Quality MMA Media

If you hadn’t already noticed, my header image now credits photographer Dave Niddrie for the image. Special thanks to Dave for agreeing to let me use the photo. The image is part of a great photoset on Flickr of an MMA event up in Vancouver. The rest of his Flickr collections are equally stunning, but less bloody.

A few other MMA-related Flickr links after the jump.

Another Flickr user Hywel Teague has some great MMA photos as well as some sweet portraits of some of our favorite MMA fighters. Here’s a few of them:

Also, check out the UFC/Pride/MMA Photo Pool on Flickr to find more great photos and photographers.

It’s only recently that we’ve had professional-grade photography and design being used in the industry… something PrideFC has been doing very early on. Probably because: 1) More Japanese consumers expect well-designed products; and 2) The industry has been around longer in Japan to grow and build a market.

I know, I know… some of you are wondering, “Why does MMA need to look pretty? It’s dudes beating the crap out of each other.” Well… allow me to elaborate.

Even now, there are promotions in the US who give little to no regard as to the way they present themselves. This is probably due partly to the fact that MMA hasn’t really needed to sell itself to a general public until recently. Hardcore fans would just go to events because they loved it. Granted, most of the bigger promotions are doing some nice work, but I really hope the envelope gets pushed in the MMA marketing world.

Oh how times they are a changin’. Now the whole thing’s blowing up, and the public has its eye on MMA. Especially when we have sports commentators and boxers talking trash about the sport. It’s amazing that despite how far MMA has advanced into the mainstream, there are still a lot of very influential people who remain uneducated about it. We need shit to look tight to compel people to find out how awesome MMA is… not unlike how a hot chick will compel you to ask her out and shower her with gifts so you can get a look at her tas.

The UFC and Bodogfight are noticably spending more effort in their presentation, but there are others that suck are a bit lacking. Bodog has done some really nice branding design around their product by leveraging their sister design agency company Riptown Media. The UFC does some stuff in-house(no) and outsources some stuff to an interactive agency(yes!) called Red Interactive.

For some reason, how fight promotions are presented are often an afterthought. No budget for marketing… no photographers… no designers. I would argue that now more than ever, anything coming out of MMA needs to be shiny and professional. I’m talking posters, banner ads, flyers, web sites, motion graphics, commercials, fight night programs, t-shirts…. all of it. MMA has a disorganized, amateur image that it needs to shed especially now that we’ve got everyone’s attention. So here’s an exhortation to the MMA promotions out there to make sure you put more effort into making your marketing great. The industry is depending on you.