possible product, no matter what your brand is, it ' s got to be a great, incredible product first. The second piece is a content ecosystem, which is what we were talking about before, leveraging and utilizing as many different platforms as you possibly can to continue to drive the conversation so people have the opportunity to enter your brand from different ways.
Third, mostly importantly really, is to have a brand that has purpose and value. Our company ' s mission is to put smiles on people ' s faces the world over. Whether that ' s through our entertainment programming or if that ' s by giving back to the community.
O ' Reilly: What do you mean by " giving back to the community "?
McMahon: For example, we have four key pillars of our community relations opportunities. They are: diversity and inclusion, education, hope, and military.
For example, we visit US bases all over the world. We go to visit our troops to say thank you for their service. We ' ll visit hospitals. We put on a show every single year called Tribute to the Troops, which is a show that is just for our servicemen and women and their families. It ' s a whole big pop culture extravaganza.
We also provide free tickets to military personnel with a military ID to our live events.
For diversity and inclusion, we have partnerships with Special Olympics, we also have an anti-bullying program called Be A Star, and " star " stands for " show tolerance and respect " and I ' ve had the opportunity to participate in a lot of these.
That ' s an opportunity to give back to the local community. We never want to be carpet-baggers, we never just want to come in and take your money, we want to give back. So we will speak at schools with our literacy campaign.
With our Be A Star program, we have a partnership with Boys and Girls Club of America, so we will go in and often I will ask the audience, these kids: " How many of you have been bullied?" And unfortunately almost all of them raise their hands. Then I turn to the stage of superstars and ask: " How many of you have been bullied?" And we all raise our hands. There ' s always a gasp in the room. The message is: " You ' re not alone."
We ' re here to give you the tools you need to stand up and end bullying in your community.
In the hope bucket, we ' ve had a partnership with Make A Wish Foundation, which is similar to Starlight Foundation and others, granting wishes to terminally ill children. We ' ve had that partnership for over 30 years and it is one of the most rewarding things we can do. John Cena has granted more wishes than any other celebrity, athlete, entertainer, singer / songwriter, etc.
We also have Connor ' s Cure which is a fund that my husband and I founded in honor of an 8-year-old fan named Connor Michalek who lost his life to pediatric cancer. Cancer awareness has become a huge focus for WWE and now, we were originally founded with Children ' s Hospital Pittsburgh Foundation, where Connor was treated and now we are amplifying that partnership with V Foundation. We are growing that opportunity, which is something that is obviously really near and dear to my heart, very personal, as is all of it, but Connor was special.
Then in terms of education, really literacy is our key pillar and we do a WrestleMania reading challenge every year. It ' s a digital proposition: you have the opportunity to interact and read with your favorite superstars and I can ' t tell you how many moms have come up to me and said: " Gosh my child hates to read but suddenly now I find them reading and engaged because their hero is reading with them online." I ' ve even had moms say that their kids have learning difficulties like dyslexia and challenges reading and how the program is really helping inspire their kids.
That ' s the most important part of what we do. I think it ' s a responsibility for any brand, any media company especially that has such a wide reach, such a broad scale
ADVERTISEMENT
Page | 7
Lawless Entertainment Magazine – www. llemag. com