20/10/2020 09:30
#EuroBeachVolley 2020 a major hit online!
CEV EuroBeachVolley 2020
Luxembourg, October 20, 2020. The 2020 edition of CEV EuroBeachVolley finished exactly a month ago, thus accounting for the only major highlight of an otherwise heavily disrupted Beach Volleyball season. The event held in Jurmala, Latvia, was a major hit online, with as many as 3,571 articles published online to go with 3,396 posts on social media mentioning #EuroBeachVolley.
The 3,571 articles published online achieved a 2.5 billion potential media contact points, thus generating an advertising value standing at an impressive € 20.2 million. Germany, traditionally a Beach Volleyball powerhouse, accounted for 51.1% of these articles alone – followed by host country Latvia (10.6), Switzerland (6.9), Russia (4.9), the Netherlands (4.2) and Italy (3.7) to compose the top six countries in terms of online media coverage.
The sensational performance of Kim Behrens and Cinja Tillmann, who secured their right to compete to Jurmala only after the withdrawal of their compatriots Karla Borger and Julia Sude, caused for much furore, as they marched from victory to victory to claim the silver medal, losing only to Joana Heidrich and Anouk Vergé-Dépré of Switzerland in the gold medal match.
Many leading international media, such as TASS or RT.com as well as Rossiyskaya Gazeta in Russia or Onet.pl in Poland covered EuroBeachVolley quite extensively – as did Germany’s leading news agency Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa).
EuroBeachVolley was a very popular and trendy topic on social media as well, especially during the event days, with the competition on Majori beach running from September 15 to 20. Media, athletes, National Federations as well as players published as many as 3,396 posts, producing 52.9 million potential media contact points.
Most of the posts (36%) were in English, with Italian (15%) and German (12%) the next languages most frequently used online.
The general sentiment about EuroBeachVolley was a very positive one, with stakeholders such as players and National Federations as well as media representatives praising the efforts made by the CEV and the local Organising Committee to deliver such an event in times of coronavirus pandemic. This was especially important in order to provide both elite and up-and-coming teams with something to look forward to in a season where the pandemic forced the cancellation of most events, as well as the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Moreover, the organisers and the CEV were able to find a way to deal with the challenging weather conditions, which forced the cancellation of a full competition day, with the tournament resuming as soon as it was possible and safe to do so.
The event reached its climax on September 20 when Heidrich/Vergé-Dépré and Norway’s golden boys Anders Mol/Christian Sørum emerged as the eventual winners of the European championship, with the ‘Vikings’ securing their third continental crown in a row.
Click here for further information or visit the official event website https://eurobeachvolley.cev.eu.
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