Twenty Top Players “Get on the US Open Series Tour Bus” in New USTA Ad Campaign
Game’s Biggest Names - - Including Roddick, Sharapova, Venus and Serena Williams, Nadal, Blake, and others - - to Take Part in “The Greatest Road Trip in Sports”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Chris Widmaier
widmaier@usta.com
03/12/07 - The USTA today announced that filming of “The Greatest Road Trip in Sports,” the new advertising campaign supporting this summer’s US Open Series, is underway at the Pacific Life Open in Indian Wells and will continue at the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami. The campaign features the game’s top players - - including Andy Roddick, Maria Sharapova, Rafael Nadal, James Blake and Venus and Serena Williams - - being filmed on a specially-designed US Open Series Tour Bus.
The USTA campaign will highlight the players’ unique personalities as they “live” on the tour bus. Players are shown getting ready for the summer road trip that will carry them across the country from tournament to tournament before arriving at their final destination - - the US Open in New York. The campaign’s tagline - - “The Greatest Road Trip in Sports…. 6 Weeks, 10 Tournaments, $30 Million On The Line.” - - communicates the essence of the US Open Series, the six-week regular season for tennis that links the 10 ATP and Sony-Ericsson WTA Tour summer tournaments in North America to the US Open.
The multi-million dollar campaign is scheduled to break nationally during NBC Sports broadcast of the Wimbledon Finals. Spots will then air nationally in and outside of tennis programming on CBS, ESPN2, NBC, and The Tennis Channel. The USTA will also purchase spots in major market television markets during the top-rated morning and late night entertainment programs. Print executions will appear throughout the summer in USA Today, Sports Illustrated, The New York Times, and SportsBusiness Journal. All national ads will direct consumers to USOpenSeries.com, which provides the latest information on the US Open Series, including full television listings.
“This marks the first time more than 20 players have been filmed for a tennis campaign,” said Michelle Wilson, Managing Director, Marketing, USTA. “The US Open Series tour bus captures the season-long nature of the Series and provides a unique platform to showcase the unique personalities of the game’s top players.”
Television ads will be tailored specifically for local tournaments with the majority of tournaments expected to use the Road Trip platform. Select TV ads will incorporate the Lever 2000 sponsorship of the US Open Series. An accompanying radio campaign will air in markets around the country including more than 30,000 spots through Westwood One to drive television tune-in.
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The US Open Series is the six-week summer tennis season linking 10 major ATP and Sony Ericsson WTA Tour tournaments to the US Open. Since its inception in 2004, the US Open Series has doubled television viewership and increased event attendance, while generating new corporate partnerships for the sport. Andy Roddick and Ana Ivanovic were the winners of the 2006 US Open Series.
The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level -- from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. It owns and operates the US Open, the highest attended annual sporting event in the world, and launched the US Open Series linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns the 94 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. A not-for-profit organization with 700,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. For more information on the USTA, log on to usta.com.
For more information contact:
Chris Widmaier, Senior Director, Public Relations, Pro Tennis
914-696-7284; widmaier@usta.com
