Bild draws a crowd with its Fame Fighting initiative
Ideas Blog | 27 January 2025
Attracting new subscribers can be a battle at times, but Germany’s Bild was willing to step into the boxing ring to get them. With its Fame Fighting initiative, Bild saw an opportunity to generate a tremendous amount of interest and, hopefully, convert non-users of the Bildplus premium product into subscribers.
The idea behind the campaign and the programming was to enlist 18 reality TV stars and social media influencers as fighters.
The celebrities had a combined social media following of more than 5.4 million, which meant Bild could automatically catch the attention of those followers — in addition to appealing to its existing Bildplus subscribers. And the promise of seeing influencers and reality TV stars settling their scores in the ring had everything viewers like: drama, trash-talking, and an unpredictable event unfolding in real time.

Chasing reality
The mastermind behind the idea was Eugen Lopez, a celebrity in his own right and the eventual host of the show. As a German reality TV star and semi-professional fighter, he had the perfect pedigree to help bring the programme to life.
Once the celebrities were announced, Bild launched a blizzard of coverage that leveraged all its relevant platforms — newsletters, newspaper, social media, Web site, and app — to promote the event. Its extensive reporting included background information, stories, interviews, and video content.

Conflicts between the competitors, which were found online and on social media, added to the excitement. This helped attract more attention to the event, with stories about it going viral and helping build anticipation. In addition to the stories being pushed out by Bild, it created a buzz amongst other media outlets, including Gravity Media, which produces combat sports content.
On November 3, 2023, the fighters weighed in and faced off, and then the actual showdown in the ring aired live on November 4.
Drawing a crowd
To watch the live-streamed matches, users could purchase a Fight Pass, a pay-per-view functionality that had to be purchased on top of the Bildplus subscription. In that way, Bild was able to generate revenue from new users in addition to growing revenue from existing subscribers.
The gamble on this new event paid off for Bild, as Fame Fighting became the most successful event in the company’s history. The livestream of the event drew more than 500 million viewers, and the content racked up over 17 million pageviews. The videos on Bild.de, YouTube, and Instagram had more than 18 million views combined.
The 2023 event was so successful that Bild presented it again in November 2024, again thrilling audiences with live-streams, interviews, behind-the-scenes content, and social media posts. It featured seven men’s bouts and two women’s fights.