ONE Championship, the world’s largest martial arts organisation, has seen its brand awareness surge in Thailand after launching weekly fight events this year, according to a latest study from Southeast Asia consumer research firm, Milieu Insight.
ONE has grown to become a mass phenomenon in the country with one in every two Thais aged between 18 and 45 years old now able to recognise ONE, according to a joint study conducted by Milieu Insight with 1,000 respondents in Thailand.
The jump in ONE’s brand awareness has been driven by the promotion’s “ONE Friday Fights” (OFF) weekly events that were launched in January this year at Bangkok’s Lumpinee Boxing Stadium.
“ONE is truly one of the industry leaders that is constantly reinventing the promotion of martial arts and athletes. Our study revealed that nearly one in three of those who have followed or watched ONE have been avid fans for at least three years. Furthermore, our data shows that ONE is one of the leading combat sports organisations in Thailand, who has been able to build good brand awareness, outranking other global and local promotions,” said Juda Kanaprach, chief commercial officer of Milieu Insight.
ONE’s partnership with Channel 7 HD, Thailand’s largest free-to-air television network, as well as Tero Entertainment, to broadcast weekly live Muay Thai events at Lumpinee Stadium has completely revolutionised the industry and ushered in a new chapter of Muay Thai history.
Among viewers/followers of ONE, more than half (56 percent) in the Milieu study said they follow ONE on Channel 7’s platforms, and 43 percent said they follow ONE’s news and updates on the promotion’s social media channels.
The key to success lies in the partnership’s ambition to modernise Muay Thai and showcase the best of Thailand’s cultural heritage to the rest of the world, with almost seven in 10 martial arts viewers strongly associating ONE with these attributes, according to Milieu data.
The study also revealed that out of those who recognise ONE, nearly half (48 percent) agree that ONE helps to promote Thai athletes on the global stage.
