UFC® taps Grabyo to create new social and digital fan experiences

June 10, 2020

UFC® achieved 22M views and reached 149M fans across its social channels during UFC 250^®: NUNES vs. SPENCER Fight Week.

Ahead of the highly anticipated UFC 250®: NUNES vs. SPENCER in Las Vegas, UFC®, the world’s premier mixed martial arts organization, strengthened its multi-platform content offering by teaming up with Grabyo to create new digital fan experiences.

UFC began utilizing Grabyo’s cloud-native platform to distribute live and real-time video optimized content for their global digital and social channels earlier this year for UFC 246®: MCGREGOR vs. CERRONE.

Pre-Event Promotion

Using a combination of archive footage and real-time clips, UFC created an engaging content journey across its digital and social channels leading up to UFC 250: NUNES vs. SPENCER.

The promotion leveraged its archive to deliver high-impact previews of the main event, the women’s featherweight title bout, across its social channels. Featuring compilations of the best moments from two-division champion Amanda Nunes and title-challenger Felicia Spencer, UFC was able to build anticipation and drive tune-in to the event.

Additionally, UFC utilized Grabyo to deliver near-live clips of the weigh-ins. Creating live digital fan experiences drove engagement by adding a more dynamic and real-time element to the build-up, while bringing fans closer to the spectacle heading into fight night.

FOR THE BELT! 🏆

🦁 The queen of the jungle returns to face a challenger from up north!

Get the #UFC250 ESPN+ ➡️ https://t.co/QuY6xsc8qQ pic.twitter.com/5vdhA7p4vp
— UFC (@ufc) June 5, 2020

Live Events

During the event, the organization’s global digital production teams all worked remotely to deliver real-time clips and produced live broadcasts from UFC APEX in Las Vegas.

UFC used Grabyo’s advanced live streaming platform, Grabyo Producer, to deliver its popular segment, Quick Hits, live on Facebook from UFC APEX. Quick Hits provides alternate views throughout live events – ranging from remote interviews with fighters, to post-fight interviews, and behind-the-scenes previews. The Quick Hits live broadcasts from UFC 250 achieved 4.3M views.

Global Distribution, Local Optimization

UFC leveraged Grabyo’s cloud video platform to clip, edit, and share real-time VOD content to all of its social and digital platforms globally, including Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter simultaneously, reducing the number of resources needed to deliver content.

UFC’s most popular clip of the night, featuring Sean O’Malley’s walk-off after his KO on José Alberto Quiñónez in their Bantamweight fight, reached 3.5M views and reached 6.1M people after being distributed in moments using Grabyo.

As a global brand, UFC’s regional teams were able to share, recycle, and optimize clips for various platforms in multiple languages. Each team used Grabyo’s geo-targeting features to ensure the content was highly-targeted by location. Localizing clips gives UFC the advantage to tailor its content across each market.

“UFC utilizes Grabyo’s platform to distribute compelling content to our global fanbase. Since beginning this partnership in January, UFC has seen great success with our overall social strategy by creating new digital experiences for followers. We’re excited to continue to elevate UFC’s presence by using the tools provided to us by Grabyo.”

David Shaw, UFC Senior Vice President of International & Content