As of 2013 Sky Media Network has started a partnership with the German volleyball association DVV to be the exclusive marketer of the smart beach tour and the official German smart beach volleyball championship. The goal of this partnership was not only to promote volleyball and draw audiences to the game, but also to create a great marketing opportunity for Sky Media Network to add to its assets on-site event marketing and become the exclusive promoters of a prestigious event that will also reinforce its programme grid.
The concept
 After the gold medal won by the German team at the Olympic Games in summer 2012, the interest in beach volleyball in Germany grew substantially among fans, the wider audience and sponsors. Sky decided to build on this popularity and broadcast the German beach volleyball cup tour on their sports channel. All the marketing and advertising rights were transferred to Sky Media Network, which expanded its portfolio substantially as a result.
The partnership between DVV and Sky has met positive feedback from the volleyball community, which was very enthusiastic to see that volleyball will once again appear regularly on TV. Sky decided to offer a high quality broadcast supported by a large amount of background information about the players and by engaging 2012 Olympic champion Jonas Reckermann as a commentator and former German volleyball star Sara Goller as a field reporter. Sky and DVV signed a long-term contract, as Sky acknowledged that it will require some time to build a stable viewership and support amongst audience for this sports event.
 Although Sky holds the exclusive rights to the content, the broadcaster was willing to share it with other stations as well. The tour received a great deal of attention in the press with over 4,500 mentions in various newspapers and magazines, over 2,000 mentions online and an accumulated reach of 13.3 million contacts.
A complex multimedia campaign was set up to integrate fully the sponsors of the show: Automotive manufacturer smart was title sponsor, Congstar was main sponsor and other tour-sponsors such as Leibniz, Holiday Check and Tipico were included in Sky’s cross-media communication platforms. All of them were delighted by the quality environment that the tour provided them with. Most of them have been partners of the tour for some years and others have signed up for future seasons.
Why does this matter to egta members?
 The discussion about strong brands, creative B2B campaigns and original actions to grow the aura of a sales house has been discussed amongst egta members quite regularly over the past few months. With this partnership, Sky managed to position their sales house and channel as strong, reliable partners for new 360° offers that give major added value to advertisers. Taking a leap of faith and backing sports events such as this, which fall outside the mainstream, whilst giving strong visibility for the broadcaster and its partners has paid off in Sky’s case. It has allowed the sales house to play a double role, offering innovative advertising packages as well as showcasing its channel and quality content for its clients.
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