Alongside being the biggest Turkish TV manufacturer, Vestel is the main sponsor of Women’s National Volleyball Team since 2020. As all other sponsorship deals, initially Vestel was expecting that this sponsorship would make the brand more ‘likeable’ and ‘cool’, especially in the eyes of Turkish youth and brand’s female audience. The first problem we identified was that the interest in men's football overshadowed women's volleyball in Turkey, so this sponsorship did not boost the brand’s image. Women's volleyball had low media visibility in Turkey, receiving only 7.3% of the coverage compared to men's football due to biased sports media, which favored men’s sports. As the main sponsor of the National Women's Volleyball Team, we saw an opportunity to promote the sport and empower female athletes.So, our challenge was not raising the awareness of Vestel’s sponsorship alone but to grab attention to women’s volleyball.

The strategy was to challenge the perception that Turkey was solely a football nation by focusing on three factors: sportive achievements, cultural codes, and media visibility. The success of the National Women's Volleyball Team in Turkish sports history and its high ranking in the FIVB demonstrated that the world recognized Turkey as a volleyball nation. Cultural codes were not an issue, as volleyball was already widely played in schools, beaches, and picnics. The main challenge was the media's biased approach, which only opened space for men's sports. To overcome this, the campaign focused on showcasing the biased approach of Turkish media by using Vestel's TVs as a platform to showcase women's volleyball stories. The campaign message, "If it is not on TV, it is on Vestel TVs," aimed to demonstrate the power of Vestel as a major TV manufacturer and reach millions of people.

We turned Vestel televisions into media channels. Vestel had 370 stores in 81 provinces, which meant there were in total 4,614 televisions on display that millions of people passed by every day. We started to broadcast women’s volleyball teams’ stories from those televisions with ‘We Are a Volleyball Nation’ slogan. We did not stop there. We extended this practice wherever Vestel televisions are seen: In our price-oriented TV sales films, on our online sales platforms and even on our brochures.

With no additional budget, we reached close to 14 million people and achieved 550 GRPs worth of reach (3.5 mio TL worth visibility). The campaign reached 80% spontaneous awareness. Vestel became the top-of-mind sponsor with 47% among 16 other sponsors. Among those who were aware of Vestel's sponsorship, the overall brand perception increased by 12 points. The sponsorship campaign even effected TV sales, during a four-month period, the sponsorship campaign resulted in a gradual 69.5% increase in TV sales.