|
|
AVP
Tour Reaching Out to Gay Fans
By Outsports.com
Outsports.com has been chosen as the first publication in an
advertising buy targeting gay fans by the Association of Volleyball
Professionals Pro Beach Volleyball Tour. While a handful of
professional sports teams have advertised in gay publications in the
past, Outsports is not aware of a professional league or tour
previously advertising in a gay publication based in the U.S.
Keith Dobkowski, director of grassroots marketing for AVP - Pro
Beach Volleyball, came up with the idea of direct marketing efforts
toward gay people when he came across Outsports.com. As director of
grassroots marketing, Dobkowski handles non-traditional online
marketing. He says that Outsports.com is consistently a top-15
referring Web site to the AVP Web site, AVP.com. As the tour was
looking for ways to promote its summer TV schedule, Dobkowski wanted
to try reaching gay men, an audience the AVP hadn’t directly
targeted before.
Dobkowski says he got no resistance from Tour executives about the
advertising buy. He says the Tour welcomes all of their spectators
and fans, regardless of sexual orientation.
“Fans are fans,” Dobkowski says. “If you like sports, California
living or the beach, watching our sport is for you.”
 Beach
volleyball is certainly no stranger to sex in marketing. At the 2004
Olympics, women’s beach volleyball, in which competitors wore
bikinis, was marketed heavily toward straight men with sexy images
of the players. At Outsports.com,
the beach volleyball photo galleries have been some of the most
popular galleries in the last six months.
Dobkowski says choosing a picture (right) to use to market to
Outsports readers was not difficult. “Our athletes are amazing
physical specimens,” he says. “The picture on your site is proof of
that.” He adds that playing on the tour all summer long on sand
courts in the baking sun with temperatures in the 90s and higher
don’t allow for anything but the highest levels of physical
conditioning.
The photo chosen for the ad on Outsports.com is that of the bare abs
of 6-foot-5
Sean Scott. Not only is Scott the specimen of physical fitness,
he’s also tough as nails. In the 2005 San Diego Open two weeks ago,
he shattered his hand, breaking it just below his right pinky in the
first match on Saturday. Scott played through the pain to not only
win that match, but four more, before losing in the finals.
"There aren't any drug users on our tour,” Dobkowski says, “because
they wouldn't be able to survive. They're basketball players playing
in the sand."
It certainly doesn’t hurt that the AVP features the most skimpily
clad athletes this side of water polo. While the women wear bikinis,
the men are always shirtless.
The AVP Tour will be on NBC several times this summer, including
July 2 and 3, 4:30pm EST. You can find a complete schedule of
AVP on NBC at the
Tour’s Web site.
|
