Olympus and Mass Mutual have signed on as charter sponsors of the United States Tennis Association’s U.S. Open Series, a tour that will link 10 summer hardcourt tournaments to the U.S. Open and create a six-week summer season in North America.
USTA and its partners will develop and implement an integrated national and local marketing, advertising and promotional campaign to support the U.S. Open Series, including the launch of USOpenSeries.com, a comprehensive Web site providing tournament information and live links to all ten event sites.
The national marketing campaign will capitalize on the popularity and appeal of the U.S. Open brand and is expected to break in June, in newspapers and national magazines and on television. The multimedia effort will include on-air and online promotional support from ESPN and CBS Sports, national print advertising, cross-ticketing and fan promotions and direct marketing to the more than 675,000 USTA members.
In addition, tournaments will execute local advertising that reflects the unique character of each event.
USTA signed a television agreement with ESPN, which will provide a regular weekly schedule of live broadcasts in prime-time slots for the events. In addition, CBS Sports and NBC will televise select weekend coverage.
The series begins July 12 with the Mercedes-Benz Cup men’s tournament in Los Angeles and the Bank of the West Classic women’s tournament in Stanford, CA, and ends with the U.S. Open Aug. 30 to Sept. 12.
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