“Tennis Is A Holistic Property & We Want To Tap Into That With ‘This Is Tennis’ Campaign”

The ATP has unveiled its new global marketing campaign, This Is Tennis, marking a significant brand-shift for the Tour. The campaign promotes both players and tournaments with more dynamism, and a tone of voice that allows tennis to cut through with greater cultural relevance, particularly among the next generation of tennis fans.

To find out the strategy behind the campaign, iSPORTCONNECT spoke with Dan Ginger, SVP Marketing and Business Development, ATP Tour.

Why was this new marketing campaign something you felt was necessary?

When we were initially conceiving the concept for the campaign, the first question we asked ourselves was “What is Tennis?” and when you think about tennis, you think about gladiators on court battling out for one and a half hours to 5 hours.

“Tennis, because of its very nature, is a very holistic property and we really wanted to tap into that into the new campaign.”

However, there is so much more to tennis as an entertainment property than just the on court action. It’s a global property which happens in some of the most amazing locations around the world and has these incredible athletes with an abundance of personality who have so much potential to cut through into new audiences. Tennis, because of its very nature, is a very holistic property and we really wanted to tap into that into the new campaign.

Is the aim of the campaign to attract a younger audience?

Tennis has an incredible fan base already but, as for the lot of big sports, we are constantly looking at how we can attract the next generation of fans and players. I think what you will see in the video is the kind of shift in the voice, the choice of music, the choice of VO artist; it is all very intentional to appeal to a younger audience.

With the COVID uncertainties around, why did you think this was the right time for the campaign?

We were working on this campaign before COVID-19 turned into a pandemic and developed it during the COVID period. Also, tennis for most of us was watching highlights at home, playing in the back garden or wherever it maybe, but this will change. What tennis is now will be very different six months from now. With the vaccine in sight, things are looking upwards.

“One of the things we have seen in past 6 to 9 months is that social and digital has become more important than ever before.”

What are the next development goals for the ATP?

One of the things we have seen in past 6 to 9 months is that social and digital has become more important than ever before. This is how we are engaging our fans for the past many months with no live action.

There is going to be a big shift for us to be injecting more time and resources to figure how we can further enhance our social and digital offerings and focus on content development and storytelling.  We will work with not just our channels but also different tournaments and players to enhance their presence and brands and grow their audiences.