Last week, it was announced that ESPN and the WWE had entered into a partnership that would allow ESPN to host WWE’s Premium Live Events on the ESPN app beginning Aug. 21, and to help bolster the surprising union, ESPN has tapped WWE legend John Cena to explain the new sports app to any and everyone.
According to Variety, the new commercial spot is meant to rev up interest in the ESPN app as the Aug. 21 premier date approaches. With so many things going on in today’s modern world, they’re going to need all the help they can get to do just that. Hoping to bank off of John Cena’s name and popularity for the foreseeable future, ESPN will do whatever it takes to ensure that their upcoming sports app hits the ground running once it’s available to download in a couple of weeks.
Per Variety:
“We want to make sure that more people have broad awareness,” says Jo Fox, ESPN, senior vice president of marketing, in an interview. Cena will portray a “sports coach,” she says, who aims to tell potential customers that they have a new way to get “all of ESPN in one place.”
The Disney sports hub is entering a crowded field. The August 21st launch positions the company to spark interest in its offering just a few weeks before the start of the next NFL season. But there are many other streaming services with sports to offer, including a new Fox One app that is slated to debut on the same day as ESPN’s. Meanwhile, NBCU’s Peacock and Amazon’s Prime Video services also rely heavily on sports as their calling card to consumers.
As for John Cena’s role, you can expect him to be the face of the new app (as he was for WWE for decades) and do what he can to entice people to subscribe to ESPN’s latest brainchild.
In weeks to come, Cena is likely to talk about live ESPN events, new features and even how to get the new ESPN service as part of a larger bundle of Disney’s online video properties. That’s one reason behind the use of traditional TV networks for the ad, even though new subscribers are likely to come from the ranks of cord cutters. Even so, there are plenty of veteran ESPN aficionados who will learn about new features they can use to spend more time with the sports outlet.
With WWE having deals with Netflix, Peacock and now ESPN, people might have to start considering cutting costs on their cable bills because wtf?!
Check out the new commercial spot for ESPN featuring John Cena and their new mascot “App-E,” and let us know if you’ll be downloading the new app in the comments section below.
