I have talked about what you can learn from the writing journey (rather than using AI), so walk with me; let’s see if I can come up with 10….

1. Old timers still got it – Marketing is often accused of ageism, but Tyson showed us that even old campaigners can get sharp and stand toe-to-toe with the next generation and contribute something to the culture. (Thank you, James Hoskins )
2. Openness to new ideas, whoever came up with it– This is almost the flip side of the above. I don’t know much about the origins of this fight, but I can’t imagine that Tyson was sitting around thinking, “I wanna punch the lights out of the YouTuber.” Jake Paul contrived a new product.
3. Know the industry you are in – In theory, YouTuber Jake Paul had no right be in a professional boxing ring. Mike Tyson had no right to be there, as he’s 58. But, the industry they are in is not “boxing.” it’s clearly entertainment, 30 million dollars worth attracting over a hundred million eyeballs. Bit of Theodore Levitt for you there – remember what industry you are in, and what problem you solve, like old Theodore’s railways and transportation.
4. Be bold, not boring – This probably should have been #1, although maybe, as it turned out to be a little bit dull, you could argue that the risk wasn’t quite as advertised. However, taking a little risk, such as Paul’s fight challenges or Tyson’s opinions and a little slap at the weigh-in, can yield big rewards by courting a little (careful now) controversy.
5. But boring can be box office – This is a bit of a stretch—I could be flagging here, and I am only on five—but bear with me. If you were not one of the millions of people who watched the fight, what do you know about it? What made the news, created the zeitgeist, and got people talking? That, for a boxing match, it was dull, and yet, it cut through.
6. Leverage additional revenue streams – In the comments on my LinkedIn post Mark Demeny shared that Jake Paul has developed a very punchable product through his YouTube channel. And clearly, he has monetized that. According to the Independent Newspaper in the UK, Jake Paul has “won 10 of his 11 fights, and it has been a brilliant and lucrative career. Few boxers have made as much money from the sport as Paul in the last two or three years”. While YouTube videos may have been his main product, it seems there is also a lucrative audience that wants to see him punched in the face.
7. It’s the story, not just the product – As the good Mr Godin said, “Marketing is no longer about the stuff that you make, but about the stories you tell.” Whatever the end result was, it was the story that brought all the boys to the yard. I‘m no longer a boxing fan, but I suspect this was not one for the purist, but the story made it worth paying these chaps $50m rather than two actual boxers.
8. Values beat demographics – Imagine nibbling on cold pizza, getting slightly high off the whiteboard markers in the conference room where they determined the persona for this product. Age, media consumption, and interests would all of been bollocks in trying to define the mix of fight fans, Youtube watchers, and voyeurs that tuned into this fight bonded by a similar set of motivations and values rather than obvious demographics.
9. Don’t do things the way they are always done – This is not how boxing is supposed to be done. The oldest boxing governing body is the British Board of Boxing Control (BBBC), which was formed in 1929, so close to a hundred years, and things are done a certain rigid way in “proper” boxing. Not only did this fight disrupt who was in the ring, catapulting two guys into the ring for a profitable duel rather than the next contender, but they also tweaked the glove weights, the minutes in a round, and the fight length so that the content/event/product (whatever you call it) would work.
10. Be clear about goals – Finally, love it or loath it, this thing was about cash—this was the goal, and when you get everyone focused on it, even the seemingly most off-beat ideas get the green light.

Phew…. there you go.

There are ten things B2B marketers can learn from the Tyson/Paul fight, which I hope was only slightly duller than the actual fight….

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