When a fan lost his American Express card on the grounds of the U.S. Tennis Center last August, he had no idea that he was earning his way into company folklore. He stopped by the concierge desk staffed by American Express employees and received a new card on the spot.
That moment represented the pinnacle of what sports and event marketing at American Express Co. is all about, and it's the product of three years of fine-tuning the U.S. Open into the company's ultimate center of service-oriented marketing.
Indeed, the U.S. Open sponsorship embodies all the elements American Express tries to bring to each of its sports deals — extra service for its cardholders while giving everyone else a little taste of what American Express is about.
The company estimates that one-third of the 535,000 attendees at the U.S. Open last year used some sort of American Express-provided service at the two-week long event. Even non-cardholders can go to a "U.S. Open Guest Services Booth hosted by American Express" to get the lowdown on transportation, area restaurants and a guide to who's playing where.
For card members, American Express is the key that opens the door to the U.S. Open from start to finish. Gold and Platinum card members have special access to advanced ticket purchases and preferred seating. Platinum card members can reserve a spot in a luxury suite. American Express reserves tables for cardholders at some of the finest restaurants in Manhattan, and the Guest Services booth will hold on to their bags or coats.
Of course there's a lot of American Express signage and corporate identification throughout the Tennis Center, but the real goal of the sponsorship is not to expose the brand name; it's to create an interaction with individual consumers, one that will easily be associated with the brand.
"A phrase we use here is customer 'touch points,' " said Derrick Murphy, American Express' vice president of sponsorship marketing. "One way we measure how successful we are is how many touch points we've created. You cannot create a really special experience unless you really touch the customer."
This message is carried through to a local advertising campaign the company runs each year during the Open.
"Best service on and off the court," read one print ad.
The company takes a targeted approach to the advertising, not buying mainstream national media but snatching up every single spot on entire subway trains on the route to the Tennis Center.
The approach also calls for leaving something tangible with cardholders, something they can take away from the Tennis Center or can receive without ever attending a match. At eight upscale malls in the New York area, cardholders receive a free U.S. Open American Express pin when they make a purchase of $75 or more with the card. Postcards are given away to all diners at the Open's restaurant and bar. American Express even picks up cardholders' subway fare on a designated day, with a commemorative New York Transit Authority "MetroCard."
The company's U.S. Open sponsorship runs through 2001, and United States Tennis Association officials say they hope to sign American Express to an early renewal.
"You just can't ask for a better partner," said Pierce O'Neil, the USTA's director of marketing. "They've challenged us to do a much better job of working with them to leverage their sponsorship. But they've also come to us and said, 'What can we do for you? What can we provide your spectators?'"
American Express picks up all the costs in manning the guest services booths, saving the USTA thousands of dollars.
But what really stands out about American Express, O'Neil said, is how its executives are always thinking about how to build on the sponsorship the next time around.
"Every year the U.S. Open ends in September, and the sponsors go away for a while. But they start thinking about next year early," said O'Neil. "We were meeting with them last October, a big long meeting where we were immediately focusing on 1999."
