This past weekend saw the opening of the AVP season, complete with a new deal with NBC Sports Group to carry all eight AVP Pro Beach Volleyball Tour events of the season on NBC and NBCSN, and additional content slated to run across digital and social platforms including AVP.com and across Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat and more. The tour made headlines leading into its opening event in Huntington Beach, as long-time Olympian team April Ross and Kerri Walsh Jennings formally announced their amicable split, with Walsh Jennings posting on Facebook that “I have so much love in my heart for April. We fall on different sides of this situation, but that does not change my high opinion of her nor can it change the amazing times we shared together. April has made my life better. Period. It was a true joy to get to know her better and to compete with her. She is deserving of everything beautiful in this world and in her life.”
Cynopsis Sports caught up with said Donald Sun, Managing Partner, AVP, to talk about the new deal, the AVP’s growth strategy as well as the festival atmosphere the brand exuberates.
Sun on NBC’s partnership: NBC Sports has been a terrific proponent for the sport, not only as media partner for the AVP, but through the Olympics, where beach volleyball is still one of the most-watched sports, and it has helped tremendously for them to give us promotional support, favorable timeslots and general support overall. Going forward, I don’t think anything will change regarding that.
On the digital strategy: At the moment we are on AVP.com, and our viewership has gone up for the last couple of years. Obviously the events themselves are driving audiences, but we are also coming up with smaller featurette. That’s what viewers like nowadays. While it’s cool to watch ten hours of volleyball, you have to throw in 3-6 minute segments that they can consume to help with viewership retention. Moving forward, we are definitely open to exploring an OTT network and other different opportunities to enhance the sport.
On sponsor activation: Our brand is definitely unique and represents a lot of the aspects that brands are looking for. We are obviously a lifestyle brand and offer this cool, southern California lifestyle that has this beachy feel to it. But our brand is also about fitness, being healthy, and we have a family aspect to go with that as well. If you are in Iowa and you see us, you know what the AVP is all about, and you want to be outdoors, you want to be active, even if you aren’t on the coast.
On experiential offerings: I think that definitely, with today’s generation when they go out to an event, they want to really feel like they are a part of the experience. So we are doing everything we can to make them feel that way, some of it directly through AVP and other parts through our partners, but always fun. That could include a fun, cool beer garden that is overlooking the action, or the jump-zone, which is a thrill-seeking thing. As we keep going from stop-to-stop, we will alter that experience to include a slip-and-slide, etc. I think that festival-goers what to have that 360-degree experience and beach volleyball opens the doors to some terrific things.
On his biggest accomplishment/challenge: The biggest challenge has been the brand itself. The AVP history has seen some owners mismanage it and there was some bad blood when I purchased the organization, which I didn’t know about at the time. But I think that we’ve turned the ship around, and now both our players as well as our fans are skewing younger. In fact, they are turning out just to watch the qualifier. That is exactly what we have been trying to accomplish and I think that the confidence level has been really high for this brand and people are trust management again and want to be a part of it.
