The U.S. Tennis Association launched a low-seven-figure ad campaign during the weekend to tout the new U.S. Open Series, which begins today.
The series, which brands 10 existing tournaments under one banner while providing unprecedented TV exposure, is the latest move by tennis to organize its sport into a coherent, understandable season. The series culminates with the USTA-owned U.S. Open Tennis Championships in New York in late summer.
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| Ads aim to raise profile, build TV audience |
Thirty-second ads narrated by actor Alec Baldwin began airing on ESPN during the weekend, which also saw a national print ad in The New York Times. Today, ads are slated to appear in USA Today, which has a special four-page section on the series, and in SportsBusiness Journal.
“Our No. 1 goal has been to generate awareness of the U.S. Open Series and educate people about what it is,” said Michelle Wilson, the USTA’s senior director of marketing. The campaign, she said, also seeks to drive people to the telecasts, which historically have fetched slim ratings.
Ads already have appeared in select tennis-specific magazines.
Tennis has always been bedeviled by competing fiefdoms and interest groups. It took the USTA, which once viewed other North American tournaments as competition, three years to organize the U.S. Open Series.
Players who win the series can earn extra prize money at the Open. Taken together with the ad expenditures, the USTA is spending millions of dollars on the new circuit idea.
The 30-second ads, 70 of which will run on ESPN and ESPN2 during the summer, were created by Arnold Worldwide, the USTA’s ad agency. The USTA also plans an extensive radio and Internet campaign to promote the series, with radio spots scheduled in New York, Los Angeles, Miami and Chicago.
In related news, the USTA plans to announce today that The Tennis Channel will air more than 100 hours of live and tape-delayed U.S. Open Series action this summer under a four-year pact. The other broadcasters are ESPN, ESPN2, Fox Sports Net, CBS and NBC. The Tennis Channel slots will push the total hours of coverage to more than 300 during the next six weeks.
