Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson: Was the Move to Netflix Lucrative for Event Branding?
By Dr Sarah Melville
The fight between Jake Paul and Mike Tyson concluded with a victory for the 27-year-old influencer. However, was this also a win for the brands associated with the event?
According to a YouGov survey of 1,821 UK-based and 1,035 US-based boxing fans, only 7% of British and 27% of American fans had a favorable opinion of Jake Paul. In contrast, Mike Tyson was viewed more positively, with 44% of British and 69% of American fans holding a favorable opinion of him. Despite these differing opinions, the clash of these high-profile celebrities attracted 64 million viewers from the UK and US, as reported by YouGov Behavioural.
YouGov Sport’s new BIS-X methodology revealed that Netflix experienced a positive brand health score throughout the month of December 2024, supporting a 15% increase in Net Sponsorship Value across their 14 branded ringside assets.
On-screen and off-screen value for Netflix
From just 1 hour and 2 minutes of fight coverage (including the fight itself and the moments building up to and following it), the Netflix brand appeared on screen for a total of 19 minutes and 36 seconds (18 minutes and 55 seconds of exposure per hour), generating a Net Sponsorship Value of £42.5 million. Using YouGov’s unique BIS-X boost methodology (which calculates the intangible value attributed to a brand through positive sport fan association and adds it to the value achieved purely through on-screen exposure), this value is lifted to £48.8 million Net Sponsorship Value-X (NSV-X). This impressive uplift (tracked within YouGov’s BrandIndex) suggests that Netflix has a strong net positive perception among sport fans across brand health metrics such as buzz, awareness, satisfaction, and perceived quality.
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Netflix - Microphone
The majority of Netflix’s sponsorship value is attributed to its branding on the event microphone, which achieved 7 minutes and 1 second of exposure per hour – highlighting the importance of pre- and post-match interviews on brand impact. For perspective, LED Board branding during an FA Cup football match typically achieves four minutes of branding exposure per hour of coverage.
The Netflix Microphone was the best-performing asset in terms of BIS, with a score of 4.07. High BIS was driven by the Microphone asset being the only brand shown on screen 70% of the time, its positioning on screen, and being on screen for more than 10 seconds at a time.
Not only was the Netflix Microphone impactful in exposure duration, but it also packed a punch when on screen, achieving a Brand Impact Score of 4.07 out of 5.00. YouGov’s brand impact score assessment (calculated using YouGov Sport’s proprietary AI-driven image recognition software ‘Theia’) considers several factors, including the asset’s size, centrality on the screen, the number of iterations at any given moment, the duration of those moments, and whether it was the only brand on the screen at the time.
The latter two factors allowed the Netflix branding on the Microphone to thrive. At the end of the match, each fighter’s entourage entered the ring, alongside a large number of security personnel. This effectively blocked the view of other branded assets such as the ring ropes or ring canvas – great for Netflix, less so for brands like Meta Quest, Experian, Spaten, Draft Kings, and Most Valuable Promotions that relied heavily on these assets for presence. If these entourage members had entered the ring in branded clothing, Netflix’s Net Sponsorship Value would have been negatively impacted.
Social media impact
Netflix’s branding impact was further boosted away from the screen with 3.2 million social media posts shared on the night of the fight (59% from the US). Netflix (with its 22.7 million X.com followers) significantly contributed to this volume through its ‘Like for Jake Paul. RT for Mike Tyson. #PaulTyson’ X.com post, which was the most reshared content with 87,309 retweets.
Netflix was the 6th most commonly used hashtag across the event, following #PaulTyson (1st), #MikeTyson (2nd), #Boxing (3rd), #TysonPaul (4th), and #JakePaul (5th).
Ring Rope branding
It wasn’t just about Netflix on the branding scene. Meta Quest was the most valuable sponsor during the Jake Paul vs. Mike Tyson fight, generating a broadcast Net Sponsorship Value of £82.6 million (and a brand perception BIS-X boosted value of £83.3 million). The brand’s use of the ring rope, screen graphic, and weigh-in backdrop assets allowed for a full 28 minutes of exposure during the hour of fight footage. 98% of Meta Quest’s value was generated by the Ring Rope, highlighting how lucrative the branding is despite its small size on screen.
The Ring Rope was the best-performing asset during the fight, creating a cumulative Net Sponsorship Value of £199.7 million and 1 hour 9 minutes of collective brand exposure. This asset garnered a large amount of screen time due to being in camera shot for almost the entirety of the fight, occupying 59% share of voice across all assets. It also had the 3rd highest Brand Index Score across all the branded assets monitored by YouGov due to multiple iterations of branding in each frame of footage.
Netflix memberships
While the event had a significant impact on Netflix’s brand visually, including the fight in Netflix’s program offering has had a lasting impact. Analysis conducted by YouGov Behavioural indicates that 59 million viewers in the US watched the fight within 2 weeks of its airing. Of these, 290,000 were new to the Netflix platform, purchasing membership as a consequence of the buzz around the event. In the UK, similar conversion statistics were achieved, with 4.9 million of the UK population watching the match and 6,500 converting to the platform specifically for the fight, despite its 4 am run time for the region.
For perspective, these conversion figures are particularly high for a one-off event. Comparing other popular Netflix shows, US conversion figures for ‘Love is Blind’ over its entire 7-season lifespan are 503,000. Netflix’s ‘Drive to Survive’ program generated 92,300 converted Netflix memberships from 13 million US viewers and 76,800 conversions from the UK’s 7.7 million viewers over its six seasons.
Overall, the outcome of the fight for the event’s sponsors has been lucrative. The unique setup of broadcasting the fight via a streaming service resulted in 64 million viewers engaging with the content (despite reports of buffering issues for some Netflix users) and at least 1.06 trillion impressions via social media on the night itself. It also resulted in generous screen time for the six brands tracked, with an average of £50 million NSV-X from just one hour of stream time.
Undoubtedly, Netflix will look to host another event in the future. According to YouGov Surveys, 28% of boxing fans hope to see Jake Paul vs. Tyson Fury next!