VOLLEYBALL NATION

TitleVOLLEYBALL NATION
BrandVESTEL
Product/ServiceVESTEL
Category A02. AR
Entrant CONCEPT Istanbul, TURKEY
Idea Creation CONCEPT Istanbul, TURKEY
Media Placement MEDIACOM Istanbul, TURKEY
Media Placement 2 DIGITAS İstanbul, TURKEY
Production YAPAR ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Credits
Name Company Position
Kerem Özkut Concept ECD
Mustafa Ozmal Concept Istanbul Creative Director
Gökhan Ozdemir Concept Istanbul Creative Director
Emre Günaydın Concept Istanbul Creative Group Head
Görkem Can Uygun Concept Istanbul Copywriter
Alperen Yalçıngil Concept Istanbul Copywriter
Berke Gülçiçek Concept İstanbul Art Director
Yağız Akgün Concept İstanbul Art Director
Mehmet Ogeç Concept Istanbul Graphic Designer
Barış Alemdar Concept İstanbul VP - Client Services
Ozlem Najdi Concept Istanbul Group Account Director
Serap Balaban Concept Istanbul Account Supervisor
Gizem Pelivan Concept Istanbul Account Executive
Melis Çiçek Concept Istanbul Account Executive
Berna Aşkın Concept Istanbul Digital Business Development
Onur Aydın Concept Istanbul Strategic Planning Director
Şelale Mısırdalı Concept Istanbul Strategic Planning Director
Mert Turan Concept Istanbul Production Director
Hilal Kınalıada Concept Istanbul Production

Background

Since 2016, Vestel is a proud supporter and one of the main sponsors of Turkish volleyball. For Vestel, it is more than a simple sponsorship because Vestel has been working for the improvement of volleyball infrastructure in Turkey for years. But there was a problem, Turkish volleyball was not getting the attention it deserved; even though volleyball is the most successful sport branch in Turkey, still everyone believed that Turkey was a FOOTBALL NATION. One of the main reasons of this confusion was the Turkish sport media's bias approach. Our challenge was to prove that Turkey is indisputably a VOLLEYBALL NATION by raising awareness about media's bias approach and showing the glorious history of Turkish volleyball.

Describe the creative idea

We were aware that media shapes the culture of a country, so for a cultural shift we aimed to change the media's approach. In the last year's sport coverages in media there were 448.072 football news vs. 44.392 volleyball news - which means the media coverage rate of volleyball was only 10.38% compared to football. We needed to demonstrate this gap in the right time, the right place and the right way. And we did it. First we showed this gap in the most famous sport newspaper in Turkey. Then by using AR filter, we transformed the entire page. We manipulated the visible attitude of a ‘sport’ newspaper which only focuses on football by changing every news in it into volleyball news with the help of augmented reality.

Describe the strategy

We were trying to put the volleyball in the radar of sportlovers in Turkey by showing them football was not the only sport that matters. In contrary, we were a VOLLEYBALL NATION in terms of success. The only shadow in front of volleyball’s success was the bias approach of the Turkish sports media. So our approach was changing the media, fast. It is hard to change attitudes in Turkey by only raising awareness, we had to show something tangible. So we decided to change an entire page in a sport newspaper to demonstrate the real gap between football and volleyball.

Describe the execution

We visualized the data by designing an ad that covers only the 10.38% of entire page. Where we shared it was more important, we put our ad into most famous sport newspaper in Turkey. All the other news in that page was about football, as usual. But it was all about to change because we put a QR code in our ad which was directed to an Instagram AR filter we designed. Users were able to use this filter to scan the entire page and change it into volleyball news. Thanks to our Instagram AR filter, volleyball news, which could not find a place in the press, covered the entire page and could be easily shared in Instagram stories. We didn't do this as an integrated campaign, but as a single idea, as a single project. Thus, we reached millions of people by visualizing real data in the print media,

List the results

We raised awareness about Turkish sport media's bias. Hundreds of users shared it in their IG Stories so we were able to reach 1.735.560 Turkish people. Thanks to our campaign, media shifted their attitude, the rate of volleyball coverage in print media increased to 23.45%. When media changed their approach, Turkey responded well too. The match of Turkish Women’s National Volleyball Team has been watched 2 times more than the match of Turkish Men’s National Football Team, it was a first in Turkey. We even changed the attitudes of football announcers, they started to use our phrase too. Now even football guys believe that we are a VOLLEYBALL NATION.