World Wrestling Entertainment hopes to
leverage its social-media properties and celebrity star power
to build momentum for its WrestleMania 27 pay-per-view
event on April 3.
The additions of former WWE wrestler-turned-movie star
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson and Jersey Shore personality
Nicole “Snooki” Polizzi
to its lineup of larger than-
life WWE Superstars
has the company confident that it can reach
the 1 million PPV buy
mark with this year’s
event, according to
WWE chief marketing
officer Michelle Wilson.
“We wanted to do
more than the traditional promotions with our cable affiliates
— which we’re still doing — to get the word out as to
how big of an event WrestleMania is,” she said. “The amount
of word of mouth buzz about The Rock and Snooki has built
tremendous interest in the event itself.”
After last year’s WrestleMania drew slightly fewer than 1
million buys, Wilson said the company sought to reach beyond
hard-core wrestling fans by adding celebrity appeal.
The Rock, who was a major part of the WWE in the mid-to-late
’90s before leaving to embark on a movie career, will return
as host of the three-hour event.
Snooki is also expected to appear in the ring during the
show, and has already appeared on the WWE's toprated
USA Network series Monday Night Raw.
Wilson said the two stars have boosted discussion of
WrestleMania on the WWE’s Facebook page and website,
WWE.com. “We’re trying to pull in past fans with The Rock,
new fans with the Snooki angle, so it’s been a strategic push
to getting the word out,” Wilson said.
WWE also created tie-ins with other cable shows, including
TLC’s Cake Boss. An episode of the reality show was devoted
to creating a specialty WrestleMania cake.
On the social-media side, the network is flooding its Facebook
page and WWE.com with WrestleMania promotions to
prompt wrestling fans to discuss the event. Wilson said the
WWE has created an interactive ad on its homepage that allows
consumers to download their Facebook photo into a
WrestleMania poster.
The network is also touting its social-media efforts on
its weekly wrestling shows, such as Raw and Syfy’s WWE
SmackDown. The company is running crawls pointing back
to the website or various WWE-related Facebook pages to
further drive discussion of the event.
“We’ll run in the lower third a message alerting viewers
that if you want to hear The Rock’s response to [WWE wrestler]
John Cena, go to The Rock’s Facebook page — that allows
us to continue the storyline even after we’re of the air,” she
said. “It’s really 24-hour engagement that our fans have with
the WWE going into WrestleMania.”
