The athlete ambassador and Australian Open (AO) linked partnership between Kia and the Rafa Nadal Foundation (RNF) aims to make tennis more accessible for the next generation of players and January 2023 saw the car company launch a fresh iteration of its Kia Clubhouse program called ‘Kia Clubhouse’.
Developed with passions agency M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment’s London and Sydney offices and rolled out around the AO 2023, this Melbourne initiative sets out to make tennis more accessible for everyone – particularly to inspire the next generation to take up their rackets and play tennis.
To celebrate the Australian Clubhouse opening, Kia gave 18 kids from the Rafa Nadal Foundation in Mallorca and the Nadal Educational Tennis School India a once-in-a-lifetime AO experience. They were given behind-the-scenes access to the tournament, as well as taken on city trips to Melbourne Zoo and a culinary school where they cooked traditional Australian dishes, as well as going on a street art tour.
The children also helped renovate two tennis courts at Maidstone Footscray Tennis Club in the centre of the city. After 15 years without funding, Kia enginnered a full court renewal that included adding AO colour schemes with designs showcasing Rafa Nadal’s victories back in 2009 and 2022. Plus, after the work was finished, the RNF kids were the first to play on the courts in a tennis teaching session by official Tennis Australia coaches and supported by Australian influencer Samuel Begg.
Finally, a pair of new artworks were designed and created by Australian artists JESWRI and Heesco which depicted two of Rafa’s most famous rallies from those title winning years in 2009 and 2022 and these were displayed at Maidstone Footscray Tennis Club as part of the ‘Rally Gallery’. The RNF kids helped to complete the pieces and thus left their own personal creative mark on Melbourne so that they too could help inspire the generation of players who will follow behind them.
“Increasingly, we are able to collaborate closely with our global M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment network, to activate world-class brand experiences across all regions of the world,” outlined M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment London Co-Managing Director Rich Barker. “As a network, we are driven by a belief in the power of passions to make brands culturally relevant while driving long lasting societal and commercial impact. The Kia Clubhouse partnership does exactly this, bringing to life opportunities which will inspire the next generation of tennis players, in one of the world’s top destinations for iconic sporting tournaments”.
Kia Head Of Brand Experience Michael Choo added: “After a successful launch of the Kia Clubhouse in Paris last year, we committed to continuing the legacy to help inspire the next generation through movement, tennis and our long-term partner Rafa Nadal. Uniting RNF beneficiaries from both India and Mallorca, Kia Clubhouse: Melbourne was the next step on our journey to provide more spaces for children to have access to tennis”
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This community cause activation, which was created for Kia Head Of Brand Michael Choo by a team at agency M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment which included Managing Director Rich Barker, followed the recent extension of Kia’s long-running primary partnership with Tennis Australia and the first tennis Grand Slam of the year – which now runs through to 2028 – this initiative follows on from the ‘Kia Clubhouse: Paris’ opening in May 2022.
It was the latest of several major purpose-driven campaigns developed by M&C Saatchi Sport & Entertainment for Kia since they teamed up in 2020 and one strand of Kia’s umbrella 2023 AO activation programme.
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