Tennis

The announcement in this week’s Sports Business Journal that Tom Fox will join Arsenal to run their startegic marketing is the latest in a series of moves by elite clubs and sports around the world to try and not only capture ways to engage their own fans, but to try and begin carving niches to make their brands interesting and meaningful to fans in North America, whether those fans are expats now living in the States, new fans or sport like cricket and rugby, and more importantly, brands that may be looking to activate more on a global level.

The announcement in this week’s Sports Business Journal that Tom Fox will join Arsenal to run their startegic marketing is the latest in a series of moves by elite clubs and sports around the world to try and not only capture ways to engage their own fans, but to try and begin carving niches to make their brands interesting and meaningful to fans in North America, whether those fans are expats now living in the States, new fans or sport like cricket and rugby, and more importantly, brands that may be looking to activate more on a global level.

Coming off of an epic Wimbledon for the second year in a row, it would seem that tennis, with all its global promotional arms, the power of the USTA and the other three Grand Slams, and some strong personalities would be poised to make a strong followup showing leading into the US Open Series. After all, this past week had the best team-based tennis event in the world…one that showed that the sport could be played not just as individuals or even as doubles partners, but in an event that fans could understand and experience and that each match would count for toward a season long finale, just like other sports. Yes that team format did deliver with some fun matches, a great digital play, a good experience on site for all and even some amazing press coverage.

Coming off of an epic Wimbledon for the second year in a row, it would seem that tennis, with all its global promotional arms, the power of the USTA and the other three Grand Slams, and some strong personalities would be poised to make a strong followup showing leading into the US Open Series. After all, this past week had the best team-based tennis event in the world…one that showed that the sport could be played not just as individuals or even as doubles partners, but in an event that fans could understand and experience and that each match would count for toward a season long finale, just like other sports. Yes that team format did deliver with some fun matches, a great digital play, a good experience on site for all and even some amazing press coverage.

As we inch closer to NFL Training Camp, two interesting notes popped up again in the football world over the weekend, both showing what it will take for the casual fan to take notice of football outside of college or the NFL. The first was up north in the CFL, which incidentally has done a good job of rebranding itself and working with, not against the NFL in many ways. This past week, Toronto receiver Arland Bruce took the Ocho Cinco route by doing a “touchdown tribute” to Michael Jackson, complete with acting dead after a score.

As we inch closer to NFL Training Camp, two interesting notes popped up again in the football world over the weekend, both showing what it will take for the casual fan to take notice of football outside of college or the NFL. The first was up north in the CFL, which incidentally has done a good job of rebranding itself and working with, not against the NFL in many ways. This past week, Toronto receiver Arland Bruce took the Ocho Cinco route by doing a “touchdown tribute” to Michael Jackson, complete with acting dead after a score.

As the NBA Draft approaches Thursday, it will be interesting to see the branding winners and missteps taken, and how quickly in this digital age teams will look to immediately activate with their picks…will guys be twittering new fans from the podium, who will be the first to stream and text messages back home and will any team look to Twitter their pick before it is announced, as happened in the NFL Draft? Speed and immediacy, whether they can be monetized or not at this point, will be interesting, as well as how well athletes today understand perceived brand value vs. real brand value.

When you think of sports unaffected by the recession, what do you think of first?

Football?

Baseball?

What about United States Tennis.  Yes, tennis.  The first day for the general public to purchase tickets for the 2009 U.S. Open was yesterday.  Needless to say, they sold like hotcakes.

The first day of ticket sales to the general public yesterday for the ‘09 U.S. Open Tennis Championships was the second-best opening day in tournament history, the USTA said.  With nearly 35,000 tickets sold, it was only the second time that opening day ticket sales topped 30,000 tickets. The ‘09 total is surpassed only by first-day sales in ‘08.

It has long been known that the female head of household is the decision maker on products, and the brands that can effectively communicate to those decision makers through sports or entertainment are often the most effective. Of course in sports the challenge has always been how to keep women interested and engaged in activities that might play more to the male demo. That problem has waned in recent years as girls have become more active, the head of household has shifted and women take a much more visible role in the overall positioning and delivering of kids to sporting events and choosing leasure activities to attend.

This week in New York The Sports Business Journal will award it’s Sports Business Awards for 2008. The nominees in 15 categories are all more than deserving, and in many ways are very reflective of the leaders who will help innovate and lead the industry thro9ugh the continued tough times and into the future. Many on the list read like the usual Who’s Who, but as with many things SBJ does, there are a few surprises.

Sometimes on the surface the matchup of an athlete or celebrity with a brand may be a little quizzical, and such was the case when high-end shoe retailer Cole Haan announced its first-ever athlete endorsement deal with tennis star Maria Sharapova. Now Sharapova is already becoming the stuff of legend in the endorsement world, even in a down economy. Her deals with companies like Canon, Tiffany and the watch brand Tag Heuer pull in millions, almost as much for her ability to understand and deliver messages to a high end consumer as for her on court results and tennis pedigree. Still, matching Sharapova with Cole Haan still could be a stretch for a brand with little TV presence and no sports marketing background.

We have often talked about the new ways NASCAR has derived in a down economy to reach the consumer and work with their partners. This week brought another series of innovations, the biggest of which is a new education module tied into science to reach students who love invention and innovation, but may never have gotten near a track, a driver or any of the brands around the sport. The Science of Speed , an online teaching component available free to all teachers, marries NASCAR’s racing and engineering experience with simple experiments and programs for science teachers to apply in their curriculum to students.

The celebrity endorsement world is always a tricky one, especially in times where every move and every dollar is being scrutinized as it is today.

One of the great lessons sports teaches is that many times political and social boundries can be overcome through play on the athletic field. baseball gave us Jackie Robinson to break the color barrier, and last year in an Olympic tuneup, four nations who have few political ties as a group…Chinese Taipei, China, Japan and Korea…met in baseball and opened the door for future positive relations.

So I guess everyone is really, REALLY, banking on those stimulus checks?

Take four of the biggest names in Woman’s tennis, put them in arguably the greatest arena of all time, and put them in a single elimination tournament with $1,000 tickets, and what do you have?  The Billie Jean King Cup!  More info from the WTA Tour website,

Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic and the Williams sisters will face off in a one night only, single elimination event which will also celebrate tennis legend Billie Jean King. The BNP Paribas Showdown for the Billie Jean King Cup is scheduled for Monday, March 2 at Madison Square Garden and will be telecast live on HBO at 7:30pm.