The Ultimate Fighting Championship landed another social haymaker recently by running the most successful branded Spotify campaign to date.
In fact, no other contest even comes close to matching the UFC’s results — according to Spotify representatives this week, the UFC promotion attracted about four time as many votes as any previous campaign on the platform.
For The Ultimate Fighter, season finale, combatants picked two potential songs for the walkout music that plays when they enter the ring. Fans were able to listen to the two songs on Spotify, then vote for their selection via the UFC’s Facebook page, which has more than 8.7 million likes.
UFC and music are quite synonymous because of the walkout music, Spotify spokesman Graham James said in an interview. They were going to fans where they live and breathe on Facebook and using music — a medium they could relate to.
Spotify has run other recent campaigns with Universal Pictures, Subaru and Gillette, among other brands.
Social media has been key to the UFC’s surge in popularity over the past several years. Its commissioner Dana White has more than 2 million Twitter followers — far outpacing the commissioners of sports leagues with much wider mainstream recognition. In 2011, it instituted a Twitter bonus program, offering quarterly cash rewards to the the fighters who most effectively added followers, tweeted creatively and engaged fans.
Spotify is a Swedish music streaming service offering streaming of selected music from a range of record labels, including Sony, EMI, Warner Music Group, and Universal.
A six month free trial period is activated upon initial login with a Facebook account, where a user can listen to an unlimited amount of music supported by visual and radio-style advertising. After the trial, Spotify will have a listening limit of ten hours per month. An “Unlimited” subscription removes advertisements and time limits and a “Premium” subscription introduces extra features such as higher bitrate streaming, offline access to music and mobile app access.
An active Facebook account is required to use Spotify, unless the user is located in Germany. Subscriptions are restricted to people with credit/debit cards or PayPal accounts registered in certain countries.
