The "massive increase" tennis player Bianca Andreescu has experienced to her social-media following as of late is "eye-popping," according to Gregory Strong of the CP. Andreescu's Instagram account had a "modest 12,600 followers" at the end of '18. She then "added 58,000 followers in the month of March after her breakthrough win at the BNP Paribas Open" and her Rogers Cup win last month in Toronto "helped boost her follower total to over 197,000." Andreescu's U.S. Open title and the "media blitz that followed rocketed that number to 644,000 and counting." Meanwhile, Andreescu had a "modest 4,000 followers on Twitter at the start of the year," but that total "rose more than tenfold by the Rogers Cup in August and is now pushing 190,000." Brock Univ. Department of Sport Management Assistant Professor Mike Naraine said that Andreescu has "picked her spots nicely with social-media posts, helping her build a strong brand with a growing base of supporters." Naraine said, "It allows her to draw upon a new base of partners. They look at her and say, 'Wow, there is this new demographic that's young, that's hip, that's very active in the sports community. We can leverage her visibility as a strong Canadian female star to develop our product.'" Strong noted Andreescu already has "anchor sponsors in Nike, BMW, Head and Rogers." An Octagon spokesperson said that Andreescu is "expected to make announcements on two new major sponsors over the coming weeks" (CP, 9/27).
