The Lawn Tennis Association (LTA), the UK national governing body of tennis, launched a summer season, pre-Wimbledon ‘The Tennisables’ marketing push starring Emma Raducanu and Jack Draper which set out to inspire a new generation of kids to play the game and make tennis more engaging, accessible and fun.
The integrated advertising and brand content campaign, which primarily targeted children aged four-to-11 and aims to support the organisation’s umbrella mission to open-up the game to a wider audience, was developed in harness with BMB – marking the first work from the agency since it was appointed by the LTA Youth junior progamme in January 2023.
Featuring Raducanu and Draper, the campaign revolves around six new animated ball characters – Ace, Bounce, Dash, Slice, Smash and Spin – collectively called ‘The LTA Tennisables’: with each character showcases their own personality traits and tennis superpower skills.
The character Bounce was born deaf and is voiced by actress Rose Ayling-Ellis: best known for her role in BBC soap Eastenders and for being the first deaf contestant on the broadcaster’s flagship Strictly Come Dancing show (which she won in 2021).
The three month campaign rolls out through the summer from early June and includes TV broadcast, TV sponsorship on Network/Boomerang, BVOD and digital on TikTok, YouTube and Meta, as well as an experiential strand for UK schools and live mascot at-tournament appearances.
The initiative was spearheaded by a hero spot which opens with US Open Grand Slam winner Raducanu serving to British break-through star Jack Draper who’s return sees the tennis ball morph into an animated character called ‘Ace’.
Rolling out in 60- and 30-second versions across broadcast television (debuting on ITVX and Sky from 12 June) and the organisation’s own online and social platforms.
The anchor ad, titled ‘Introducing The LTA Tennisables: Bringing the fun to kids tennis’, dropped online from 9 June, was supported by additional social content pieces which all seek to drive viewers to learn more online at www.lta.org.uk/meet-tennisables.
The characters also feature in a six-episode YouTube content series which sets out to teach kids tennis basics. Each episode features a ‘Tennisable’ character demonstrating a fun method of developing a particular skill: speed, competitiveness, resilience, technique and brainpower.
An initial batch of 55,000 physical ‘LTA Tennisables’ are being distributed to schoolkids across the UK through the LTA’s school outreach programme. Each tennis ball has its own QR code leading to the LTA website where the content series is hosted, alongside additional information and links for booking onto the LTA Youth programme.
While the Tennisables mascots are due to be on-site at several LTA summer events: including the Rothesay Open Nottingham, Cinch Championships in London, Rothesay Classic Birmingham, Rothesay International Eastbourne.
The campaign planning was informed by insight from research showing that parents are motivated to support their children’s interests and thus the campaign taps into that parental imperative, while simultaneously offering excitement and fun to children through the gamification of collectibles to build interest and tap into fandom.
The LTA’s objective is to encourage 100,000 more kids a week to play tennis and also to boost bookings onto the LTA Youth programme: an initiative developed to be fun, safe, inclusive and competitive, with specially designed progressive coaching and content that will help develop children aged four-to-18 as both players and people.
“The LTA Tennisables tread new ground for the LTA Youth programme, bringing tennis to life in a way we have not done before, getting a tennis ball into the hands of thousands of children and engaging them in this unique way,” explained LTA COO Julie Porter. “The campaign has been designed using extensive research and insight into the behaviours and motivations of children and their parents and the integrated advertising and content campaign is a game-changer for the LTA and our mission to open tennis up to new audiences. The successful roll-out of LTA Youth has already seen thousands of schoolteachers, coaches and community activators trained to deliver tennis sessions, contributing to the extremely positive rise in participation amongst children that we have recorded in the past year, and we can’t wait to see children engaging with these amazing characters this summer and beyond.”
BMB CCO Matt Lever added: “We’re very excited to introduce The Tennisables to kids all over the UK. And the fact that we’re getting the furry little guys into tens of thousands of kids’ hands too, means we can hopefully inspire real enthusiasm for tennis – and the brilliant courses the LTA offer – in children that have never even held a racket before”.
BMB was appointed as lead creative partner for LTA Youth in January 2023 after a competitive pitch. The agency’s remit is to support the national governing body of tennis’s mission to open up the game and get more kids playing tennis, whatever their age, gender, ability, disability or background.
The campaign was briefed in by and created for an LTA team led by Head Of Strategy Caroline Lepetit, Marketing Manager Jo Walsh, Communications Manager Laetitia Redbond and Marketing Manager Kim Whitty.
The creative agency was BMB where the team working on the project included Chief Creative Officer Matt Lever, Creative Director Dave Beattie, Creative Emma Greenwood, Chief Strategy Officer Mel Arrow, Managing Director Claudia Wallace, Business Director Sam Hardy, Account Director Lucy Williams, Planner Bryony Barker, plus Designers Ted Smith and Mark Gould.
Animation was by Arcade Studio with Producers Sian Parker and Nina Stokes, while music and sound was by Unit, post production VFX by Curious and media by The Kite Factory.
Comment
Every year in the lead up to Wimbledon – which in 2023 runs from 3 to 16 July – both the AELTC (which launched its 2023 ‘Always Like Never Before’ campaign on 12 June) and the LTA roll out marketing initiatives aimed at leveraging spiking tennis interest to boost participation and ticket sales.
This LTA campaign follows on from 2022 initiatives ‘Inspired By’ and ‘Your Court, Your Rules’.
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