A headshot of Aziz Bawany wearing a black shirt.

Aziz Bawany

Director of Digital Product, UFC

Summary

Director of Digital Product for Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). Oversees the global strategy for UFC.COM and YouTube. Under my purview: development roadmap, content strategy, P&L, analytics and reporting. Currently serving as interim Director of Social Media.

Work Experience:

UFC (Ultimate Fighting Championship)

Director of Digital Product (UFC.COM, Social, YouTube) - April 2023 – Present

  • Continues to own strategy for UFC.COM and YouTube.
  • Works with 3rd party partner to improve UFC’s YouTube claiming policies, reducing piracy and increasing claimed revenue on YouTube by +48% vs 2022.
  • Assumed leadership of UFC’s Global Social media team in April 2023, owning the content strategy that serves more than 243 million social media followers with 40-80 pieces of content weekly to promote our events.
  • Managed UFC’s 30th anniversary campaign digital roadmap, including tech project management, content buildout, new feature releases, global coordination and more.

Senior Digital Product Manager (UFC.COM, YouTube) - April 2021 – April 2023

  • Continues to own strategy for UFC.COM, adding YouTube under my purview starting June 2022.
  • Designed strategies and tactics that helped UFC.COM achieve 44m+ annual visitors.
  • Leverages YouTube data insights to design new content that has seen viewership increase 60% YoY.
  • Manages annual budget of $1.2m to support various digital and social initiatives, including tech releases, influencer strategies, paid marketing, and content production.
  • • Managed UFC’s digital strategy throughout COVID-19 pandemic, delivering $4m in revenue through UFC.COM for streaming partners.

Digital Product Manager (UFC.COM) - October 2018 - April 2021

  • Brought in to support the relaunch of UFC.COM in November 2018.
  • Implemented a content strategy and tactics that saw ~17% YoY increase in traffic to website.
  • Worked with director of technical operations and developer team to reduce page load time by 75% in first year within role.
  • Implemented tactics and quality of life features on UFC.Com improved organic search traffic by 28% within 12 months.

Uber

Marketing Manager, Content & Campaigns, Pacific Northwest - June 2017 - October 2018

  • Guided customer CRM and social strategy for pacific northwest market. Creating and testing targeted content across social, email, blog, and in-app marketing channels.
  • Oversaw regulatory marketing campaign strategy and budget, reporting progress to senior leadership and Vice President of US/CAN marketing.
  • Created Uber Community Impact Initiative story series, which amplified the work of Uber's nonprofit partners in the Pacific Northwest and shared how Uber rides affected the lives of clients impacted by the program.

Zappos.com (an Amazon.com subsidiary)

Head of Social Media - June 2015 - June 2017

  • Managed a team of 7 individuals across creative, content management and ads management to deliver average of $1m-$1.5m in annual incremental revenue.
  • Worked with Zappos development teams to implement social media across web and mobile app products.
  • Crafted a 24/7 social customer care model that was implemented across Zappos customer support centers and adopted by Amazon counterparts.
  • Reduce customer issue response times on social media from 4-7 hours down to 30 minutes.

Social Media & Campaign Manager - April 2013 - June 2015

  • Oversaw Zappos social media platforms and customer care across Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
  • Designed Social Media marketing campaigns that generated an average 5:1 ROI for Zappos portfolio of 100+ partner brands including Nike, Adidas, Converse and more.
  • Built an inhouse team of content creators and managers that saved company ~$1m annually after 9-months in role.

Education

  • Bachelor of Arts, English - University Nevada, Las Vegas

Software / Services

  • Google Analytics, Google Tag Manager, Drupal, Optimizely, Adobe Creative Cloud, JIRA, Confluence, Sprinklr, Spredfast, Yext, Emplifi, and Meta Business Suite.