6. Re-engage The Adult Demographic
The falling demographic from Raw has illustrated that it was older male viewers tuning out. Compared to last week, males 12-17 were down 25%, males 12-34 were down 21% and males 18-34 went down 20%. It's a bad blow to WWE, yes they do focus more on a younger audience now, but traditionally the 18-35 male market has been absolutely key. When you think about it, older people have more money and interest to spend on WWE products. Young kids have to rely on parents to buy merchandise. A reason the attitude era did so well was because of "audience trickle", WWE aimed content at adults, and the interest trickled down to kids who wanted to be cool like the grown ups. That trickle doesn't work upwards. WWE now aims the product at kids and it is harder for older audiences to get on board. A simple and easy way to boost Raw ratings would be to re-engage the older males who have lost interest. Start doing things that will appeal - that means cutting out segments such as dance offs and comedy. Put the cutting edge on gritty violence and realistic characters, the older audience will soon come back in droves. As UFC President Dana White has said, "combat is the oldest form of entertainment in the world, it is instinctively in all of us." If WWE goes back to promoting combat over comedy they will soon improve audience figures.