Objectives

Every year, WWE WrestleMania descends on its host city bringing hundreds of thousands from the WWE Universe to celebrate the biggest event of the year, available worldwide on pay-per-view and WWE Network, our OTT (over-the-top) streaming and on-demand network.

The goal of WWE's social and digital campaign around WrestleMania 31, held March 29, 2015 at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, Calif., was to highlight the sights, sounds and beauty of Northern California's Bay Area, as well as showcase the energy and passion of the global WWE Universe attending our annual flagship event from all corners of the globe.

WWE Network unveiled an expanded programming lineup for WrestleMania Week, which included a daily live WrestleMania Today preview show filmed live at our fan festival, WrestleMania Axxess.

The lineup also included the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony and Red Carpet pre-show, plus live-streamed hourly updates and two-hour WrestleMania 31 Kickoff show, concluding with WrestleMania 31 itself, all live from Levi's Stadium.

All of the live programming on WWE Network included live social integration, with Twitter ticker displays during the shows, featuring selected tweets from our WWE Universe worldwide using our #WrestleMania hashtag.

Strategy and Execution

With its digital and social media initiatives for WrestleMania Week, WWE provided fans with unprecedented access to WWE Superstars and more WWE content than ever before, with special features and exclusives from WWE's partners in entertainment and Silicon Valley. These included:

ESPN INTEGRATION: WWE partnered with ESPN to have Super Bowl winning football analyst Jon Gruden analyze one of the biggest matches at WrestleMania -- the Andre The Giant Memorial Battle Royal.

WRESTLEMANIA KICKOFF: The live WrestleMania Kickoff show, presented by MTN Dew Kickstart on WWE Network, was shown two hours prior to the event, streamed live on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and other popular social networks. Hour two of the Kickoff show was only available on WWE Network. The show featured social messages from the WWE Universe all around the world.

WWE HALL OF FAME RED CARPET: WWE.com and WWE Network gave viewers a peek at all of the action and excitement on the red carpet for the 2015 WWE Hall of Fame Ceremony.

WRESTLEMANIA DIARY: "The Lunatic Fringe" Dean Ambrose takes WWE.com through his week of WrestleMania preparation to his whirlwind day at The Show of Shows, to his post-match recovery from a brutal tumble through a ladder.

FACEBOOK "TRENDING" EXPERIENCE: WWE and Facebook partnered to create "Trending WrestleMania" -- a hub of photos, event and backstage videos and status updates from WWE, its Superstars, and the WWE Universe worldwide. More than 25 million video views and 177 million impressions of WrestleMania-related content were generated through this portal.

Members of Facebook's global policy and safety division also attended WWE's Be a STAR (Show Tolerance And Respect) anti-bullying rally in San Jose, Calif., to offer details on the social network's anti-cyberbullying tools.

VINE 360 at WWE HALL OF FAME: Twitter partnered with WWE to have their 360-degree selfie booth appear on the WWE Hall of Fame Red Carpet. This series of #Vine360 videos generated 6.6 million loops during WrestleMania Week.

WWE and SNAPCHAT: WWE partnered with SnapChat to curate backstage and user-generated content inside Levi's Stadium to recreate the atmosphere of WrestleMania for fans in a Story pushed to all users. More than 45,000 submissions were "snapped," earning more than 563 million total views.

CROWDSOURCED MUSIC VIDEO: The WWE Universe reveals which Superstars and Divas they think "Will Rise" to the challenge at WrestleMania 31. Our fans from more than 40 countries submitted photos as part of this crowdsourced video project.

BIGGEST VIDEO GAME CHALLENGE: Before clashing for the Intercontinental Championship at WrestleMania 31, R-Truth and Stardust have a larger-than-life "WWE 2K15" confrontation on one of the massive video screens at Levi's® Stadium.

For more, visit our online portfolio: http://wweawards.com/shorty2016-wrestlemania31

Results

• WWE successfully streamed six hours of live coverage of WrestleMania 31 reaching a record-breaking 1.3 million global households, making it the most-watched WrestleMania event in history.
• Nearly 50% of WrestleMania 31 viewership on WWE Network came through a gaming console (Xbox or PlayStation).
• WrestleMania 31 became the highest grossing live event in WWE history and broke the attendance record for Levi's Stadium. WWE's annual pop-culture extravaganza grossed $12.6 million, as 76,976 fans from all 50 states and 53 countries converged on the home of the San Francisco 49ers. The previous attendance record for Levi's Stadium was 70,799, and WrestleMania 29 at MetLife Stadium in 2013 held WWE's prior record for gross revenue at $12.3 million.
• WrestleMania 31 was the most socially active event in WWE history, with more than 1.5 million mentions during the day, and 1.13 million mentions during the event itself.
• WrestleMania 31 generated 142 worldwide trends on Twitter during the airing, including 10 No. 1 overall trends -- all organically driven, with zero paid promoted trends.
• WrestleMania 31 week generated 35.1 million social engagements, up 222% from WrestleMania 30.
• WrestleMania 31 week generated 12 billion total potential impressions of social media content, up 54% from WrestleMania 30.
• WrestleMania 31 generated $139 million in economic impact for the Santa Clara, Calif. area, according to a study by the Enigma Research Corporation. This marked the second-largest economic impact in WrestleMania history, and the fourth consecutive year of more than $100 million in economic impact.

Media