MMA: ONE Championship inspires fans with stories of hometown heroes

As the popularity of martial arts continues to rise in Asia, one organization is leading the charge by telling its most inspirational stories of courage, honesty and determination. ONE Championship, Asia’s largest sports media property, takes pride in its local martial arts heroes who have built massive followings over the past few years.

Loren Mack, Vice President of PR and Communications for ONE Championship, recently spoke at the prestigious 2017 Millennial 20/20 conference in Singapore, covering a wide-range of topics regarding ONE Championship’s various marketing efforts, as well as the backbone of its content -- the promotion’s ONE Championship superstars.

“ONE Championship would not be where we are today if not for the amazing tales of courage and determination from our esteemed martial arts heroes. People like Singapore’s Angela Lee, the Philippines’ Eduard Folayang, and Myanmar’s Aung La N Sang came from right here at home, and a lot of fans can relate with their backgrounds,” said Mack.

“People of all ages and genders are identifying with our ONE martial arts heroes. It’s an amazing sight to behold. When you see the hope in young people’s eyes, it instills tremendous hope in yourself as well. It’s an incredible feeling.”

ONE Championship has quickly become Asia’s premier martial arts organization, and has dominated both social media and television viewership metrics since its inception in 2011. One huge factor for its success is the authenticity of its content.

“The audience we reach on a global scale today is a potential one billion on any given night. That is an immense figure. We operate in over 128 countries worldwide and it’s absolutely massive,” said Mack.

“People from all over the world are able to tune into our live events. We can share our incredible stories with millions of people. It's truly extraordinary."

This increase in viewership is responsible for ONE Championship’s amazing growth numbers in the past three years.

According to statistics gathered by Nielsen, Facebook, and Repucom, ONE Championship is on pace to close out 2017 with tremendous increases in reach and viewership.

The company has managed to garner a whopping 8.3-billion social media impressions in 2017 from just 352-million in 2014, which is more than a 23x increase. Social media video views is even more impressive, totalling 1.5-billion across multiple platforms compared to a meager 312 thousand just three years prior.

By engaging fans on social media, ONE Championship has the ability to open new communication channels with their audience that can be measured and valued as a new commercial opportunities with sponsors.

But not only is ONE Championship completely obliterating competition on the social media front, it is also absolutely decimating in TV viewership statistics, particularly in Asia where the promotion has placed its primary focus.

In the past three years alone, ONE has come to a peak TV ratings share of 1-2% to a staggering 11-36% projected by the end of 2017. That is up to 36x the amount of growth. In comparison, TV ratings in Asia for global sports media properties such as the EPL, F1, and the NBA only sit at 1-6%. This includes an increase in annual TV broadcast per core country, coming from 12-18 hours to a phenomenal 100-2800 hours, a more than 230x spike.

Those are absolutely mind-blowing numbers.

This certainly comes as no surprise however. A large part of ONE Championship’s success can be attributed to their relentless business and growth model, and aggressive audience reach strategies, according to Mack.

“It was my pleasure to share with the audience the incredible story of ONE Championship’s rise to a global powerhouse in martial arts,” Mack concluded, after the Millennial 20/20 conference.

“Telling the inspiring stories of our amazing ONE Championship martial arts heroes is what we take pride in, in this organization, and I am super proud of my job. 2018 is going to be even better and I am excited with all the possibilities.”