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There’s a Serena-sized hole in the professional tennis landscape, but marketers aren’t dwelling on what they’ve lost—instead they’re focusing on the next generation of potential scene stealers and trophy winners to draw fans to this summer’s U.S. Open.
For a campaign launching this weekend, executives at the U.S. Tennis Association and agency Dentsu Creative also recruited an influential young voice, TikTok’s Cookiee Kawaii, to narrate the new ads and provide the soundtrack via her hit single, “Violin.”
A 30-second hero spot debuting Saturday on TV and social media prominently features emerging stars like Coco Gauff, Carlos Alcaraz, Iga Swiatek and Frances Tiafoe under the tagline “Spectacular Awaits.” A second commercial teases the event’s high-profile celebrity sightings, premium food and drink offerings and on-site sponsor activations.
USTA officials said it’s “definitely a challenge” to promote a U.S. Open without the marquee names that have dominated the sport for the past few decades. Serena Williams and fellow champion Roger Federer both hung up their racquets at the end of last season.
“There were a lot of expectations that we’d just fall apart in a post-Serena world, but we’re excited about the new players and the energy around our event,” Nicole Kankam, USTA’s managing director of pro tennis marketing and entertainment, told Adweek. “Not to diminish Serena, who was a once-in-a-generation talent, and her influence not just in tennis but across sport, entertainment and culture was unprecedented.”
‘Social-first lens’
“Spectacular Awaits” will run for the next several months to promote the tennis and entertainment extravaganza, which kicks off in late August at New York’s USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. It was first coined as an ad concept in 2022, but has evolved to promote this year’s three-week event.
“We wanted to insure we were really being contemporary and relevant,” Kankam said. “We’re trying to reach a younger, more diverse audience, so we developed the campaign with a social-first lens.”
The music-driven work has “swagger,” Kankam said, aiming to broaden the appeal of a sport that continues to bat back against criticisms that it’s old, white and elitist.
