Community Night promo spikes energy and attendance

Collage of photos from the UW Oshkosh women's volleyball game

Posted: July 17, 2024 4 min read

Meaningful Connections

Promo products help pack gym for college volleyball match

Posted: July 17, 2024 4 min read

Three in four fans expect to receive a free item when attending a sporting event with a promotional theme, according to Morning Consult^®. When the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh women’s volleyball program wanted to pack the gym for its inaugural Community Night, the staff smartly added an at-the-door handout to its game-day promotions strategy. Jon Ellmann, UW Oshkosh volleyball head coach, shares how those promo products helped strengthen the connection between UW Oshkosh Titans volleyball and the local community.

Volleyball players run to celebrate with crowd after big win - start of story Q&A

Q: What is special about UW Oshkosh and its volleyball program?

A: UW Oshkosh is the third largest university in Wisconsin, with more than 10,000 students. We’re a Division III volleyball program with a lot of success over the years, including 14 regular-season conference championships and 19 NCAA^® tournament appearances, with four trips to the Final Four.

Q: What was the premise of Community Night?

A: Before the 2023 season, we were discussing goals for the program, and community engagement is always one that’s at the top of the list. We have this amazing institution, in a really cool city and region, and wanted to do something special. UW Oshkosh has the largest home venue for an NCAA Division III women’s volleyball team, with a capacity of 5,600. We found out the Division III attendance record for regular-season women’s volleyball was 3,051 and wanted to take a shot at breaking it. We didn’t charge for admission and did a lot of community outreach, talking with the school districts, some major employers and companies in the area, anybody we could get to come hang out for a night.

Collage of photos of players and crowd at UW Oshkosh women's volleyball game

Q: How did you decide on a promotional product to feature?

A: We knew we wanted to give something away, and we were looking for what would make the biggest impact. We wanted some-thing people could use that night and then would take with them. We found these hand fans that ended up looking really cool with the UW Oshkosh Titans logo on them. Everybody had the fans, and they were waving them around. It really added to the energy in the gym.

Help them show team spirit!

Hand Fan

Q: How did the event turn out?

A: Community Night was massive. We ended up drawing 2,725 people, so we didn’t break the record for all of Division III, but the energy was still unlike almost any match we’ve played before. It also was the biggest crowd for a volleyball game in UW Oshkosh history. We happened to go in undefeated at 17-0 and we played a conference rival that was having a great season, so there was a lot of energy there.

“… the energy was still unlike almost any match we’ve played before. It also was the biggest crowd for a volleyball game in UW Oshkosh history,” Jon Ellmann said.

Q: How did the rest of the season pan out?

A: We won that night 3-1, and the rest of the year went historically well. We ended the regular season undefeated. We won 34 consecutive matches—a conference record. We earned an at-large bid to the NCAA tournament and got to play our first three matches at home. We advanced to the Elite Eight in California and lost, so we finished tied for fifth in the country. It was a historic season for us by almost every metric.