BNP Paribas, the Official Main Partner of the French Open tennis tournament continues to activate around its fan-centric concept ‘We Are Tennis’.
For Roland Garros 2015, the initiative is being spearheaded by an online spot,
as well as with an array of socially-led content – such as
Quel entraînement ! Bravo la "We Are Tennis Fan Academy", vous êtes géniaux ! @WeAreTennisFR #SupportTennis #RG15 pic.twitter.com/vxpQxX6OUf
— Gael Monfils (@Gael_Monfils) May 23, 2015
BNP Paribas first created the ‘We Are Tennis’ platform in 2011: effectively it is a digital community whose values are about sharing the passion for tennis, generosity and innovation, in order to bring tennis fans closer to the action.
A core strand of this year’s campaign is the bank-backed ‘We Are Tennis Fan Academy’ which aims not just to ignite the tournament atmosphere, but also to support the sport.
A range of executions drive tennis fans and bank customers to visit the campaign’s digital hub – http://fans.wearetennis.com – sign up and join the sponsor’s ‘Fan Academy’ and ‘follow the movement’
The site offers exclusive tennis content and competitions: from live scores and tournament newsfeeds, to player interviews, tennis films and sportswear fashion.
Amongst the ‘We Are Tennis’ content pool is a set of online player voxpop clips in which the tournament stars answer tennis questions 9with a humorous hint) to try and generate pre-tournament interest and excitement.
This series includes:
Desert Island Players
Best Friends:
Room Mates:
Selfies:
Perhaps the main strand of its We Are Tennis campaign is BNP#s continuing sponsorship of the tournament ball boys and girls: after all, ‘in a changing world , those who pick up the balls are as important as those that strike them’.
This #SuperBallKids sub-property, which BNP has sponsored for the last 15 years, lies at the heart of much of the bank’s Roland Garros activation.
A 15-minute docu-film called ‘Land Of Dreams’, which will be aired on television prior to the June 7 men’s final, is the centrepiece of this initiative.
In addition to on ball boy/girl kit branding (to match its general on-court signage), the ‘We Are tennis’ hub goes behind-the-scenes of ball boy / ball girl selection and training, plus real-time statistics about what the campaign describes as ‘athlete in the shadows’.
See http://superballkids.wearetennis.com/
This strand, which also includes a set of five teaser spots about the selection of the 250-strong ball boy / ball girl cohort, is also being promoted across the bank brand’s owned social platforms – such as.
Focus sur les ramasseurs de balles, à #RG15 : http://t.co/2rQqv5FNGb #infographie #dataviz pic.twitter.com/pYLxUtBT7x
— BNP Paribas com (@BNPParibas_com) May 26, 2015
Comment
BNP’s tennis partnership activations have a long heritage.
Not only has the bank been a sponsor of the French Grand Slam for more than 40 years, but BNP’s other tennis work includes its pre-Wimbledon ‘BNP Tennis Classic’ event at London’s Hurlingham Club.
This is a premium, tennis-led hospitality-driven experience that aims to offer the perfect appetiser to Wimbledon.
See http://www.bnpparibastennisclassic.com/
Its 2015 work follows on from an impressive back catalogue of tennis campaigns – including the innovative 2013 ‘Tweet and Shoot’ app initiative developed with agency We Are Social.
This was something of a groundbreaking Twitter-led, Tsonga-focused campaign that aimed to bring BNP’s ‘We Are Tennis’ values to life.
The innovative tech platform gave fans themselves a chance to train Tsonga via a simple Twitter mechanism and a social media controlled robot.
This resulted in around 2,700 tennis fans participating and 5,865 tweets sent using the #tweetandshoot hashtag – generating 25 million impressions and 183,600 views.
There were also around 110 international pieces of press coverage – including Creativity, Campaign, Brand Republic, Campaign Brief, Fast Company, Contagious, GQ.
Links
BNP Parisbas We Are Tennis Website:
BNP Paris Tennis YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/user/bnpparibastennis
BNP Paris Tennis Facebook:
www.facebook.com/wearetennis.france
BNP Paris Tennis Twitter:
www.twitter.com/WeAreTennisFR
https://twitter.com/BNPParibas_com
BNP Paris Tennis Instagram:
www.instagram.com/wearetennis/
Tweet & Shoot – We Are Social
