Digging for Sponsors

Few sports were hotter than beach volleyball in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. Considered the “next big thing” when it made its debut at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996, companies fought over competitive sponsorship categories and consumers flocked to events to taste Californian life.

But within just three years of the sport’s popularity spike, the Association of Volleyball Professionals (AVP), the organizers of the game since 1983, lost title sponsor Miller Lite and plunged into bankruptcy with aggressive infighting amongst players and management.

Without a strong marketing infrastructure, the touring league was unable to keep pace with its growth. The AVP was run by its players and incoming money fueled prize money — not marketing efforts. “As the ‘90s evolved, sports, entertainment and marketing started to converge, and so much more service was needed to meet the needs of sponsors,” says Leonard Armato, commissioner of the AVP. “The growth of the sport outstripped the players’ capabilities to manage. It was an unrealistic marketing model.”

The AVP managed to survive for several more years and went through a series of directors before Armato, the organization’s founder, took over in 2001 after a 12-year absence.

“At the end of the day, the sponsors have a lot of ways to spend their money and the AVP became damaged goods,” says Bill Berger, who ran the AVP from 1999 to 2000, and is now starting up an athlete management firm called Brand X Marketing. “Leonard has done a remarkable job of not just neutralizing all that and moving on, but he has created a new business model.”

Armato, who left the AVP to pursue a successful career as a sports agent for the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, last year brought in nine sponsors on a one-year, low-risk trial basis. All have renewed for multi- (mostly three-) year deals.

“The sport needed someone with vision, finances and passion,” says Julie Solwold, VP-sports marketing at haircare company John Paul Mitchell Systems. “There has been passion as long as I can remember, but there hasn’t been the business connections and Leonard can open doors that couldn’t be opened before.”

In addition to Paul Mitchell, AVP sponsors include Nissan, PepsiCo’s Aquafina, Anheuser-Busch’s Bud Light, Microsoft’s Xbox, Gatorade, Chap Stick and Wilson Sporting Goods. Ten tour stops, including Chicago, Tempe, AZ, and Belmar, NJ, are scheduled for 2003, up from seven last year. The season, dangling $1 million in prize packages to be divided between men and women players, kicked off in April and finishes up at the Grand Slam Olympic Qualifying event in September.

“We are going to be building over the next couple of years,” Armato says. “The AVP had its mismanagement but it now has everything necessary for tremendous growth in the 21st century.”

Attracting new fans shouldn’t be difficult, he says. “The beautiful thing about the sport is that it’s the most popular event at the Olympics,” Armato says. “The idea of the California lifestyle is very exportable.”

Partners step to line

The expectations are high for the AVP this time around, but they are not unreasonable. “What they are doing is what they should have been doing all along — protecting the sponsors and making sure the players are in agreement over who gets what rights,” says Jim Andrews, editorial director at IEG, Chicago.

Several sponsors are going forward with national promotions and Armato expects to break even this season. Deal values are between a half-million dollars and $2 million.

As a part of a three-year deal, Nissan is the title sponsor of the tour. Players are chauffeured onto courts in Nissan Frontier trucks, and division champions drive home in Xterras.

“Xterra and the Frontier are just two examples of vehicles that are all about the active driving experience,” says Steve Wilhite, VP-marketing at Gardenia, CA-based Nissan North America. At the events, beachgoers can climb inside the vehicles and check out the sound systems or drive remote-control Xterras and Frontiers. Anywhere from two to 1,000 vehicles will be on hand at various events.

P-O-P displays at local dealerships support, and TBWA\Chiat\Day, Playa del Rey, CA, handles national print and TV ads.

Elsewhere, Bud Light is rolling out national TV spots with AVP athletes and marks, and Aquafina has a 1,800-store Albertson’s promotion planned for late summer. Xbox plans to tag team a campaign with Bud and also run a separate national effort with Target Stores.

PepsiCo is pushing Team Aquafina, an ad campaign in which the current top-rated men’s and women’s teams wear Aquafina suits in finals matches and adorn P-O-P displays and print ads for the brand.

Aceing activation

The AVP’s shaky years didn’t keep all sponsors away from the nets. John Paul Mitchell Systems has been involved specifically with the AVP since 1999 and with beach volleyball for 12 years.

Paul Mitchell leverages its sponsorship by featuring the program in a bimonthly magazine sent to its 10,000 distributing salons. The Santa Clarita, CA-based company has also teamed with top men’s player Eric Fonoimoana’s charity Dig for Kids. On Sundays at each event, Paul Mitchell brings local stylists who will cut and style hair on the beach; proceeds go toward Dig for Kids and its mission to promote excellence in youth sports and academics.

“We make sure that whatever we do at our booth is for a good cause,” Solwold says. “Plus, we want to get new customers in direct touch with stylists in their area.”

Windblown, brackish beach hair gets special treatment from the stylists at the booth. Paul Mitchell typically hands out 1,000 hair care samples.

NBC also came back on board as an AVP partner. The network had aired AVP events for 10 years before pulling out in 1997 when the tour began its downward track. The problems are water under the bridge, says John Miller, senior VP-NBC Sports, New York City.

“The association now has terrific leadership and they understand that the product is about entertainment and who their viewers are,” Miller says. “It’s still a niche sport, but it has a good following and at the right time of year, it works for viewers as something fresh and different.”

Last year, the tournament averaged a 1.5 rating, which is comparable to NHL, Arena Football, golf and tennis events, Miller says.

As a part of the package, AVP sponsors receive ads on the 10 televised competitions, six of which will be shown live on NBC. The remaining events will air tape-delayed on Fox Sports Net.

“The fact that everything was in one package from the TV to the on-site to the overall sponsorship was great,” says Jeff Urban, director of sports marketing at Gatorade. “So often in today’s landscape, the rights are divided up.”

Television aside, the biggest challenge is translating the relevance of the sport to beach-free areas, says Heidi Sandreuter, sports marketing manager at Purchase, NY-based Pepsi. “You have to admit that Iowa, or other areas of the country the tour does not visit, is not as great a play as Florida or L.A., so we have to make sure that the prizes and giveaways are strong. Anyone would love a trip to the beach.”

Millsport, Stamford, CT, handles the sponsorship for Aquafina, with execution assistance from Atlanta-based Vivid Marketing and creative work from Tracy Locke Partnership, Wilton, CT.

Grassroots marketing, including radio spots, supports in the local markets. On site, the bottled water brand will host the Aquafina AVP Challenge behind the center court where fans can compete in an obstacle course for prizes. In August and September, one of two Aquafina blimps touring the country for the brand’s Pure Luck summer spotter promotion will visit events in Las Vegas and Huntington Beach, CA. Consumers seen with the brand win prizes such as meet-and-greets with the pros.

“We’re hoping that fans come to think of Aquafina and AVP in the same breath,” says Sandreuter. “Both entities celebrate active lifestyles.”

Room for re-birth?

Much has changed in the sporting world since the AVP reigned supreme. Action, extreme and lifestyle sports have exploded over the last decade.

“It is a different marketplace, especially among that younger demographic that everyone is so keen to attract,” says IEG’s Andrews. “The AVP has to make sure they are doing things that fans of the X Games would like. But good-looking athletic people in bathing suits makes things easier.”

Ironically, volleyball was the first true action lifestyle sport, says former AVP CEO Berger. “The Tony Hawkes of today should thank the volleyball players of yesteryear,” he says.

The only problem, Berger says, is that volleyball has lost part of its sex appeal and has been overshadowed by other outdoor sports. “Sometimes things just run their course — but do I believe the lifestyle is not cool and that there is not going to be a resurgence? I hope it does come back, but from a marketing standpoint, volleyball is not as trendy as it was in 1989 when there were clothing companies that focused on the sport.”

But in today’s marketplace, there’s seemingly room for more sports and a second chance, others say.

“The old days of the big four sports are over,” adds Mike Reisman, a principal at Wilton, CT-based Velocity Sports & Entertainment. “A lot of niche sports from Arena Football to bowling to volleyball have been able to gain a foothold.”

And if the AVP pulls off what onlookers and insiders are hoping it does, it could follow a model similar to the rebirths of the National Basketball Association and Major League Baseball.

“To follow the NBA model, they’ve got to get these players out in the mainstream, whether its aligning them with a major clothing line or a charitable endeavor or something in the off-season,” says Rob Jaynes, a former director of marketing at the AVP.

Many sports have gone through up-and-down cycles, points out Armato, including wrestling before the Worldwide Wrestling Federation (now World Wrestling Entertainment) took over.

And if beefy men with long hair can make a comeback, imagine what shirtless men and buff, bikini-clad women can achieve.