Match Point is an organized, transmedia effort to raise awareness and participation in boys and men’s volleyball in underserved, minority populations in the United States.
Our Project
The Match Point Project is the result of a yearlong collaboration between First Point Volleyball Foundation and the Center for EMDD in the Department of Journalism.
First Point Volleyball Foundation is a non-profit organization founded by USA Men’s National Team and Olympic Head Coach John Speraw to raise participation and awareness for boys’ and men’s volleyball nationwide. In Spring 2019, Dr. Jennifer Palilonis and Dr. Adam Kuban proposed the development of an original documentary focused on the rise of boys’ and men’s volleyball in the U.S., particularly in underserved populations. The relationship with First Point Volleyball Foundation and USA Volleyball provided Ball State Journalism and Telecommunications students with access to some of the world’s most successful volleyball players, including members of the USA Men’s National Team.
From May to December 2019, a team of eleven undergraduate students traveled to California, Chicago, St. Louis, and Dallas to develop the documentary, which will be fully released in Summer 2020. In Fall 2020, a second-team composed of five EMDD graduate students developed a cross-platform transmedia storytelling campaign to promote the documentary. Their campaign includes a website, blog, social media presence, podcast and a volleyball gaming app, all intended to expand and extend stories featured in the documentary. The graduate team also engaged in original research that will be presented at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference public relations division in August.
The Documentary
Match Point: The Rise of Boys’ and Men’s Volleyball is an original documentary that explores opportunities for minority and underserved communities within volleyball, the fastest growing boys’ and men’s sport in the U.S. The documentary follows the United States Men’s Volleyball National Team head coach John Speraw, collegiate coach Nickie Sanlin, youth club director Ed Wrather, and several others on a quest to showcase the sport in the U.S., as well as the challenges associated with attracting new athletes to the sport. The 30-minute documentary was filmed in several locations across the country, including Anheim, Dallas, Chicago, and St. Louis.
In Spring 2020, the Match Point documentary received an Award of Excellence in the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts sports documentary competition. This year the Festival received more than 1,700 entries across all categories.
The Campaign
The Match Point transmedia campaign was developed to support the original documentary Match Point: The Rise of Boys’ and Men’s Volleyball. This transmedia campaign features a website, blog, social media presence, podcast and a volleyball gaming app. These channels of communication are used to give access to the sport of boys’ and men’s volleyball. Original content has been created for these channels to give sports fans access to unique volleyball stories, and insight into the dynamic and powerful nature of the game.
In Spring 2020, the Match Point transmedia campaign received a Second Place award in the Broadcast Education Association Festival of Media Arts interactive multimedia and emerging Technology competition. This year the Festival received over 1,700 entries across all categories.
The Match Point website is a central hub that connects the various parts of the campaign. Regardless of how a user discovers this campaign, the website allows for exploration and connection with a variety of its storytelling elements, including movie trailers, photo galleries, and a blog that features ancillary stories about the growth of boys’ and men’s volleyball. Additionally, the site features information about the documentary production team and the industry partners and organizations that supported this work.
The homepage features a short teaser clip from the documentary trailer and provides viewers the option to watch the full trailer. An original blog features stories about the sport, including interviews with members of the USA Men’s National team and other content that expands on the documentary. A social media page contains a curated feed of all Match Point social media channels, allowing audiences to explore all social media posts in one place.
The Match Point blog highlights stories that provide a more in-depth look at the growth of boys’ and men’s volleyball nationwide, as well as feature stories about prominent U.S. players and teams. The blog is used to extend the transmedia storyworld beyond the documentary itself.
The Match Point social media campaign includes a variety of content and platforms. Short video clips are used to tell stories about members of the USA Men’s National Volleyball Team, while photos are used to promote key people featured in the documentary. Graphics are used to promote other channels of the transmedia story, such as the Match Point gaming app. The content on social media goes beyond telling the stories of individual people; rather, we tell the story of volleyball through sports trivia, volleyball facts, and history, as well as behind-the-scenes footage from the making of the documentary.
Match Point: Aces Only is a podcast that features one-on-one interviews with prominent athletes, coaches, and sports influencers that have a connection to boys’ and men’s volleyball. Each episode of the podcast highlights important initiatives and events in the volleyball world that require a more elaborate discussion. Early Match Point: Aces Only guests included USA Men’s National Volleyball Team Head Coach John Speraw and two-time track-and-field Olympic gold medalist Edwin Moses, who was instrumental in helping start men’s volleyball programs at several historically black colleges and universities in 2019. Match Point: Aces Only is available on Apple Podcasts, Google Play, and Spotify for listeners across the country.
Match Point, The Game is a 12-week pick ’em confidence league app that allows users to become more immersed in the collegiate game by picking weekly winners in their NCAA conference of choice. Players can earn points and win prizes over the course of the men’s collegiate volleyball season, which runs from January to May each year.
This experience was designed to be fun and competitive and links a national audience of players and fans to one another and to the Match Point brand. The app provides a rich, interactive experience that leverages the competitive nature of the sport, its players, and its fans. To align with audiences’ involvement with social media, posts were created on social media to remind audiences to pick their game choices, highlight any game upsets, announce weekly winners, and to tag users that won their specific conference for each week. The app also promotes the documentary and players can earn points by watching the documentary trailer on the app.
Unfortunately, on March 12, 2020, the NCAA announced the cancellation of the remainder of all Spring sports, including Men’s Volleyball, due to the U.S. COVID-19 outbreak. Thus, the Match Point app was prematurely discontinued.
Related Research
After the Match Point campaign launch in December 2019, the EMDD graduate team tracked user engagement for an original research project. With that information, they chronicled the user-centered design and development process and reported key audience engagement statistics in an original research paper titled “Tactical Storytelling: Integrating transmedia and user-centered design to create a holistic product experience.” The paper will be presented in the Public Relations division at the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication conference in San Francisco in August.
Our Process
The marketplace is constantly evolving, and the “build it and they will come” model is no longer an effective strategy for engaging a target audience. Consumers are no longer trapped in front of their television sets waiting for our ads between their primetime entertainment. The 21st-century consumer is well informed, technology-savvy, and fully aware of what’s out there. This evolving marketplace needs evolving strategies for building and promoting brands. Here is how we developed our strategies.
Understanding the Market
Before we began any work on building a transmedia campaign we first had to understand the nature and evolution of modern-day sports marketing. We focused on five topics:
- Sports Marketing: When sports brands and athletes have a social presence, this allows fans more access and more opportunities to develop a personal connection.
- Campaign Innovation: To reach our target market we took a look at past successful campaigns like Google’s 2014 FIFA World Cup campaign, the Seattle Seahawks’ 2018 branding partnership with Starbucks, and Ralph Lauren’s recent TikTok campaign.
- Cross-platform, transmedia: Creating a unified and coordinated entertainment experience creates an emotional, participatory and meaningful user experience that captivates consumers.
- Empathy research and user-centered design: Helps designers to set aside their own assumptions about the world in order to gain insight into their users’ needs.
- User-experience: Understanding the experiences users have is vital to engaging audiences across multiple platforms it adds depth to the story and enriches their experiences, ensuring that they do not get lost and leave the storyworld.
Our Team
Eleven undergraduate students contributed to this documentary and related transmedia campaign. Click here to check out a full list with team members names and their contributions.
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