On 9 December the Association Of Tennis Professionals (ATP) launched a major global campaign, ‘This Is Tennis’, to introduce the organisation’s latest brand refresh ahead of the start of the new season.
The campaign aims to promote both ATP players and tournaments with added dynamism and a tone of voice designed to enable tennis to break through – with greater cultural relevance – and connect with the next generation of tennis fans.
The versatile, flexible, multi-platform campaign supports the global scale and narrative of the tennis season and sets out to generate emotional connections whilst offering fresh insights into the sport.
The high-octane hero film kicking off the campaign aims to reflect the energy, pace and drama of the tour by highlighting its iconic global destinations and providing a glimpse of the personalities and character of the stars (reflecting every surface, shot and emotion – everywhere).
Launched digitally, the film and its accompanying visuals and supporting content will frame the ATP’s social content through the next 2021 season. Providing what the ATYTP believes is a ‘clean and consistent appearance and image across traditional advertising, at events and across its sites and platforms with the secondary aim of generating increased ticket sales at ATP tournaments.
The ATP worked with London agency MATTA on the project.
Matt Hunt, Executive Director of Brand and Strategy at Matta, explained: “Once we landed the ‘This Is Tennis’ line, with his simple and understated confidence paired with exceptional, athletic but loaded photography, emotion, everything came together. The result is an epic yet alluring presentation of the game that is reflected powerfully in the campaign launch film, communicating the life-long color, variety and appeal of this unique sport.
Dan Ginger, SVP Marketing and Business Development at the ATP, added: “Our intention is to showcase tennis as more than a sport. Yes, we have some of the world’s top athletes competing on Tour day-in, day-out, but it encompasses so much more than that – resilience, dedication, passion, spirit. Tennis is a non-stop lifestyle and a unique entertainment property.
“Pulling back the covers and bringing fans the fullest experience of our world has required us to get creative in our storytelling. Thankfully the foundations are already there. We have an incredible pool of young and super-talented athletes, with personality in abundance, and tournaments in some of the most iconic cities around the world, which together have the entertainment potential to truly transcend the sport.”
Comment:
The new ATP season, which attract nearly 5 millions of fans on site in a typical year, will hope to have a smoother run than 2020’s interrupted iteration and the fresh brand work will aim to usher in a refresh start.
This new work follows on from November 2018’s last ‘Love It All’ brand refresh campaign which was built around a central ‘Love It All’ message and tagline: one which (also) aimed to highlight the ‘unparalleled excitement and drama’ delivered by every one of the ATP’s then 63 tournaments during the season.
That last initiative was a full, 360-degree brand and marketing campaign which was teased in late November 2018 ahead of the ATP World Tour Finals season climax and then blossomed live in January 2019.
The late 2020 refresh also follows hot on the heels of the WTA’s early December ‘For The Game’ rebrand campaign.
Tennis marketers and rights-holders will be scrutinising the two campaigns carefully to see if there are any parallels and similarities which might signal the start of the rumoured possible merger of the men’s and women’s tours.
Links:
ATP
MATTA
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