The Pro Volleyball Federation Serves Winning Content with PhotoShelter

Setting the Stage for a New Era in Volleyball

Pro Volleyball Federation, launched in January 2024, redefines professional volleyball in North America, showcasing elite talent and providing fans with world-class competition. As the league expanded, they needed a  comprehensive system to manage and distribute visual assets. With multiple teams, athletes, and partners relying on timely, organized content, the league required a solution to ensure seamless content delivery, brand growth, and support for athletes’ personal branding efforts.

The Challenge: Bumping Up Against Asset Management

Rob Carolla, Vice President of Public & Media Relations, wears many hats, overseeing PR, media relations, and content management for the league. His daily workflow required organizing large amounts of visual assets and distributing them efficiently to teams, players, and media partners. Rob faced several challenges with asset management that slowed down their workflow.

• Disorganized storage caused delays. “We had a Google Drive here, a tool there,” Rob said, emphasizing the chaotic structure. The content was hard to find without a unified system, and assets often got lost, making long-term organization impossible.
• No structured content distribution. With no platform to distribute content efficiently, it was difficult for teams to share assets with players and media. “We needed something searchable because we may not always know every player by face,” Rob noted, highlighting the difficulty of identifying players quickly for press releases or social posts.
• Under-resourced content teams. As a small team operating a start-up league, finding a tool that could help scale their content efforts was critical. “Most teams don’t always travel with content people,” Rob explained, meaning remote access to photos and videos was essential for timely social media posts and other needs.

“I am not a believer in, ‘Let’s use it because it’s free.’ I’m not doing this job forever, right? So when I leave, somebody needs to come in to be able to find our history, to be able to find that archive of photos.… We also needed something searchable because we may not know every player by face.”

Rob Carolla, Vice President, Public & Media Relations

The Solution: Setting Up for Success with PhotoShelter

Pro Volleyball’s content management was disorganized, with assets spread across various platforms, causing delays and confusion. They needed a solution to streamline their processes, making it easier for teams, athletes, and media to access and share content efficiently.

• A centralized platform for all assets. With PhotoShelter, the league has a single source of truth for all visual content. “The ease of distributing photos to our teams and for them to get what they need has improved significantly,” said Rob, making daily operations smoother for the small staff.
• Enhanced searchability and metadata tagging. “I’m adamant about making sure metadata is filled in,” Rob shared. The league uses PhotoShelter’s metadata tools, allowing them to quickly find photos, tag players, and ensure historical accuracy. The AI-powered PeopleID tagging feature has simplified this by automatically tagging athletes based on their headshots.
• Supporting athlete branding through Socialie. By pairing PhotoShelter with Socialie, the league has empowered players to grow their personal brands, reaching over 3 million additional followers vs their own branded channels. “The athletes want to post their photos right after a game,” Rob noted, and now they can easily access and share match photos to their social media channels.

• Long-term archiving of the league’s history. From day one, Pro Volleyball has used PhotoShelter to archive its visual assets. “We’re starting this from scratch, and we need to ensure we don’t lose our history,” Rob emphasized. This archival capability helps the league track its growth and tell its story effectively.

“We had a player from Thailand last year who had 100,000+ social followers, so it’s great to be able to harness that to not only brand that she’s playing in our league, but also to share what Pro Volleyball Federation is all about. PhotoShelter and Socialie help us accomplish that.”

Rob Carolla, Vice President, Public & Media Relations

Securing a Future on and Off the Court

With a growing fan base and top-tier athletes, Pro Volleyball Federation is carving out its place in the professional sports world. Tackling their content challenges head-on has given them more than just a smoother workflow—it’s set them up for long-term success. Now, they can focus on expanding the league, building stronger connections with their audience, and empowering their athletes to tell their stories. They’ve built a foundation that not only supports the present but keeps them ready for whatever comes next.

“Having those photos is huge. You’re an athlete, you come off the court, and you’ve got 20 photos of yourself in a match within seconds…You’re going to be able to brand that you’re a player, you’re going to be able to brand your performance if it was good, you’re going to be able to talk about the League, which, in turn, helps all of us grow.”

Rob Carolla, Vice President, Public & Media Relations