• by Larissa Faw , September 3, 2015

There are about 17 million people who regularly play tennis and 5.2 million frequent tennis players--those playing 21 times a year or more. Despite the numbers, the game’s image is that it is only for the affluent. Now, to coincide with the U.S. Open tournament, the United States Tennis Association (USTA) and its agency DDB New York are introducing "Find Yourself in the Game" to promote the idea that there’s “a place in tennis for everyone.”

Using animation-style storytelling with real-people voiceovers, the creative illustrates the power of tennis and its impact on peoples’ lives by encouraging players to participate and share stories of how they “found themselves” in tennis.

Three :30 TV spots transition from animation to live-action to showcase a person voicing his or her story by saying, “there’s a place in tennis for everyone. It’s a game that stays with you for life.” The spots, one of which features USTA’s President and CEO, Katrina Adams, conclude with a call to action to “Share your story #mytennismygame.”

"When we first began working on this campaign we decided to include animation as an alternate option versus a traditional live action approach that was originally presented to the USTA—we felt this approach better served their objectives to allow people to see the power behind their brand platform 'find yourself in the game,'" says David Reyes, Account Supervisor at DDB New York. The new work can be seen here, here and here.  

Still, while the campaign is designed to reach a larger audience, the approach is highly targeted. "We are utilizing social with key paid efforts," says Ginny Levine, USTA Director of Marketing, Community Tennis. "Due to the US Open, there is a tremendous amount of interaction happening right now on social, which we can capitalize on to encourage participation in this effort."

The campaign is leveraging Facebook, YouTube and pre-roll efforts to seed the narrative and drive consumers  to share their stories. These stories are then aggregated and pulled into the USTA site. There consumers can interact with and see individual stories of how people found themselves in the game. "The breadth of stories we began to collect showcase the potential of the effort, and we plan to share others stories across social in an organic effort that complements our paid effort," says Levine. 

This campaign is designed to shift the focus of tennis to the viewer rather than promote its history or athletes. "The impact the USTA has is best revealed through the stories of those that have interacted with the sport as well as the organization," says Levine. "The USTA has a wonderful story to tell, but our story isn’t just about facts and figures and history — our story comes to life through the lens of those who have found themselves in the game…it impacts people’s lives and we want to celebrate that.”