The start of December saw the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) unveil a comprehensive brand refresh led by its first logo redesign in a decade and promoted through an integrated marketing campaign and player amplification.
Alongside rolling out a new, simplified naming system for its tournaments, the WTA’s fresh corporate identity seeks to redefine the organisation’s collective strength as a group of inspiring athletes and tournaments.
The launch was promoted through a multi-channel campaign called ‘WTA For The Game’ which aims to highlight the driving forces of the sport, reinforce its sense of purpose, inspiration and empowerment and to create deeper fan connections.
Developed for the WTA by design agency Landor Australia, which also led the redesign of the Australian Open, the brand identity and marketing campaign are integrated across all WTA platforms, events and experiences from logo and brand assets, through television graphics, print materials, tournament branding, advertising, promotion and digital and social media.
The campaign content spans broadcast, print, online, player, influencer and affiliate channels.
A redesigned website with a dedicated ‘WTA For The Game’ landing page is the online fulcrum for the initiative and hosts all the latest brand, campaign and player stories.
The new logo sees a reworking of the letters ‘WTA’ with a tennis ball functioning as the crossbar of the A alongside the return to a silhouette of a female tennis player in serve action – framing the athlete in a circle to evoke the WTAs universal spirit.
Honoring the past, present and future.
Welcome to the new @WTA —> https://t.co/0qfpUZJu0A#WTAForTheGame pic.twitter.com/ranb4lGS8t
— wta (@WTA) December 2, 2020
“The WTA is built on the grit, passion and determination of generations of athletes and tournament promoters,” commented WTA President and Head Of Marketing Micky Lawler. “Our new logo embraces the visual language of tennis ad celebrates heroic women who come together ‘For The Game.’ We will wear it as a badge of pride and a reminder of the power of unity among strong individuals – by joining forces, we build something bigger than ourselves.”
The ‘WTA For The Game’ campaign itself is spearheaded by a pair of hero commercials: a 30-second spot called ‘For The Game’ and a 60-second one called ‘For Something Bigger Than Ourselves’.
The players also amplified the refresh through personalized content across their own social channels.
Welcome to the new era of the @WTA
I play for the game and something much bigger than myself. I play for the Fans. #WTAForTheGame pic.twitter.com/GYLDPDNpD5
— Simona Halep (@Simona_Halep) December 2, 2020
Welcome to the new era of the @WTA. I play for the game and something much bigger than myself. I play for the next generation.#WTAForTheGame pic.twitter.com/iyofD1WcBZ
— sloanestephens (@SloaneStephens) December 2, 2020
This work is being further supported by influencer stories broadcast, published and posted across WTA player, tournament and affiliate channels.
Fans are also being provided with fresh insights into the individual narratives of WTA players who describe the defining moments that have shaped their tennis journey and what gives their game purpose.
While, as the 2021 season gets underway, a series of fan engagement activations will roll out.
“From both the sporting and business perspective, we were inspired by the WTA’s inherent qualities of leadership, fearlessness and shared purpose, and aimed to deliver a brand strategy and visual platform that players and tournaments could use to amplify this powerful message,” commented Landor Australia GM Jessica Murphy. “Fans are enthralled by individual skill and athleticism, but they also invest deeply in what motivates these head-turning women on and off court. Exploring these driving forces – the similarities and differences – is a key element of the brand.”
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The redesign and campaign was also unveiled alongside a revamped tournament structure and nomenclature.
From the start of the 2021 season, the WTA’s Premier Mandatory and Premier 5 tournaments will be grouped together as WTA 1000; the Premier 700 becomes WTA 50; and the lowest two categories, WTA International and 125K Series, will be the WTA 250 and WTA 125 respectively.
The shift brings the WTA into line with the system used by the men’s ATP tour, which ranks its events into ATP 1000, ATP 500 and ATP 250 categories.
The WTA was first founded back in 1973 when Billie Jean King led the charge with like-minded colleagues to form an association that would evolve into what is today a membership body representing two equal-partner constituencies: the athletes and the tournaments.
Almost half a century later, tennis has become the leading global sport for women with many of the most recognisable names in all sport: with 32 countries and regions represented in the WTA ranking’s Top 100.
One of the last major WTA brand refreshes occurred back in 2013 when it celebrated its 20th anniversary with the ‘40 Love’ campaign.
While other major tennis organisation brand refreshes worth referencing, comparing to and learning from was the ATP’s 2018 ‘Love It All’, the US Open ‘50th Anniversary’ rebrand in the same year and agency Landor’s ‘AO’ Australian Open rebrand in 2016.
With ongoing rumours, suggestions and speculation still swirling around a possible merger with the ATP, could this be the WTA’s last ever rebrand?
Links:
WTA
Landor Australia
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