The men’s volleyball national league hardly takes place in public. With a young, modern marketing concept, a new target group is now being fought for. The focus is on streaming and social media.
Hildesheim, 11 a.m. on a Friday: A few hundred people witness how the BR Volleys tear TSV Haching apart with an 8-0 run. The entry into the semi-finals of the Bounce House Cup is secured after three brisk sets. 1,350 people are watching the Twitch stream at the same time. When the Netzhoppers defeated Düren a few hours later, there were around 2,000 people in the stream. In the hall, two of the grandstands are not even half full.
Bounce House Cup instead of Supercup
The Bounce House Cup is a new approach by the German Men’s Volleyball League (VBL) to make the sport more visible. Instead of the Supercup, in which the cup winners played against the champions in previous years, the 2022/23 season will start with a tournament in which all eight teams from the previous season will take part. “We wanted to take the opportunity to involve all teams at this season opener,” says Julia Retzlaff, Managing Director of the VBL. This concept is well received by the players. “It kind of feels like a class reunion,” said BR Volleys player Johannes Tille. The athletes are all accommodated in a hotel and meet on the way for breakfast.
Twelve games will take place over three days in tournament mode. Each team can be seen once a day. All games will be extensively broadcast on Twitch by the media partner Spontent. The spectators should be offered an event on site and online. During the hall announcer: “I can not hear you!” yells into the microphone, the commentators in the stream ask: “What does the chat say?” But anyone in the hall hardly notices what is happening online. The interviews between the games can only be heard in the stream. “The goal really has to be that everything that happens in the stream can also be done on site,” says Dirk Funk from Spontent. There was not enough time in the preparation for talk shows or mini-games.
Spontaneously shakes up the league …
The men’s volleyball league has created a small parallel world within a year. In addition to the fans in the hall, a much younger target group is watching on Twitch. “It’s a completely different appearance, a completely different presentation of the games,” says VBL Managing Director Julia Retzlaff. The restart was risky, but the risk was worth it.
Spontent differs significantly from providers such as Sky or Magenta Sport. The games are shown free of charge and interaction is encouraged. The team behind the scenes is young and likes to try things out. Video calls for player interviews and a meme show are an integral part of broadcasts. A concept that is primarily intended to appeal to a younger target group, but which can potentially put off older regular fans. “I think that has to be the case so that volleyball can take the next step into the modern age,” says Funk. But he doesn’t want to offend the older audience. Nevertheless, some content of Spontent is controversial.
… and sometimes overshoots the target
Because Spontent provides the league with various entertainment formats in addition to classic game coverage. With “Full on the Net”, Funk and his colleague Alexander Walkenhost search the social media profiles of volleyball professionals for old photos, rate dating profiles or show Instagram stories that actually disappear after 24 hours. “When in doubt, I ask some of them beforehand what their relationship status is like. We don’t want to jeopardize that,” says Dirk Funk. If you celebrate in a karaoke bar, you have to assume that your singing talent will end up at Spontent afterwards.
An unfamiliar situation for the athletes, who take a relaxed view of things. “So far I haven’t been ‘full of the net’ that much. That’s why it hasn’t really hit me that much,” says Johannes Tille. So far, only one “Ugly Game Face” has been shown by him. Tille is only occasionally active on social media: “I just don’t want to post everything I do all day.” You have to think about what you put online beforehand. However, some of the players see the posting of the dating profiles critically.
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Proximity as a strategy
For the Volleyball Bundesliga, proximity is part of the new strategy. “We need background stories and even if it’s a bad Facebook or Instagram post,” says Netzhoppers sports director and team captain Dirk Westphal: “I think we’re all so self-confident that we can laugh at ourselves.” The makers of Spontent want to make the players more tangible with little stories. “That’s the only way you can really spark passion in this community,” says Dirk Funk. Great sport is everywhere.
One player who frequently shows up in the spontaneous format is Erik Röhrs. “Sometimes I think these are normal things that I upload to Instagram, but they really pick a lot out of it. Obviously I have to be funny somehow,” says the outside attacker of the power volleys Düren. So far, however, he has not benefited from sponsorship contracts or anything like that. For him, dealing with Spontent was also a learning process: “For example, I made a live video where they recorded it and I have to honestly say that it’s my own fault.”
League and clubs in their own responsibility
For a league that wants to be more approachable but at the same time more professional, such a format at the media partner is unusual. “When in doubt, we might go a little overboard, but overall we are definitely going in the right direction,” says Dirk Funk. The league is always in contact with Spontent. “I can totally understand that maybe experienced volleyball watchers – my parents certainly belong to that – might have a disturbing feeling at one point or another, but that was taken into account,” says Retzlaff.
However, the template that Spontent provides to the clubs with a focus on social media must also be implemented by the clubs. “At some point it will be a bit out of our reach to ensure that every club has great social media content,” says Funk. The advantage of the platforms: With few resources, many people can be reached quickly. The disadvantage: If you have the smartphone in your hand, you also have to know how to use it. A poorly implemented TikTok trend is either ignored or a laughing stock. While the BR Volleys have a public relations team, at other clubs this task is often carried out by individuals.
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From the stream to the hall
Although the Twitch presence increases the recognition value of the league, after one season at Spontent the Netzhoppers have not yet noticed any effects on their viewership. “I don’t think there will be a turnaround in the near future or that there will be a mix-up,” says Dirk Westphal. The league must continue on two tracks for both target groups. The Netzhoppers are hoping for a younger audience from cooperation with the TH Wildau and more beach volleyball courses in summer.
Social media as a one-size-fits-all solution for the men’s volleyball league doesn’t work. “Depending on the club, the event experience is more oriented towards the fan base,” says Dirk Funk from Spontent. That has to change in the future in order to get young people into the halls on a permanent basis. At the Bounce House Cup in Hildesheim, the strength of live sports is shown over the course of the weekend. The hall gets fuller from game to game. The fan camps get together to celebrate together. The hall is packed for the final on Sunday, “Breaking Free” is sung before the game and at the end the BR Volleys celebrate as the first tournament winner. Almost 5,000 people are in the stream. The audience cheers, the chat comments and somehow everyone looks together in the end.
Soon everything will be different again
Volleyball Germany has hardly gotten used to spontaneous and twitch when the whole system will change again from the 2023/2024 season. Then the men’s volleyball league should be broadcast on “Dyn”. The new streaming platform from ex-DFL boss Christian Seifert and Axel Springer has also secured broadcasting rights for basketball and handball in addition to volleyball. “In terms of content, relatively little will change because those responsible at Dyn also trust our media and production concept,” says Dirk Funk. However, the offer is no longer free. During the season, the league and clubs are faced with the task of getting people so excited that they will subscribe in the future.
Broadcast: rbb|24 Inforadio, October 3, 2022, 11:15 a.m
