Is it necessary to use "Maintain Strength" marketing as a small company?

[DreamGoddessLindsey]

I am currently playing WEFF, and I'm totally bleeding money here. At first, I thought the fighters were just too expensive, but after carefully looking over the numbers, the real troublemaker is marketing. Currently, set to "Maintain Strength" in the Canada regions, it costs well over $120,000 a month! Is this really necessary when I only hold shows in three regions and never go more than a couple months without visiting any of them? I'm almost broke now, and the marketing is what's causing it. I have the best sponsors I can get right now, so I have no idea how to bring in more money or significantly cut costs elsewhere. So is it safe to just drop all the marketing until I actually start touring and holding shows in multiple places?

[Nephrinn]

I'll give you some tips since I can easily move the WEFF to "Big" popularity by the end of 1996. First of all, you have $500,000 in funds when you initially start out in the WEFF. Holding an event every two weeks in Ontario (split them up between LW and HW fighters), you can make an average of $200,000-$300,000 pretty easily. Your sponsors should be bringing in about $100,000 as well. Merchandise should bring in about $50,000 at this point too. Just remember, ALWAYS hold your shows in Ontario so you can be making the most money possible. When your money situation becomes safe (probably when you move to "big" popularity), you can branch out to other regions. So, with this, you have at least $400,000 to spend on marketing. Take advantage of this by doing an All-out assault on Canada and at least one key state in America (California, Nevada, and Florida are good choices). If you're really skilled at managing your money, you can do all-out assaults on many states in America and, as long as you hold decent events, you'll easily move your promotion to "big" by the end of 1996. Otherwise, it may take until mid 1997, but you should do so without going bankrupt. Marketing and promotion are the single most important concepts when you're starting out as a small promotion. You desperately need to get to "big" popularity so you can get PPV revenue, open up TV shows, and sign exclusive contracts.

[DreamGoddessLindsey]

Oh . . . I've only been holding shows once a month because that's how the real life companyies and the AI companies do it, didn't know I was supposed to be doing it that way. Doh! So how would I fix the hole I've dug myself in? Cancel the current marketing until I'm back up to $500,000 and then go with the strategy you gave me? I'm still at "Small" and I'm not even 25% to the next level yet and it's May of 1997. Oy . . . EDIT: I also have the added trouble of most of my fighters costing over $2000 per fight and Jenny DeNeuve costing $25,000 per fight.

[Nephrinn]

[QUOTE]Oh . . . I've only been holding shows once a month because that's how the real life companyies and the AI companies do it, didn't know I was supposed to be doing it that way. Doh![/QUOTE] It's entirely your choice how frequently to hold shows, I'm just saying that the most efficient way to make money is to hold a show every two weeks. If you want to hold shows once a month, it's simply going to take a bit longer for your promotion to get to "big" and you'll be forced to cut some marketing costs because you won't be making as much money. Additionally, holding shows once a month or longer is good for your fighters because you're not overworking them (which can lead to injuries and "wear and tear"). Generally, MMA fighters only fight once per 3-4 months. This is why most contracts follow a 1:4 or 1:3 ratio of something like "5 fights over 20 months". [QUOTE]So how would I fix the hole I've dug myself in? Cancel the current marketing until I'm back up to $500,000 and then go with the strategy you gave me? I'm still at "Small" and I'm not even 25% to the next level yet and it's May of 1997. Oy . . .[/QUOTE] Yes, cut all marketing, make enough money so that you can afford the costs of marketing per month ($300,000 is probably plenty), then resume marketing.

[Nephrinn]

[QUOTE]EDIT: I also have the added trouble of most of my fighters costing over $2000 per fight and Jenny DeNeuve costing $25,000 per fight.[/QUOTE] I'm glad you pointed this out. What you have to do is minimize your costs per event by mixing and matching contracts and/or booking less matches. For example, say you have DeNeuve booked for an event, it would thus make since then to book other fighters who have very small contracts and limit the matches for that particular event to let's say 5. Try to set a contract threshold for each event (I try not to go over $50,000 or $60,000) and stick to it. This way, you're making a good profit for every event and not spending it all on contracts.

[DreamGoddessLindsey]

Thanks a ton for the help!

[badbeat]

this is my same strategy that I use to build BCF basically, except i just hold all my shows in California instead of the UK and market all out in California (and the whole US for about 2 weeks) and have 2 shows a month.

[cyberkitten01]

Hmm.. seems my strategy is much different. I bankrupted WEFF before I knew it and then opened up my own promotion which ended up having even more money! In no time I was all ready ahead of where I'd gotten to with WEFF, but even by 2001 I was still only Medium sized

[badbeat]

well it sounds more fun your way but i always sit with BCF after 1.5years - 2years at the highest popularity and #1 promotion in the world.