UFC signs unique partnership with Sweet Sweat
UFC has a new marketing partnership with fitness brand Sweet Sweat that involves both advertising, plus a research component that will see the sides study how the company’s products affect fighters. A source said that the terms are for three years, with a high seven-figure spend total going to UFC. The partnership also includes a low six-figure annual commitment from Sweet Sweat to do endorsement deals with fighters. The marketing side of the deal will include branding for Sweet Sweat on the Octagon mat and broadcast ad placement at select events, as well as throughout the Performance Institute in Las Vegas. There also will be co-branded digital and social content. The sides quietly soft launched the branding part of the deal last weekend during UFC 268 at MSG, where Sweet Sweat had its logo on the mat.
Sweet Sweat, founded in ’80, makes products like a topical gel to help increase sweating/weight loss while working out. This new deal involves working with the UFC Performance Institute to perform studies on Sweet Sweat products. The research program will be fully voluntary, and will mainly focus around the topical gel. UFC VP/Performance Duncan French told SBJ that several fighters in its ranks have already been using Sweet Sweat products on their own for years, and so he expects some to sign on for the project.
French also said that the research could eventually be shared in things like scientific manuscripts, on top of being highlighted on the internet. He said, “The Sweet Sweat guys reached out to our partnership guys for an opportunity, and the PI became involved in that discussion largely because we were keen to understand the mechanism and what’s going on physiologically with our fighters. ... That’s why it’s cool – there’s the sponsorship assets on their end, and then at the PI we really get to explore and interrogate what they do to help our athletes in a critical part of the whole weight-making process.”