Why a razor brand sponsored a pro volleyball championship

Some sports sponsorships just make sense, like Reese’s and Angel Reese or Rao’s and Tommy DeVito. Add Bic Soleil and the Pro Volleyball Federation (PVF) to that list.

The razor brand served as the title sponsor of the PVF’s championship tournament, formally called the 2025 Bic Soleil Pro Volleyball Federation Championship, in Nevada earlier this month. The deal came together in part because of a volleyball play called a “bic,” short for “back-row attack,” in which a player attacks the ball from the back of the court. Beyond the obvious synergy in the name, the play is a bit of a metaphor for the Bic Soleil brand, Karen Schwartz, global VP of blade excellence at Bic, told Marketing Brew.

“The bic is designed to surprise opponents,” Schwartz said. “You don’t see it coming, and that’s sort of like our Soleil razors. We’re a little bit understated. We don’t spend as much on marketing…as some of the other brands out there, but when women use a Bic Soleil, they love it.”

Plus, there’s no shortage of exposed legs and armpits in volleyball, “so the benefits of the product are on display,” she added. While Bic Soleil’s deal with the PVF was exclusively focused on the championship this year, it’s part of a broader push into emerging women’s sports for the brand, and Schwartz said it might not be the end of Bic Soleil’s presence in volleyball.

Bump

The bic play wasn’t the only aspect of volleyball that stood out to Schwartz and her team when the PVF approached them with the idea for the sponsorship. Schwartz said she took note of the growth of women’s volleyball around 2023, when the University of Nebraska women’s volleyball team set a record for attendance at a women’s sports event. She also has some young volleyball players in her family, and appreciated the fact that the sport is popular at the youth level, she said.

Bic Soleil has been working to get in on the ground floor with women’s sports leagues, targeting sports that seem to be more up-and-coming rather than leagues that are already established in the mainstream. The brand recently renewed its partnership with the Professional Women’s Hockey League for a second season, which was its first-ever sports deal, Schwartz said.

“For us, it’s really about those unsung heroes,” she said. “As we looked for places to start and learn about women’s sports, we really wanted to get in on some of these sports that were taking off early…because we see the potential of where they can go.”

Set

In addition to the championship title sponsorship, Bic Soleil’s deal with the PVF included signs around Lee’s Family Forum arena, digital and social ads, and a campaign that ran on CBS Sports Network and the jumbotron promoting the brand’s “Set a Bic, Score a Bic” sweepstakes that offered audiences a chance to win Bic x PVF merchandise every time a team set a bic during the tournament.

Bic Soleil also partnered with a couple of the athletes who competed in the tournament, Ally Batenhorst of the Omaha Supernovas and Mia Tuaniga of the Atlanta Vibe, since a lot of the content pro volleyball players post on social has “felt very authentic to the Bic Soleil brand,” Schwartz said.

Both Batenhorst and Tuaniga posted multiple times in the leadup to the tournament, including GRWM videos using Bic Soleil razors, explainers about the back-row attack, and promos for the sweepstakes.

Spike

Reach was a major KPI for the sponsorship, according to Schwartz, and her team is also tracking market share and sales of the Bic Soleil Glide razor, the product featured in the campaign content. Within a few days of the campaign debut, Bic Soleil generated more than 150,000 organic impressions and saw an average engagement rate of 3.7% on its PVF social content, according to the brand.

Ahead of the tournament, Schwartz expressed interest in potentially expanding the deal if the initial sponsorship performed as her team expected. They’re also eyeing other women’s sports that are seeing “growing surges of popularity and chatter,” such as Olympic sports and international soccer, that could help the brand stand out by demonstrating its uses realistically, Schwartz said.

“It’s not about these beautiful, photoshopped moments of shaving, but really, how can Bic Soleil support [women’s] on-the-go lifestyles…whether that’s on the ice, on the court, or in her day-to-day life.”