There were not many who believe that European Volleyball Championship would bring such a joy and so much happiness to the whole country. Even though the Slovenian national team never played in front of more than 3000 fans before EuroVolley, we were determined to change the perception of the sport and to sell out Stožice Arena. Mission impossible? Not for us. Together with Volleyball Federation of Slovenia we prepared a promotional strategy with the main goal to present volleyball as a unique sport and we focused on families and young population with engaging, positive and inspiring tone of voice.
Official EuroVolley song presented what fans should expect. Trophy Tour visited 18 schools where some of our national team players started their volleyball careers. We installed 99 volleyball courts in Ljubljana city centre. For the first time in history volleyball was played on the water and we were jumping, blocking and spiking on the surface of the river. Magic was in the air. With intensive activities on social media channels and through cooperation with media partners, we reached our goal and created the hype. When EuroVolley 2019 started, we knew that we are ready for something big. Fans loved what they experienced in the arena. The magical ambience created extra energy for our national team players. They became unstoppable just as we hoped and planned when we designed our superhero characters well before the event. Numbers were unbelievable. The arena was sold out three times and with live TV broadcast, we reached 2/3 of Slovene population. Slovenia lost the final match, but we won parts of almost everyone in Slovenia. EuroVolley 2019 will stay in our minds as something truly remarkable and hard to beat experience.
