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Speaker 1: Welcome to Strictly Business Varieties weekly podcast featuring conversations with

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Speaker 1: industry leaders about the business of media and entertainment. I'm

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Speaker 1: Cynthia Littleton, co editor in chief of Variety Today. My

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Speaker 1: guest is Stephanie McMahon, chief brand Officer for w w E.

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Speaker 1: Stephanie was destined to work in the family business. She

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Speaker 1: began her professional career at the age of eight as

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Speaker 1: a catalog model for w w E Merchandise. The daughter

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Speaker 1: of w w E chairman Vince McMahon and former w

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Speaker 1: w E CEO Linda McMahon, has done just about every

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Speaker 1: job at the company, from answering phones to steering the

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Speaker 1: writer's room. All of that experience has put to good

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Speaker 1: use in her current role as steward of the most

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Speaker 1: well known brand in pro wrestling. In our conversation, McMahon

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Speaker 1: discusses how she's worked to make the company more visible

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Speaker 1: with blue chip or for partners, and she also makes

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Speaker 1: no apologies for the company's forays into markets like Saudi

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Speaker 1: Arabia and Abu Dhabi, as she explains that WWE helped

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Speaker 1: expand the boundaries of what women can do publicly in

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Speaker 1: entertainment and sports settings. In those countries. It's all coming

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Speaker 1: up today on Strictly Business. Welcome back to Strictly Business,

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Speaker 1: Stephanie McMahon, Chief Brand Officer for w w E. Thank

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Speaker 1: you so much for joining me today. Well, thank you

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Speaker 1: for having me, Cynthia. It's really a pleasure to be here.

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Speaker 1: Ww E has definitely done a great job of keeping

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Speaker 1: itself in the headlines and keeping itself going during the

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Speaker 1: you know, during the really the height of lockdown conditions.

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Speaker 1: You just last month completed a very successful WrestleMania thirty seven.

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Speaker 1: Tell me about how pulling off this signature the super

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Speaker 1: Bowl event of the WWE world. How was it different

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Speaker 1: this year, given that this was your second WrestleMania in

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Speaker 1: COVID times, How was it different this time around? We

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Speaker 1: actually got to have people this time around. Um last year, Uh,

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Speaker 1: it was you know, for the first time, and I've

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Speaker 1: been at every single WrestleMania except for last year my

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Speaker 1: entire life, and um, last year to not have any

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Speaker 1: fans was such a unique experience. WrestleMania was supposed to

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Speaker 1: take place at Raymond James Stadium and instead we had

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Speaker 1: to relocate to our performance center, which is essentially a

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Speaker 1: warehouse with no fans and at the same point in time,

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Speaker 1: it was right in the beginning of the pandemic when

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Speaker 1: there was so much fear and so much uncertainty. And

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Speaker 1: for w W it wasn't a question of if, but

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Speaker 1: how we were going to continue to produce our programming

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Speaker 1: every week, which is live, but especially how we were

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Speaker 1: going to put on WrestleMania. And I had the privilege

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Speaker 1: of doing the cold open of giving the you know,

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Speaker 1: sort of the welcome, and it was such an honor

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Speaker 1: because one of the reasons why we continued and why

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Speaker 1: it was how not if, it's because we feel the

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Speaker 1: responsibility not only to our partners but to our fans

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Speaker 1: to provide that levity, you know, to maybe provide some

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Speaker 1: sense of hope that things are continuing, you know, that

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Speaker 1: that they're not gone or lost forever, and that we

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Speaker 1: are here for you and we are all here together, um,

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Speaker 1: even though we couldn't be in person. So to go

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Speaker 1: from having WrestleMania, which last year was the first time

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Speaker 1: we did two nights to really you know, expand the

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Speaker 1: value for our fans, um and partners, to then go

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Speaker 1: to WrestleMania thirty seven this past year just took place

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Speaker 1: it did take place in Raymond James Stadium April ten

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Speaker 1: and eleven. UM. We had a limited capacity, but it

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Speaker 1: was a capacity crowd for the limited capacity for the

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Speaker 1: number of tickets that that we were, you know, able

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Speaker 1: to sell working with our partners there UM and of

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Speaker 1: course on the heels of the Super Bowl being very

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Speaker 1: successful at Raymond James Stadium, which was very helpful to us. UM.

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Speaker 1: But to be able we all just to set the

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Speaker 1: stage literally, we were. All of the superstars that were

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Speaker 1: competing came out on stage in the beginning of the

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Speaker 1: show and Vince McMahon, who is our chairman and CEO,

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Speaker 1: and of course my father was standing next to me,

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Speaker 1: and he welcomed our fans back home. He welcomed them

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Speaker 1: back to WrestleMania, and we introduced our new signature, which

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Speaker 1: used to be Then Now Forever and is now Then,

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Speaker 1: Now Forever Together. Because that's I think one of the

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Speaker 1: things this time has really reinforced to all of us

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Speaker 1: is the importance of being together, of being that community,

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Speaker 1: and to look out and to see tears in the

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Speaker 1: eyes of our fans faces because we all knew we

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Speaker 1: were a part of this moment. I mean, you you

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Speaker 1: you felt it, you get goose bumps, you know, the

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Speaker 1: the energy, UM and are superstars who have been dying

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Speaker 1: for our fans to be their live in attendance. UM.

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Speaker 1: It was just such a special evening for us. UM

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Speaker 1: we broke records for from a viewership standpoint. It was

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Speaker 1: also the first time, UM that WrestleMania took place on

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Speaker 1: our new partners service Peacock in partnership with NBCU UM so,

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Speaker 1: so there was a lot going on, needless to say,

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Speaker 1: around the launch of WrestleMania this this year April ten

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Speaker 1: and eleven. Was it in terms of producing it? Given

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Speaker 1: the COVID restrictions, I would imagine that did you have

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Speaker 1: restrictions in terms of what you could do in the

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Speaker 1: ring or even around the stadium. So we've continued to

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Speaker 1: perform in the ring all throughout the pandemic. We we've

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Speaker 1: have produced our live weekly programming. So our performers in

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Speaker 1: the ring are unmasked, UM, they are tested. We have

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Speaker 1: all kinds of protocols, not only for our performers, but employees,

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Speaker 1: anyone working in the buildings, you know, etcetera. UM. And

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Speaker 1: because these protocols we've been running now for over a year. Um,

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Speaker 1: we actually have less than one percent um positive rate

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Speaker 1: for COVID, which is pretty remarkable. UM. So No, there

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Speaker 1: weren't limited restrictions in the ring. Um, but certainly there were.

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Speaker 1: You know, there were things that we couldn't do in

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Speaker 1: and around the building. We couldn't do our access event

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Speaker 1: are big fan events, we couldn't do you know, any

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Speaker 1: number of different activations. Um. There was no tailgating, you know,

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Speaker 1: none of the typical things that we do, you know

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Speaker 1: to attract fans and the things around the event that

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Speaker 1: enhance it and make it bigger exactly exactly. And our

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Speaker 1: fans of course had to be masked. Everyone working except

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Speaker 1: for our performers had to be masked, and social distancing

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Speaker 1: and you know, all of that good stuff. So all

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Speaker 1: of the protocols were still in place, which is certainly

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Speaker 1: different than how it normally is. How was it in

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Speaker 1: the being back in the stadium with somewhat limited capacity

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Speaker 1: they did? How did that? How did that affect it

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Speaker 1: as a business proposition for DOBB, is that a hit

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Speaker 1: to you? If you can't sell as many tickets as

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Speaker 1: you can't this demand would ask for for sure, we

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Speaker 1: make less money, less revenue if we don't have all

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Speaker 1: the tickets sold. Absolutely, we definitely would like to have

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Speaker 1: our fans back for many reasons, and that being one

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Speaker 1: of them. UM So absolutely. But from a sponsorship perspective,

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Speaker 1: we actually had record breaking number of sponsors for WrestleMania

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Speaker 1: this year. We had fourteen UM and it was you know,

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Speaker 1: other than really the live event ticket gate, everything else

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Speaker 1: really outperformed for us. It was it was a huge

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Speaker 1: success for w W all the way around. Did you

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Speaker 1: get a sense that marketers were like dying to have

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Speaker 1: a live, buzzy event that they could that they could

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Speaker 1: reach people with? Absolutely absolutely. At our partners UM, It's

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Speaker 1: funny Snickers has been back. Now. This was our sixth

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Speaker 1: consecutive year of Snickers being presenting sponsor for WrestleMania, and

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Speaker 1: they actually upped their game and added the presenting sponsorship

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Speaker 1: of the main event match. Um. We had our first

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Speaker 1: time you know, partnership with Draft Kings at WrestleMania. UM

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Speaker 1: Old Spice. We did this really fun clever integration where

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Speaker 1: we actually created a WWW superstar UM called the Night Panther,

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Speaker 1: which is named after the scent that they were promoting.

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Speaker 1: So and and that aired across all of our different platforms,

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Speaker 1: you know, so it was, uh, it's really fun. The

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Speaker 1: thing that w w E offers that nobody else does

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Speaker 1: is this opportunity to really get in deep with our content.

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Speaker 1: You know, we can customize content creation, we can really

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Speaker 1: we're only limited by our own imagination in terms of

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Speaker 1: what we can do for our brands and our partners.

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Speaker 1: And some brands and partners really latch onto that and

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Speaker 1: want to make a significant impact in others, you know,

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Speaker 1: like the logo placement, and we're happy to work with

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Speaker 1: all of them. With SmackDown, one of your biggest TV

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Speaker 1: franchises moving to Fox almost two years ago, what did

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Speaker 1: that do for you? Did that open up? Did do

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Speaker 1: you think? Did you bring did you bring new viewers,

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Speaker 1: new attendees into the fold? Absolutely all of our data

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Speaker 1: demonstrates that it was a success, reaching new audiences and

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Speaker 1: bringing in more viewers. For sure. Fox is an incredible partner,

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Speaker 1: as is NBCU of course, UM and I think Fox's

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Speaker 1: ability to promote across platforms is you know, pretty much

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Speaker 1: right there at the very top of the game. UM.

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Speaker 1: They have been a remarkable partner for us across the

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Speaker 1: board and more incredibly proud of our partnership during the

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Speaker 1: you know, during during the period when it was you

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Speaker 1: could not have fans in the stadium. How did did

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Speaker 1: did that sort of step up efforts to still speak

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Speaker 1: to fans. Did you did you take efforts to try

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Speaker 1: to you know, keep consistent messages to them, or did

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Speaker 1: you come up with additional content that might sort of

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Speaker 1: tie them over. Absolutely, so we increased our our content production.

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Speaker 1: We actually produced of content last year alone across all platforms.

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Speaker 1: And we have a three tiered model to how we

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Speaker 1: produce our content. So there is UM, of course, the

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Speaker 1: linear model or pay TV model. How however people best

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Speaker 1: understand that and that is with our our flagship partners

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Speaker 1: USA and of course Fox, as we were just discussing UM.

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Speaker 1: But then we also have our a BOD strategy UM,

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Speaker 1: which is across all of digital and social media. We

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Speaker 1: launched our partnership with TikTok. We UM increased our content

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Speaker 1: production across the board and we've actually seen you know,

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Speaker 1: significant growth UM. We launched over two thousand new products

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Speaker 1: CpG products and actually during the pandemic during our e

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Speaker 1: commerce business offset the loss of live event ticket revenue

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Speaker 1: and live event merch UM, so that that was really

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Speaker 1: pretty pretty remarkable. Um, so we did. We We saw

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Speaker 1: an increase in engagement. We absolutely produced more content, more product,

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Speaker 1: you know, tried to engage our fans in multiple different ways,

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Speaker 1: and then we did see the growth. Absolutely. I'm curious

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Speaker 1: when in the in the worst of the lockdown period,

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Speaker 1: did you did your marketing? Did you kind of reference

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Speaker 1: as you mentioned you you have adjusted the tagline to

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Speaker 1: you know, for the post COVID world about being together?

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Speaker 1: Did you did you? I'm curious how people communicated with

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Speaker 1: their consumers during the during the worst of it. Did

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Speaker 1: you did you specifically address that, Wow, we're all home,

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Speaker 1: we're all stuck at home, or did you try to

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Speaker 1: take you know, be like the escapist option for ww fans.

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Speaker 1: So we tried to be the latter. We tried to

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Speaker 1: be the escapist option, but while still engaging our fans.

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Speaker 1: One of the things I think WW WE, I think

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Speaker 1: we're the original interactive brand. Um. When you think all

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Speaker 1: the way back to the days of the Roman coliseum

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Speaker 1: when the emperor would decide the gladiators eight and the

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Speaker 1: audience was a huge part of that. I mean, that's

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Speaker 1: that's where it comes from, right, It's it's that audience

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Speaker 1: interaction and one of the reasons I think we have

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Speaker 1: such a significant digital and social footprint. We have, you know,

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Speaker 1: over a billion social followers across platform where the fourth

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Speaker 1: most viewed YouTube channel in the world, um, number one

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Speaker 1: sports YouTube channel, but the fourth most viewed overall YouTube channel,

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Speaker 1: and that's UM that's something that we're also incredibly proud

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Speaker 1: of and one of the original content producers when YouTube

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Speaker 1: first launched, so we've really been a part of that

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Speaker 1: that since our inception. And I think why digital and

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Speaker 1: social work so well with our audiences. Of course that's

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Speaker 1: where the audience is, but because our audience has always

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Speaker 1: been a part of our show, and digital and social

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Speaker 1: allows them to be a part of it even if

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Speaker 1: they're not their live so it would make sense that

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Speaker 1: those numbers would amplify. And w w E has a

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Speaker 1: history of really interacting with our fans. It's not just

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Speaker 1: and responding with action, which is actually something that we

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Speaker 1: did for the whole women's evolution that happened in our business. UM.

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Speaker 1: There was a hashtag in two thousand and fifteen called

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Speaker 1: give deep as a chance, which was how we then

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Speaker 1: branded our women's division, specifically calling for more athleticism, better

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Speaker 1: character development, better storylines, um for our female talent. And

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Speaker 1: we responded at the highest level strategically. So that came

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Speaker 1: from fans. That was that came from That was that

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Speaker 1: communicating exactly. But so here's how we responded then at

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Speaker 1: the biggest possible level, the highest level we had been

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Speaker 1: Some self respondent say, we hear you keep watching give

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Speaker 1: hashtag give Diva as a chance. That hashtag trended. I

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Speaker 1: mean I think I said what. It trended worldwide for

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Speaker 1: three days. It was loud and um. So we responded

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Speaker 1: in kind, and at WrestleMania thirty two at a T

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Speaker 1: and T Stadium, in front of over a hundred one

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Speaker 1: thousand people, our biggest live event attendants ever, we announced

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Speaker 1: the rebranding of the women of the Diva's Division to

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Speaker 1: the Women's Division. We unveiled a new championship belt that

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Speaker 1: was more akin to the men's but still very feminine,

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Speaker 1: and announced that our women would now be called Superstars,

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Speaker 1: same as the men. Since that time, our women have

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Speaker 1: gone on to regularly headline and main event all of

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Speaker 1: our programming including WrestleMania and not only that, but I

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Speaker 1: think the biggest impact that we had um in Abu Dhabi.

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Speaker 1: It took us about six years to be able to

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Speaker 1: have our female superstars performed. And during their match, you know,

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Speaker 1: and they're only their heads in their hands could be exposed,

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Speaker 1: their gear had to change, um. But during their match,

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Speaker 1: a chant broke out of both men and women chanting

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Speaker 1: this is hope, which is not a typical w w

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Speaker 1: E chant, you know, and there were tears in the

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Speaker 1: eyes of little girls in the front row. And take

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Speaker 1: that experience and then know that we did not one,

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Speaker 1: but two women's matches in Saudi Arabia where the chant

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Speaker 1: simply became this is awesome, which is exactly how it

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Speaker 1: should be. We'll take a short break here and be

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Speaker 1: back with more from ww E Stephanie McMahon. And we're

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Speaker 1: back with more from Stephanie McMahon, chief brand Officer of

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Speaker 1: w w E. You've obviously made you know, w w

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Speaker 1: E has obviously made an investment in taking the brand

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Speaker 1: to you know, many overseas locations. Abu Dhabi, Saudi Arabia

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Speaker 1: have been areas of real controversy, certainly in the US,

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Speaker 1: there's been a lot of there's been a lot of

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Speaker 1: backlash to various you know what what you were just describing,

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Speaker 1: these are these are you know, these are restrictive societies.

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Speaker 1: Why is it important for you to be there? So

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Speaker 1: w W E takes the approach that we want to

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Speaker 1: be a part of the change and not judging any

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Speaker 1: any brands or any other decisions that other companies make.

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Speaker 1: Everyone has to do what's right for them, but for us,

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Speaker 1: it's about being you know, you have to be there

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Speaker 1: to be able to be a part of the change.

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Speaker 1: For example, in Abu Dhabi. UM, different scenario, but it

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Speaker 1: took us six years to be able to have our

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Speaker 1: women perform. But we went and if we would have

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Speaker 1: pulled out, we would have never had that opportunity. Um.

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Speaker 1: Sometimes it takes persistence. Sometimes it takes you know, tough decisions,

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Speaker 1: and of course there that was a very tough decision, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, and we decided ultimately we wanted to to

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Speaker 1: be there to help affect change, and we were able

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Speaker 1: to do that. I mean, that's that's a remarkable part,

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Speaker 1: you know, I mean it's um, it's amazing what you

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Speaker 1: can do when people really come together for the right reasons.

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Speaker 1: Are you, Um, were you surprised? I know that it

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Speaker 1: it w W was very kind of quickly embraced by

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Speaker 1: audiences in those regions. Did that surprise you? Did you?

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Speaker 1: Did you? Did it surprise you that the brand would

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Speaker 1: resonate that strongly in places that are very different from

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Speaker 1: the West. Um, I'll tell you what surprised me was

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Speaker 1: just how many families were in UM the stadium in Saudi. Uh.

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Speaker 1: I don't know why. My perspective was that it would

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Speaker 1: be a predominantly male, you know audience. I mean, I

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Speaker 1: guess I do know why I would have thought that.

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Speaker 1: The surprise is that it was it was families, and

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Speaker 1: it was kids and and w w E merch and

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Speaker 1: running around and it's exactly what w w E is

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Speaker 1: all over the world. We are a family friendly brand.

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Speaker 1: We bring people and communities together WrestleMania itself. We typically

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Speaker 1: have fans from over sixty countries, all fifty states, all

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Speaker 1: different socio economic situations, all different religious beliefs, political beliefs,

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Speaker 1: all coming together to enjoy this one thing that we

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Speaker 1: all love. It's like this huge only reunion. So it

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Speaker 1: shouldn't surprise me that our audience. Even though skin tone

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Speaker 1: might be different, even though people look different all over

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Speaker 1: the world, it's all the same. It's the same people.

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Speaker 1: It's families coming to enjoy this product. The question I

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Speaker 1: had for you about the women in showcasing more female wrestlers,

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Speaker 1: have have you seen a corresponding growth in female WWE

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Speaker 1: fans in general? We have We're nearly female um from

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Speaker 1: a viewership standpoint, and I think it's really because of

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Speaker 1: the family aspect um. And we have absolutely seen more engagement,

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Speaker 1: more young girls, you know, really watching w w E

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Speaker 1: and being fans. We've also seen young boys who are

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Speaker 1: now fans of the women, you know, because our female

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Speaker 1: superstars when they have the opportunity to showcase who they

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Speaker 1: are and their athleticism. I mean, we had um the

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Speaker 1: first ever uh two women to African American women to

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Speaker 1: compete at WrestleMania as the main event of WrestleMania Night one,

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Speaker 1: Sasha Banks and Bianca bell Air. And Bianca bell Air

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Speaker 1: gave this really beautiful interview afterwards, and she said how

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Speaker 1: proud she was to know that little girls who looked

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Speaker 1: like her could look up to her in this moment

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Speaker 1: and what that meant, you know, and I just think, um,

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Speaker 1: you know, I'm just I'm very privileged to be a

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Speaker 1: part of a brand that is driving this kind of

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Speaker 1: impact and change women that pack a wallap Amen, that

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Speaker 1: is that is awesome. What would you say as you

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Speaker 1: look out there's a lot of people are talking about,

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Speaker 1: you know, is going to have a big second half?

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Speaker 1: What is it? I would ask you what is the

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Speaker 1: prospect for you getting back in a touring footing? And

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Speaker 1: just in general what are you? What are you? How

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Speaker 1: are you feeling about consumer demand and you know, sponsorship opportunities,

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Speaker 1: how are you feeling about the second half of sponsorship

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Speaker 1: has been going strong because again, we continue to produce

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Speaker 1: our programming, so we've we've never lost our sponsors because

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Speaker 1: they've always had a place to be um. But from

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Speaker 1: a live event standpoint, we're absolutely planning on being a

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Speaker 1: part of that big return to live events and sporting events.

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Speaker 1: We certainly hope that that does happen. We have no

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Speaker 1: official announcement yet, but we've been public that we are

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Speaker 1: building plans and moving forward for the second half of

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Speaker 1: the year get back to touring. It's clear that you

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Speaker 1: were born into the wrestling world as the daughter of

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Speaker 1: w w E chairman and CEO Vince McMahon. I know

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Speaker 1: that your grandfather was even into in the wrestling business,

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Speaker 1: so grappling is definitely in your blood. How did it happen? Though?

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Speaker 1: Of the of the many, the many avenues that you

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Speaker 1: could have taken even within ww E, what was it

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Speaker 1: about marketing that spoke to you? How did you become

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Speaker 1: chief brand officer? A very secuitious route. Um, But you know,

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Speaker 1: w w E has been part of my entire life,

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Speaker 1: and there's lots of fun stories about various superstars joining

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Speaker 1: us for family dinners, including Mr T and and hul

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Speaker 1: Cogan who headlined, you know, the first WrestleMania and my

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Speaker 1: mom had to make Mr T liver, which she absolutely hated.

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Speaker 1: So that was just that was a really fun moment.

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Speaker 1: But my life is filled with stories like that. I

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Speaker 1: have not led a boring life from a business perspective.

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Speaker 1: I started, you know, and I was about eight as

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Speaker 1: a model for our merchandise. Um. I don't think I

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Speaker 1: ever really got a paycheck on that, but I would

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Speaker 1: model merchandise for our catalog. Uh, let's see. I worked

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Speaker 1: reception starting when I was about uh fourteen or fifteen. Um,

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Speaker 1: I would work the switchboard. Back then there was no

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Speaker 1: automated switchboard. Everything was you know, by hand. UM. And

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Speaker 1: then uh, you know, I really interned just in any

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Speaker 1: department that I possibly could, including human resources, UM, Live Event, Mark,

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Speaker 1: getting television production, UM our whole a MG, our Advanced

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Speaker 1: Media Group when it was in its when it was

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Speaker 1: right in the beginning, and our website looked more like

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Speaker 1: Donkey Kong than anything else. UM. I remember all of that.

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Speaker 1: I remember when we solicited and contracted our very first

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Speaker 1: web designer UM. And I remember, you know, going to

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Speaker 1: the different designers and and hearing their pitches. I mean,

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Speaker 1: I've I've had this incredible life to be a part

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Speaker 1: of this, this this product in this company. I then,

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Speaker 1: UM just higher level positions. I was in charge of

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Speaker 1: creative writing, probably the longest UM, you know, and I

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Speaker 1: was the first woman to do so many things in

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Speaker 1: our business. And then I ran our live events division,

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Speaker 1: our Talent Relations division, um our whole Digital division, which

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Speaker 1: was where I really tried to combine digital and UH

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Speaker 1: and creative writing to ensure the consistency and the flow

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Speaker 1: of our storylines through all of our different platforms and channels.

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Speaker 1: And then that ultimately led to my role of becoming

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Speaker 1: the company's first ever Chief Brand Officer. UM. We were

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Speaker 1: actually in the market, you know, about ten years ago

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Speaker 1: or so with our core programming rights RON SmackDown, and

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Speaker 1: we were we were just not getting the level of

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Speaker 1: response that we wanted and that our numbers really warranted UM,

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Speaker 1: and we realized that we had, you know, a perception problem.

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Speaker 1: So we created this role to really you know, amplify

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Speaker 1: our brand presence, to really reach out also on a

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Speaker 1: B two B level. We had gotten so good at

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Speaker 1: marketing ourselves directly to our consumers, but we hadn't taken

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Speaker 1: that more broadly UM, and we hadn't taken it really

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Speaker 1: into the business community. So so that was really the

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Speaker 1: impetus you know for the whole Chief Brand Officer role

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Speaker 1: and and ultimately now marketing rolls up into brand and UM.

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Speaker 1: I'm also responsible for GSP for all of our our

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Speaker 1: partners and sponsors, as well as entertainment relations and community relations,

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Speaker 1: which is UM at my core and at my heart

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Speaker 1: and net A part of w WS d n A.

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Speaker 1: I grew up with that too. Definitely, Well, I can see,

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Speaker 1: I can absolutely since your passion for the business it's

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Speaker 1: hard to hide. I have to say, I can't help it.

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Speaker 1: Thanks for listening. Be sure to leave us a review

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Speaker 1: at Apple Podcasts. We love to hear from listeners, and

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Speaker 1: be sure to tune in next week for another episode

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Speaker 1: of Strictly Business