Rules for Promoting a Sports Event: Schools’ Dodgeball Tournament (Part 2)

Preface

In this 3-piece article series, I’ll introduce you to how I was a part of a kinda small-scale sports event—a student dodgeball tournament aimed at school students from grades 9 to 12. If you’ve ever thought about planning a and promoting a sports event yourself, or even just any kind of event, this might give you some practical know-how from my experience.

Like I said in Part 1—whether it’s a tiny local event or a national-scale show, the same basics apply. You need to hit the fundamentals: figure out your audience, craft a message that speaks to them, and move them to action. That’s the whole game. When you’ve got more budget, sure—you can get fancier, more original. But the core goal never changes.

For me, the mission was simple: get at least 32 teams to register, so I could realistically have 16 show up and compete.

Let’s fast forward: I didn’t hit the target. We got 20 registered. 12 showed up.

And still—honest truth? We called it a success. Because for a first-time, pilot-style event, the biggest win is actually hosting it. Doing the whole cycle. Feeling the bumps, collecting the Ls, seeing what works. Now we’ve got the experience—and the bruises—to build something way stronger next time.

So, here’s a reminder of other parts (separate articles):

• Part 1: The Idea – how the idea of this sports event was born, why it mattered, and what checkboxes had to be filled before anything could happen. This is this article.
• Part 2: Promotion – how we planned to get people interested in our student dodgeball tournament, involved, and signed up. Period of communication, some sports marketing basics.
• Part 3: The Event – what went down on game day, what worked, what didn’t, and what we learned. During and after the event.

For Part II, I’m skipping all the introductions about who am I, my experience in sports and entertainment marketing, where are we hosting this event and why this seemed like a good idea – you can read all about that in – Rules for Planning a Sports Event: Schools’ Dodgeball Tournament (Part 1).

Let’s dive into promoting the sports event, baby.

Promoting a Sports Event

Alright, quick rewind to Part I. Before we could promote anything, here were the boxes we had to tick:

• A visual identity—something that clicks with our audience;
• Ambassadors—faces students recognize and respect;
• Brands—logos that add weight, trust, and cool factor.

And then:

• Landing page for sign-ups;
• Comms pack: visuals, articles, videos.
• Clear target groups.

We got it all done and now our goal was to put it all in action, and see how it goes.

How We Picked the Ambassadors for Promoting a Sports Event

Despite having this well covered in Part I, I’m gonna do a quick reminder about how we picked the ambassadors. The goal was to include:

• A regular influencer
• A sports influencer
• An influencer-athlete
• A sports celebrity

And they all had to be current or former VMU students. So, it wasn’t just about promoting a dodgeball tournament—it was also about showcasing our university’s sports ecosystem.

Videos for Promoting a Sports Event

For our comm-pack with ambassadors, we dropped five videos total: One quickfire reel with all four ambassadors together, plus four individual clips where each ambassador invited students to comment and join their team.

MISTAKE 1. None of the students who commented actually showed up—or gave us their teacher’s contact. Lesson? You can hype students, but if you want them to show up, you’ve gotta push the teachers to register them. Students bring the energy, but teachers bring the bus.

Now, since we were operating on a budget, we skipped paid ads completely. Even so, I’d say the reach was solid—over 200,000 impressions just from organic posts on Instagram alone, not counting other social media platforms. That came down to smart Instagram collabs, ambassador reposts, and Facebook group hustle – I’ll have final results in Part III.

If we had the budget? I’d definitely test YouTube and Google Ads aimed straight at teachers.

Articles and Newsletters

And here’s where our university’s communication department came in. Their job was to push out the article and newsletters that I’ve prepared. Now, I’m not fully sure what went down behind the scenes—but judging from the numbers, their campaign didn’t bring in any noticeable traffic to the website. So, if we ever run this event again, I’ll likely handle that part myself. Not out of ego—just clarity. When stakes are high, you need to know who’s steering which ship.

From a strategy standpoint, we kept it simple and teacher-focused. We made sure to highlight two key points in all outreach:

• And a special programme for teachers, led by our professors and highlighted by a guest appearance from Mantas Kalnietis—local basketball legend, current VMU lecturer, and ambassador of our event’s main sponsor, Žalgiris. A Kaunas icon who was extremely close to the NBA and would’ve put our hometown on top of the list of most NBA players per 100k.
• There’ll be a buffet—both for kids and teachers. That may seem small, but trust me, for schools juggling logistics, food is a big win.

MISTAKE 2. I should’ve reached out to regional media and smaller town outlets. They’d probably be way more excited to promote their local schools in an event backed by a university, sponsored by Žalgiris, and supported by well-known influencers. We had the credibility—they just needed the invitation.

MISTAKE 3. I assumed teachers would care more about the educational programme than the actual tournament. Turns out, many of them were just as fired up—if not more—about the sports side of the event.

MISTAKE 4. I should’ve been aware that our VMU sports center is not only a great place for hosting, it’s also a great selling point.

Our main web article—targeted specifically at teachers—was supposed to get an extra push through Facebook groups and personal shares from our colleagues. Now, I won’t dive into all the details, but… let’s just say that part didn’t go as planned. 😅 Whether it was timing, follow-through, or just plain silence—whatever the reason, the post didn’t reach its full potential. Next time, I’d probably take the reins on that myself or build a tighter micro-team around execution.

MISTAKE 5. This is one I’ve made way too many times—when you carry most of the weight, the harsh truth is simple: if you want it done right, either do it yourself, micromanage the shit out of it, or work with people who’ll actually treat it like it matters. Building a solid team around you is key, especially when you’re scaling up. Luckily, this time the event wasn’t massive and the stakes were low—more lessons than losses.

Firing the Plan B

As you can tell by now, there were plenty of mistakes—and I’m only highlighting the major ones here. So when our registration deadline hit and we were still short on teams, we had to pull the emergency lever: Plan B, as mentioned in Part I—promotion at the education fair (studijų mugė) happening right at our VMU Sports Center, with around 1000–1500 students expected.

Turned out, we got 2000 students through the doors. And I made sure they saw us—printed as many posters as there were walls (almost literally). You couldn’t miss it. That was our last shot to reach schools directly and squeeze out those final sign-ups.

So yeah… even though we found out most 11th graders had a national math exam—our plan still worked. As of May 16 (that’s two weeks before the event), we actually had more team registrations than available slots.

But we were aiming for 32 teams total, so instead of locking things in and starting comms with schools on Monday, we waited until Thursday—just 8 days before the tournament—to start messaging them. And just like that… back to the list of mistakes.

MISTAKE 6. Always know the date—and what it means for your audience. We were laser-focused on 12th-grade exams… and totally forgot about the 11th-grade math exam that hit us right in the face. Add to that a wave of graduation parties, and yeah—it hurt. That said, when we were setting the timeline, we were in a situation where it was either lock it in fast or push the whole thing to autumn. Honestly? I’m still glad we went for it. 

MISTAKE 7. Never—and I mean never—leave just one week for live, direct communication. I’m pretty confident we could’ve gotten all 16 teams if we had started school outreach two weeks out. And here’s the kicker: I knew this. I’ve worked with schools before, and I’ve made this exact mistake in the past. But this time, I let myself be swayed by my colleagues, who pushed to prolong registration. So yeah—this one’s on me. I knew where this path leads, but I was like “Yeah… Fuck it… Maybe this time it’ll be different”. Let this be a reminder if I ever try that again. 🙃

🏁 How to Promote a Sports Event (Even When It’s a Bit of a Mess)

Okay, so based on my past experience, this tournament, and the many (many) mistakes we made—I figured I’d throw down a no-BS summary of how to promote a sports event. This is your shortcut. Your blueprint. Your “read this before you repeat my mistakes” checklist.

1. Start With What You’ve Got

Your strengths are your launchpad. In our case, we had a venue, some in-house media muscle, and strong university backing. Those things matter. Take inventory of your resources before you dream too big. Then dream anyway—but build from what’s real.

2. Define Your Audience, Then Divide It

We had two core groups: students and teachers. So we built two strategies:

• Hype + influencers for students
• Clarity + trust signals (newsletters, articles, faculty mentions) for teachers

Sometimes, your audience isn’t just one group. Sometimes, the decision-maker (teachers) isn’t the one who cares most (students). Know who moves the needle—and speak their language.

3. Create Visual Identity That Feels Right

This is a huge takeaway for marketers in any market, and applies not just for sports event marketing. Your logo, posters, videos—they either connect or get ignored. We went DBZ-style. Not because it’s cool (okay, also because it’s cool), but because it clicked with our audience. T-shirts were fire (I’m getting ahead of myself for Part III here). Posters were everywhere. The vibe was clear.

4. Get Faces and Brands That Transfer Trust

The play of values applies here perfectly: if you’re building a new event or brand, borrow credibility. We brought in:

• A traditional influencer;
• A sports influencer;
• An athlete-influencer;
• A sports celebrity;
• The biggest (sports) brand in Lithuania – Žalgiris, which helped us attract other brands;
• A brand that is already associated with dodgeball tournaments in Lithuania (Gaidelis);
• A super popular soft-drink brand amongst teenagers – Formosa.

Oh—and all of the ambassadors were connected to VMU. And all the brands, were well-known in Lithuania. That’s how you build legitimacy and story. Also, with Žalgiris on-board, we got prizes from our other sponsors, which became an additional motivation for students to register.

5. Ambassadors? Yes. But Also… Strategy.

We made 5 videos (1 with all ambassadors, 4 individual ones). But mistake #1? Letting students register by commenting. Don’t do that. It’s cute—but if teachers aren’t involved, those kids aren’t coming. In our case: teachers bring the bus. In your case: try to think from the perspective of your target audience, because now, when you think about it, if I had given it more though, this mistake could’ve been easily avoided.

Also, if you’re low-budget like us and can’t run paid ads? Go hard on smart collabs. Instagram shares, Facebook groups, real faces doing the work. We still hit 200k+ impressions on Instagram alone in few weeks. No cash, just hustle.

6. Treat Communication Like a Job, Not a Favor

If something must work, don’t delegate blindly. University comms didn’t bring traffic. Facebook shares from colleagues didn’t happen. Whose fault? YOURS (in this case, MINE). Next time, I’ll handle that part directly or build a team that treats the mission like their own. At the same time, I’m happy that I’ve learned my lesson during the pilot event.

If you want something done right:

• Do it yourself;
• Or micromanage the shit out of it;
• Or build a crew who gets it.

But if you’re planning to bitch about someone not doing their job, as an excuse why you failed – organising events is just not for you.

7. Plan B Isn’t a Backup. It’s a Lever.

We knew Plan B was our last bullet: the education fair (studijų mugė) with 2000+ students. We printed posters like madmen and covered the venue wall-to-wall. That effort alone likely saved the event.

So yes, have a backup plan—but treat it like a real strategy, not a footnote.

And if the stakes are higher have Plan Cs, Ds, Es. Here’s a quote, from someone who knew a thing or two about planning.

“Plans are worthless, but planning is everything.” – Dwight D. Eisenhower

8. Timing = Everything

Biggest facepalm? We forgot about the 11th-grade math exam. And graduation week. Rookie mistake—and one I’ve made before. Know your national calendars. Live in your audience’s rhythm.

Even worse—we left ourselves only 8 days for school comms when we should’ve had 14. It cost us teams. And that one’s fully on me. When your gut says “this might be a problem,” don’t override it just to keep the peace.

TL;DR Wrap-Up

To market a sports event:

→ Start with what you have.

→ Build a low-risk pilot version.

→ Create a visual identity that resonates.

→ Use ambassadors and sponsors to transfer trust.

→ Target each audience differently.

→ Execute the comms yourself—or don’t expect miracles.

→ Respect the calendar. Respect the rhythm.

→ And if you screw it up? Own it. Learn. Try again.

If you’re lucky like we were, you’ll walk away not just with a tournament—but with a roadmap. Now head to Part III.