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Why volleyball and beach volleyball will increase in popularity

The FIVB Heroes campaign was launched at the 2011 FIVB Beach Volleyball SWATCH World Championships

Québec, Canada, May 24, 2012 – Volleyball is one of the most popular sports in the world. However, people’s interest in the sport and the players varies a lot from one country to another. The FIVB has just recently introduced a new marketing strategy, which aims to counteract this.

It involves a complete marketing and commercial repositioning of the FIVB and its properties with the objective to affirm and re-establish volleyball and beach volleyball as one of the few truly worldwide leading and innovative sports, able to attract new target audiences and global brands. Elements of this initiative are the rebranding of FIVB and its events as well as an image campaign to raise the awareness of the sport. The development of attractive opportunities for commercial partners and stakeholders has been established through the release of the first FIVB Global Partnership Program.

At the SportAccord Convention in Québec held from May 20 to 25, FIVB President Jizhong Wei explained how to increase the popularity of volleyball: “We are about to implement a number of changes in the structure of the FIVB calendar, including streamlining the FIVB’s top class events in order to make them more attractive to the players, their fans, the wider public and volleyball experts around the world.

“Improved collaboration with the IOC in recent years has provided the ground work for substantial growth in the area of development which the FIVB will continue to invest in, in the years ahead. The FIVB Beach Volleyball Continental Cup is already a concrete and valuable example, where more than 143 – mainly volleyball driven – national federations had the chance to participate in the qualification process for the Olympic Games.”

A key component in FIVB’s new direction is the “FIVB Heroes” campaign, launched in June 2011, which features 33 volleyball and 29 beach volleyball players from 19 countries who were selected thanks to their outstanding performances on and off the court.

Turkish national player and “FIVB Hero” Neslihan Darnel, who has already qualified for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London with her team, is positive: “Due to the ‘FIVB Heroes’ I’m able to communicate with fans around the world – no matter if they favour my team or volleyball in general. I really enjoy being an ambassador for the sport and for all related values such as fairness, team spirit and professionalism.” The “FIVB Heroes” stand for top athletic achievements, attracting the stars of the future and inspiring young volleyball talent looking to become “FIVB Heroes” themselves.

The FIVB has just recently realized its first Global Partner Programme - supported by three world-class marketing agencies, IMG, Dentsu and XYZ. The FIVB will continue developing its properties and creating attractive opportunities for commercial partners and stakeholders. As a partner of the United Nations, the FIVB is further supporting the United Nation’s Millennium Development Goals such as gender equality, children’s rights and maternal health.

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