The Fight Network Re-enters the Ring

Posted by Eric Floresca on April 29th, 2011

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The Fight Network decided it was time to update their look and feel for a new decade and a new age. After getting fresh capital, new programming and more support for marketing the Fight Network is positioning itself to respond to the growing demand for combat sports. They announced the new look on Wednesday night at a high-profile industry event held in Toronto just in time for the fan frenzy over UFC 129.

The Fight Network is the only nationwide channel available that covers all your favourite combat sports from mixed martial arts all the way to boxing. Leonard Asper the President and CEO of the Fight Network said that they air close to 100 hours of live fight programming and that they will relaunch their flagship news program.

So the creative vision behind the rebrand came through with the help of Michael Clancy of Brandworks who is a huge fight fan himself. The Ad Buzz chatted with him at the launch and Michael said that he and his team wanted to give the Fight Network a bit more edge for today’s world.

Michael took inspiration from some of television’s iconic logos like NBC and MTV. He said what a lot of people don’t realize is that the logo lives on the corner of your TV screen so simplicity was the name of the game. The edge they wanted to convey is found at the point on the logo itself can captured with three words WATCH. PLAY. LIVE. Leonard Asper rightfully says that “it’s not just a channel, it’s a culture”.

Part of the campaign to increase their audience is being accomplished by sending out street teams to get the public in the know about what Fight Network offers and how to join the club. Michael said in a release that “Fight Network offers an out-of-this-world experience of fighting and combat sports, and we were allowed to step outside the box and into the ring to create a campaign that was unique and compelling as the brand”.

To make this new image of the fight network reality they went out to capture the spirit of the warrior in a photo shoot with a few of the fighters that you can see below. Fight Network wanted to get away from simply representing men 18-34 years old because it is not about a demographic it is about an attitude, a community and a code that gets worked out on the court or in the cage.

One show in development is Club Wars which takes bouncers from local clubs in the GTA and trains them over 3 months to fight. After that they let them loose on each other in a battle for supremacy and you be seeing it on you TV as early as this summer. The target with this type of show is the club crowd which Michael sees as an important group they want to capture with the new Fight Network.

One challenge with the rebranding is convincing brands to come on board especially in the era of 500 channels and Netflix but according to Michael they have gotten a great response from many brands like Axe, Coca Cola and Ford Trucks which they hope is only the beginning.

Welcome to the new Fight Network, it isn’t a channel; it’s not something you want to just watch. It is an experience, a culture and an attitude in the ring and out cause that’s how they roll.

Note: Thanks to the Fight Network for putting on a great party, The Siren Group for sending word and Brandworks own Michael Clancy for talking with me about the rebranding process.