With more than 634,000 tickets sold last year, the U.S. Open is the most-attended annual sports event in the world. And during days packed with matches between some of the world's top talent, attendees had plenty of other ways to spend time at the USTA National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens. Many of the sponsors not only made their presence known on the center's grounds with traditional signage and kiosks, but also devised events of their own.
Interactivity was a goal for America Online, which returned for the fourth year as a U.S. Open sponsor. The company's event team, led by senior events manager Jeff Kaplan, spent two months developing the U.S. Open SmashZone, a center featuring computer games, live game feeds on plasma TVs, a touch-screen photo booth, a lounge, a trivia game show, and a bank of computers so guests could surf the newly relaunched AOL.com.
"It was a tested approach we used at the NFL Experience," an interactive Super Bowl attraction with game clinics, athlete appearances, and lounges for guests, Kaplan said. "We got great feedback on some of the aspects we had there. We had seen it work in other environments, and thought it a natural fit for the Open. It's kid-friendly and fun, and gives people a great experience."
Kaplan worked closely with Blue Flame LLC of Norwalk, Connecticut, which designed the high-tech look of the space, planned schematics, and fabricated couches for the lounge. Kaplan explained the collaborative effort: "Our team at AOL Events is very hands-on, and very detailed. Some companies turn their entire projects over to agencies—we prefer to work with [Blue Flame] from the early brainstorming and look and feel, through the final product fabricated on-site."
Blue Flame also redesigned AOL's guest suite, replacing staid, patterned furniture with funky furnishings from British firm In-toto and framed prints of tennis players digitally manipulated to make the images look like Pop Art to fit the contemporary feel. Suite guests—mostly potential or current corporate clients—enjoyed concierge services and wireless connectivity, as well as a business center where they could send faxes and emails between—or during—matches.
For the third year of Olympus's sponsorship, the company expanded its reach by signing a four-year marketing partnership with the USTA through 2008 as the official camera, binocular, and image storage and printer of the tournament. "The U.S. Open had the consumer profile Olympus was looking for," said Chad Thompson, vice president of MVP Group, a marketing agency that orchestrated Olympus's presence. Tennis was also a natural fit, he says, because "the sport has the high-performance idea Olympus wants to associate with its brand."
Rather than let attendees passively peruse Olympus products in its booth, the company had a photographer on the promenade level of Arthur Ashe Stadium within the tennis center taking photos of guests standing in front of the sweeping vista of the USTA National Tennis Center's south plaza, as well as Olympus signage. People could later pick up their free pics—secured in a handy magnetic frame—from the Olympus booth. "A smart sponsor will create things that give a sponsorship legs," Thompson said. "We wanted that interaction with guests. It really drives people to the booth."
Olympus also made sure to cater to another consumer group—professional photographers—by creating a service center for the shooters at the event. Not only could photographers take a break in the lounge, but they could drop off their cameras for a cleaning, print free digital photos, and pick up a complimentary survival kit (which included a lens cloth, PowerBar, pen, ID badge case, and a coupon for 100 free digital prints). The pros could even borrow the new E-series pro camera for a test drive.
Guests in the company's private suite had a chance to test-drive the latest cameras themselves while watching matches. The binoculars were just as popular, and came in handy for spying on celebrities in the crowd.
Sponsors such as JPMorgan Chase, Wilson, Sprint, Evian, Macy's, MassMutual, and XM Satellite Radio offered gifts, contests, and more at their booths. Continental Airlines promoted its BusinessFirst class seats by giving guests 30-minute sitting sessions in actual airplane seats in front of a Jumbotron screen showing matches. And most noteworthy for the fashion-minded tennis enthusiast, Polo Ralph Lauren, in the company's most prominent sports marketing partnership in its 37-year history, created the official U.S. Open shirt and uniforms for all the on-court officials and ball boys as the apparel sponsor. Shoppers were queued up outside the Polo boutique, waiting behind velvet ropes to get into the packed retail space and score clothes with the designer's new big pony logo.
—Jenny Sherman
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