INTERVIEW WITH VOLLEYBALL WORLD CEO, FINN TAYLOR

With over 800 million people involved worldwide, volleyball has a rate of growth that outstrips any comparable sport and is recognised as one of the most sustainable, diverse and gender-equal sports around. No surprise, then, that volleyball is turning heads amongst leading brands looking for outstanding sponsorship opportunities with strong values around ESG.

ASN caught up with Volleyball World CEO, Finn Taylor, to find out what’s happening volleyball-wise in Asia.

ASN: Where is volleyball most popular in Asia?

FINN TAYLOR: Allow me to answer this in a couple of ways. For decades volleyball has been extremely popular in China and Japan, the love affair with the sport starting, for many, at school and remaining for life. 

So, if you’re basing it purely on eyeballs it’s probably China and Japan, where we have hundreds of millions of fans tuning in devotedly to watch their teams compete in our events. 

However, with our strategy to grow the sport through innovation and to be a ‘digital-first rights holder’, we’re seeing huge levels of engagement across our social channels throughout the Asian region, with other countries catching up quickly!

ASN: Where are you seeing the most growth in the sport within the region?

FINN TAYLOR: Thailand is our fastest growing market – one of the reasons we’re bringing the Women’s Volleyball Nations League (VNL) to Bangkok next June. The demand for behind-the-scenes content, the views we get on our YouTube channel, the engagement on socials, the numbers of new OTT subscribers… it’s all incredible! Thailand currently outperforms any other country by a long way.

Why? Well, at least partly because their Women’s National Team are awesome athletes and awesome individuals!  Here’s a fact for you – 9 of the 10 most watched sporting events on TV in Thailand last year were volleyball! So by bringing it to Bangkok, we’re quenching their thirst for world-class volleyball.

In addition, we’re seeing really encouraging growth in Philippines, Hong Kong and South Korea (where we’ll also be for the 2023 VNL) as well as in Indonesia and India. All this explains why we’ve invested in a strategic alliance with the Asian Volleyball Confederation. We’re convinced of the huge potential for growth in this region, so watch this space. The future is very exciting!

ASN: What do you put this down to? 

FINN TAYLOR: Incredible athletes, incredible events, great work from the National Federations and an affordable way to watch the volleyball superstars whenever and wherever you want via our various channels and platforms.

ASN: What is Volleyball World and what do you aim to do for the sport and the fans?

FINN TAYLOR: Our vision is to be the global hub for volleyball and to provide the vast community of loyal fans with a one-stop-shop for all their volleyball needs, whether that’s a huge selection of matches on volleyball.tv, access to event tickets, merchandise, training tips, the latest news on volleyballworld.com, or exclusive content on our social media channels. 

By doing this we hope to capitalize on the huge commercial potential we believe the sport offers, which in turn enables us to drive innovation and enhance the enjoyment of the 800 million people we know have an interest in the sport at some level.

ASN: Why should a company consider Volleyball when looking at a sports sponsorship?

FINN TAYLOR: The volleyball community is a young, gender balanced, affluent demographic, thirsty for brands to help them enjoy the sport they love in more ways than they’ve had in the past. 

In addition to being able to put a brand in front of billions of people every year (volleyball is the 5^th most watched sport on TV in the world), we have almost 20 million people following us on social media and enjoy extraordinarily high levels of engagement. 

It’s also really important to mention that volleyball has a lot of strong values and is a leading advocate for gender equality, with men and women enjoying the same level of attention and competing for the same prize money. We’ve already had major global brands partner with us because of our work around diversity and inclusion and our ability to help them promote their own social impact programmes. Our ‘Equal Jersey’ is an award-winning initiative in this space.

We tick an awful lot of very important boxes in the selection process and (at the moment) it costs a lot less to sponsor volleyball than it does to sponsor some ‘Tier 1’ sports that offer, in our opinion, nowhere near the same value proposition.

ASN: Has sponsorship picked up over the last year as events are happening again in Asia and around the world?

FINN TAYLOR: I can’t speak for other sports but we’ve certainly seen a significant increase in interest in what we’re doing, thanks to organisations such as yours making people aware of the great opportunities we have on offer and the other work we’re doing to promote the sport.

It’s fair to say the global macro-economic outlook is challenging, to say the least, and any rights holder needs to be able to demonstrate that its proposition can deliver measurable outcomes across multiple KPIs – and not just stick a big logo somewhere because we know that, on its own, doesn’t shift the needle. Ours does, I’m proud to say!

ASN: Tell us about the Volleyball Nations League and the events that will take place in Asia in 2023.

FINN TAYLOR: Over six action-packed weeks from May to July, 16 of the world’s best national teams (per gender) will compete in 11 of the most inspiring venues across four continents. Their aim is to reach the ‘promised land’ of the VNL finals and with it the prize of claiming volleyball’s most prestigious annual trophy.

We’re excited to be coming to Thailand, South Korea, Hong Kong, Japan and The Philippines and to thrill the fans with world class sport and entertainment. Supported by some of the biggest broadcasters in the world, we expect to exceed this year’s figures. We anticipate a TV audience in excess of the 1.2 billion that watched the tournament in 2022 and expect that over 500,000 people will attend the events in person.

In addition to ASN, how can companies interested in sponsoring volleyball find out more?  Who should they contact?

FINN TAYLOR: Our Head of Commercial, Matt Strachan at matt.strachan@volleyball.world who can tell you everything you need to know!