Association of Volleyball Professionals

America’s pro beach volleyball league celebrates a 40-year history, with women athletes leading the way.

CASE STUDY  /  AVP

For their prestigious 40th Anniversary season, we served as agency-of-record for the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP), repositioning the brand and marketing strategies and managing marketing across all channels.

Our insight was to pivot the brand to be both aspirational and scalable; to overcome the stagnation of a 40-year-old history and a die-hard but reluctant and relatively small fan base.

The way forward was clear: define the AVP’s place at the leading edge of women-first professional sports to new fans. To put new eyes on screens and many more people in seats at every tournament.

is + at served as brand advisors, stewards and strategists, as well as advisors to the CEO in a fractional C-suite role. To evolve the brand required not only a clear, executable strategy, but to get operations, athletes, and media in lockstep with understanding, messaging, and process.

Brand Services

Strategic Advisory

Brand Positioning

Brand Management

Athlete-Brand Liaison

Marketing Strategy  

Marketing Services

Print, Digital, + Radio Advertising

Social Media

Community Engagement 

Live Event Production

Merchandise + e-commerce

Brand + Sponsor Activations

PR + Media Liaison

Media Talent Management

Campaign branding and style GUIDE
SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNs
WEBSITE
MERCHANDISE
COLLECTABLE DIGITAL Card packs

40th Anniversary

Celebrating the past, present, and future of the sport created opportunities to connect the generations around a brand with a storied (though sometimes difficult) history.

Firsts-to-do-it stories, historic footage, and fan engagements to engage debate and bring notoriety to the GOATs connected the greatness of the AVP’s past with the excitement of today’s pro sports environment.

Women Lead the Way

Multitudes of new AVP fans were waiting to be discovered – the majority of them members of a coveted demographic: young women searching for a sport that is for them, first.

is + at positioned the AVP to lead marketing and communications with its women athletes. The website, televised matches, and merchandise showcased women athletes as its biggest and brightest stars.

In a co-gender sport, leading with the accomplishments of the historically dominant woman promised to be a game changer. We found alignment with partners and sponsors who were eager to back the growth of women’s sports as part of their brand stories as well. The AVP leaned in, with women leading the way on and off the beach.

Multi-Channel Marketing

The AVP had been on social media autopilot for several years, relying on a deluge of largely redundant content to grow social followers. While this was once a proxy for conversion during the younger days of social media marketing, an updated approach was needed. The brand was giving away a lot of its valuable content while not driving KPIs that prove actual fandom: Broadcast viewership, ticket sales, and more valuable sponsorships. 

Focusing on measurement and validation from full stands, strong broadcast, OTT, and streaming, and notable sponsor integrations allowed the AVP to grow positive sentiment as the league to watch, particularly for young women searching for an alternative to the pro men’s sport status quo.

ATLANTA
 
MANHATTAN BEACH
HERMOSA
2023 Chicago Open 
CHICAGO
Chicago Email and Website

AVP 2023 Marketing by the Numbers

Our work saw unprecedented organic, bot-free growth, greatly improved fan sentiment, increased attendance, and on/off-court activations that drove meaningful value for partner brands and the AVP.

Social Media

  • 72+ million impressions

  • 1.15 million followers across Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and X

  • 5.3 million engagements

  • 8.3% overall engagement

  • 45,000 organic net follower gain

Email Marketing

  • 5.3 million engagements

  • 236,000 active, engaged subscribers

  • 44% open rate (industry average 24%)

  • 8.3% overall engagement

  • 45,000 organic net follower gain

Broadcast/OTT

  • 1.9 million viewers across 2023 Gold Series on ESPN2 linear, ESPN-U linear, ESPN+ streaming

In-Stadium Attendance

>100% General Admission capacity reached during Pro and Gold Series Sunday Finals at:

  • Miami Beach Open

  • Huntington Beach Open

  • Hermosa Beach Open

  • Manhattan Beach Open

  • Chicago Open

WRAP-UP

The AVP’s parent company, the Bally Corporation, welcomed third-party private equity as a managing partner near the end of the 2023 season. While fan, brand, and athlete sentiment was outstanding, the season successful, and significant gains were made, new managment was set on making major changes to their strategic approach.

Everybody watches women’s sports.
2023 was a watershed year; the professional sports world continues to revel in the ascendence of women’s sports. From Caitlin Clark’s Nike deal and the WNBA’s record-breaking season, to the force that are the women of Olympic Teams USA, Women Lead the Way isn’t just a winning strategy – it is an inevitable evolution in pro sports. is + at are proud to take part and thankful of each of our partners and unwavering believers.