Timed to leverage spiking tennis interest around Wimbledon 2018, July saw Roger Federer’s racket supplier Wilson release a quirky initiative that turned the tennis icon’s racket into a musical instrument.
This audio marketing push saw the sports equipment brand team up with Federer and music producer Money Mark to create an original track to promote the Swiss star’s Pro Staff RF 97 Autograph racket.
The initiative saw Wilson team up with production house Farm League and with a music producer perhaps best known for his work with the Beastie Boys to create this original audio track.
The joint recording session and commercial shoot saw Federer hit balls served from a machine on a purpose built court in the Mojave Desert (a location chosen for both its acoustics and its imagery).
Mark captured the sound of every swing, serve and bounce and mixed these with other related audio clips such as the opening of a tennis ball can and the unzipping of a sports bag.
He then mixed in some beats to lay down the track.
Launched at the start of July to coincide with the beginning of Wimbledon fortnight, the racket launch campaign was hubbed around a bespoke Wilson microsite:
http://www.wilson.com/en-us/explore/tennis/pro-staff-rf97-federer-2018
The video was amplified across all the usual Wilson channels: including YouTube,
Twitter,
Roger and legendary music producer DJ Money Mark take to the Mojave Desert to lay down a new track with his Pro Staff RF97 in celebration of the love of tennis, music and the sounds of the game. pic.twitter.com/C29Ftf3w6a
— Wilson Tennis (@WilsonTennis) July 1, 2018
and Facebook and was supported by behind-the-scenes film and imagery too.
The resulting track is even available on limited-edition vinyl
Fededrer’s biggest fans, and there is an army of them, can purchase the recordfor just $597 and it is included in a 1200-unit limited edition RF 97 box set: alongside the racket and a tennis-ball-shaped Bluetooth speaker.
Comment:
An eclectic and interesting approach to the wider activation trend of blending sports marketing with other culture and entertainment genres.
It reminds us of Mark Ronson’s 2012 ‘Move To The Beat’ and ‘My Beat Maker’ sports sound track for Coca-Cola’s London 2012 Olympic campaign (see case study 1 and case study 2).
Despite his surprise quarterfinal loss at Wimbledon, Federer holds 20 Grand Slams and 100 tournament titles and countless other tennis records and now he boasts a vinyl record in his collection too.
And while he doesn’t sing, he does swing.
He probably won’t reach number one in the charts, although that won’t be too disappointing for a player who was ranked the world number one tennis player for 310 weeks.
We know…enough already.
No more jokes and definitely no puns about funky baselines.
Links:
Wilson Tennis
http://www.wilson.com/en-us/explore/tennis/pro-staff-rf97-federer-2018
https://www.youtube.com/user/WilsonRacquet
https://twitter.com/wilsontennis
https://www.facebook.com/WilsonTennis/
Farm League
