Gvidas ALEKNA - ALEKNAGVIDAS@GMAIL.com
From Niche to - Worldwide Recognised Sport
I built the strategy, systems and creative output around an international combat-sport federation and its World Championship, then used the performance data to keep improving the work.
The sport is underground.
It needed more viewership and a way to reach larger audiences beyond the people who already knew the sport.
Self Sufficient Volunteer Marketing Machine
I built a marketing structure and strategy that could coordinate a 30-country organisation while still producing consistent public-facing work.
The biggest World Championship yet.
We pulled off the sport’s most attended and most viewed World Championship.
National Representation
Collaboration
National Events
The operating reality
Building a system for an underground sport.
The visible output was only one part of the work. The real job was building a repeatable marketing operation around a volunteer-led international federation with limited resources, changing team structures, and inconsistent information flow.
My responsibility.
I owned the strategy and carried the work through execution and coordination.
- International stakeholder coordination
- Social campaigns and motion graphics
- Event marketing, web updates, and email communication
- Livestream promotion and broadcast graphics
- Sponsorship development, fulfilment, and partner communication
- Analytics, testing, media, and crisis communication
How it went.
I built a self-sufficient volunteer marketing machine. I recruited and coordinated a Social Media Manager, Video Editor, and PR Manager, then connected their work with national organisations, sponsors, organisers, fighters, commentators, livestream production, and event volunteers.
We monetised the channels by turning content, event promotion, broadcast visibility, and volunteer contributions into repeatable pathways. The aim was to create recurring income and partner value that volunteers could keep operating across the full event cycle.
Results across the system
Results across the system.
Measurable growth across reach, audience, live viewing, sponsorship, and event scale. These figures describe different parts of the system, so they should be read together rather than added into one artificial total.
The outcome.
I completed my role having played a big part in helping this sport continue to grow. We pulled off the sport’s most attended and most viewed World Championship, while leaving behind a stronger volunteer marketing structure, a larger owned audience, clearer sponsor value, and a repeatable content system.
The sponsorship figure combines financial support, equipment or product value, and partner activation value. The metrics above are separate platform, audience, broadcast, and event measures, not a single summed total.