International Volleyball Federation and Emakina rise as one team in the #SportOnSocial 2020 rankings
The International Volleyball Federation (FIVB) took third place in Redtorch’s #SportOnSocial League Table 2020 rankings. The FIVB’s digital strategy stood out for its intelligent use of video which generated millions of views and attracted hundreds of thousands of new fans. This incredible achievement is the result of the close collaboration between the FIVB and its digital partner agency Emakina.
Each year, the #SportOnSocial League Table provides a ranking of International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognised International Sports Federations (IFs) based on their social media performance. The FIVB reached third place in the overall rankings of the four most popular social media platforms - Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter. It promotes its online presence through a sustained and close collaboration with the digital agency, Emakina, a successful partnership that has helped to facilitate the FIVB’s rapid rise to one of the most active and followed IFs across social media platforms.
The FIVB also recently featured in the BCW International Sports Federation Ranking for demonstrating the fastest growth on Instagram, with more likes and comments than any other IF on the platform.
Video boosts media success
By putting video at the heart of its social media strategy, the FIVB and Emakina team of experts helped to propel the FIVB’s social media channels to a higher level. For example, the use of engaging video content was embraced to help stand out on YouTube, where a total of 33,923 views per video were accumulated and the IF moved up five places to an incredible second on the #SportOnSocial League Table 2020.
Meanwhile, the FIVB has enjoyed a huge increase in followers on Instagram. Having started 2019 with 350,000 followers, the Federation’s Instagram following has now grown to more than 907,000. Providing fans with engaging video content on Instagram also helped to generate 122 million video views, the fourth highest total in the rankings. In addition, with over 2,000 videos, the FIVB led all federations in videos created which earned third place overall in the 2020 rankings for Instagram.
More FIVB Facebook fans and more Tweets
The FIVB attracted over 525,000 new Facebook fans in 2019, placing the IF fourth in this ranking. These new followers represented a growth rate of 42 per cent, the third highest of all IFs, of which 32% occurred during the men’s and women’s finals of the Volleyball Nations League (VNL) 2019 in June. Moreover, the FIVB was extremely active on Twitter, and posted an array of interesting and engaging Tweets to earn fourth place out of IFs that posted the most during 2019. The FIVB also moved up three places in the International Federation Twitter top 10 rankings and reached a respectable fifth place.
Data driven content creation
The social media team’s weekly data analysis session uses cutting-edge technology to optimise the FIVB’s social media content. The new scalable digital framework that was implemented together with Emakina in 2019, and the focus on engaging content, allowed the team to quickly modify content production. As a result, fans received exactly what they wanted to see - a wide range of content adapted to their expectations and tailored to the format of each platform.
A high-performance digital partnership since 2014
The FIVB has a long-standing and agile collaborative partnership with Emakina, which has helped lead to greater success on digital platforms. This partnership began in 2014, when the FIVB and digital agency Emakina combined their knowledge to rethink and rebuild the digital ecosystem for international men's and women's volleyball competitions. The unique live experience they created for sports fans around the world won the dream team gold at the prestigious Sitecore Experience Awards for “Best Digital Marketing Solution”, and silver at the IAB Mixx Awards for the “Best Optimised Website of the Year”. In 2018, this partnership was also awarded the prestigious “Best of Web CUBE” for “Digital Communication in Sport” for the inaugural edition of the VNL in 2018.
Teamwork based on sector and audience knowledge
Speaking on this highly successful partnership, President of Emakina.CH Arnaud Grobet said:
"This excellent ranking in the #SportOnSocial League Table 2020 confirms the value of our close collaboration with the FIVB. It is a fine example of the Emakina Group’s international competitiveness and our close and agile collaboration with our fantastic clients. We achieved the objectives of the FIVB and even surpassed them together by combining our shared expertise with the complementary experience of our Emakina colleagues in several agencies.”