Nakia Wright’s 7 Pillars For Building A Modern Promotion

Nakia Wright delivered a standout sessions at the Building Brands in Combat Sports Workshop. She is the promoter behind Muay Thai League (MTL)—one of Australia’s fastest growing promotions since 2021. She built MTL not as a “fight show,” but as a year-round cultural movement grounded in marketing, branding, and clear values.

In her session, Nakia breaks down the seven pillars behind a successful modern promotion, including:

Values & Purpose

“Everything we do comes back to what our values are.”

Most businesses don’t know their mission or core values. But these guide every decision from matchmaking to captions to logo design. A promotion must first know what it stands for.

Visual Identity

“We invested very early on in picking really good graphic designers for our posters.”

Clear, consistent visuals (logos, colors, poster design) build recognition. MTL invested early in high-level graphic design with an American sports-culture influence, which became a core part of their brand.

Broadcast Quality

“It pays me back in the sense of everything that goes on YouTube, everything that goes on our social media, everything that the fighters share has that quality across the board.”

High-quality livestreams and lighting pay off long-term. Strong broadcast footage builds fighters’ profiles, gives the promotion reusable long-term content, and increases PPV value.

Fighters as the Product

“People like people. So in social media world. The fighters are the product.”

People connect with people, not events. MTL focuses on storytelling, personalities, and hero-building. Care, communication, and hospitality are part of the brand. Good backstage experience spreads fast and becomes word-of-mouth marketing.

Fan Experience

“The fan experience to me is what keeps people coming back.”

The goal is to entertain everyone. MTL uses fast pacing, mascots, music, ring-card interactions, and trading cards to keep spectators engaged. Increasingly, fans come for the show, not just a fighter.

Sponsors & Partners

“The sponsorship revenue can obviously be a lifeblood of a promotion.”

Strong sponsor relationships come from understanding what each business actually wants. The goal is to create long lasting partnerships.

Content Strategy

“We post three times a day, all year round minimum. When they were leading up to a show, we are posting five to seven times a day, and that’s across multiple platforms.”

Content is year-round and high frequency. MTL posts 3x daily (up to 7x pre-show), prioritizing consistency over perfection. Viral hits are unpredictable, so volume matters. She built an ecosystem of young volunteer creators who get access, and in return MTL gets massive content libraries.

Rewatch Nakia’s Workshop

If you want to revisit Nakia’s presentation, you can watch it here.

Tomorrow: I’ll share Bond from Arwut’s strategy for building an equipment brand that is different.

Thank you for being part of this workshop.

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