ATP serves up 'Love It All' rebrand to convert casual fans of the Grand Slams
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) has rebranded, renamed and revealed the 'Love it All' strapline in a ground-up effort to engage casual sports fans in tennis all year round.
ATP's logo evolution since 1972
Firstly, the Amazon-broadcast ATP World Tour has renamed as the ATP Tour. That comes to the fore with a new logo, movie, brand assets tailored to capture the energy of the sport and more closely align the body with tennis. The 'Love It All' work reflects the transformation the brand has undergone since its launch in 1972, with it now reaching a total of 63 tournaments a year.
It hopes this new high impact creative will help grow digital and broadcast engagement in addition to bringing in more tournament attendees.
The assets have been shared with ATP tournaments, players and partners to use in their own marketing campaigns around the new umbrella brand. New identities were created for Nitto ATP Finals, Next Gen ATP Finals, ATP 1000s, ATP 500s and ATP 250 tournaments, and more than 100 players.
Chris Kermode, ATP executive chairman and president, said: “This is about showcasing the fantastic entertainment and high-intensity action that is on offer all year round – raising awareness, driving engagement across digital and TV, and packing out stadiums wherever we go.
“We’re taking a bold approach in everything we do at the ATP, from our pioneering broadcast partnership with Amazon Prime to the innovations we’ve been testing out at the Next Gen ATP Finals in Milan. It’s an exciting time for the sport – with a mix of unbelievable legends still at the top of their game and a next generation of stars emerging – so this is a great time to be engaging new, younger fans around the world.”
A new marketing campaign will launch early in 2019 across TV and digital channels.
George Ciz, senior vice-president of marketing and business development at ATP, said: “We wanted to create a striking new look and brand for the Tour which can easily be tailored for the marketing campaigns delivered by each ATP tournament – something simple, impactful and flexible enough for the needs of every player and competition. We also needed to ensure that our creative is really authentic and that it resonates with our target audiences, especially younger fans."
London-based creative agency Matta delivered the rebrand. Its strategy and brand director Matt Hunt said dramatising player narratives and rallying around fan favourites will help draw viewers deeper into the fold than the Grand Slams.
"We needed to create a fresh and flexible creative vehicle to convey this breadth and encourage casual fans to love it all.”
“The research we conducted among lighter tennis fans highlighted the need to continue to improve the spontaneous association of the ATP with the sport, so integrating a dynamic and powerful tennis player into the typography was the perfect shortcut to achieve this.”
The agency opened up on the process in the below video. It was only officially appointed to the job in October following a competitive pitch.
Vote for the campaign and rebrand below in The Drum's Creative Works.
