Even luxury brands are adapting to the US Open ticket price surge

It’s no secret that tennis is a preferred marketing playground for brands in categories like luxury and finance.

The sport and its four annual Grand Slam tournaments have always had a premium feel, but sports sponsorships are attractive to marketers in part because of the reach they offer, including consumers beyond the upper crust. Particularly at the US Open, which has a reputation for being the least buttoned-up of the Slams, even marketers in categories like finance appreciate that the event has been drawing an audience outside of traditional tennis fans.

“It’s the perfect mix of everything,” Chris Weil, founder and co-CEO of Horizon Sports & Experiences, who’s worked with multiple US Open clients, told Marketing Brew. “It’s New York coming out of summer and everybody coming home, it’s a venue that is iconic, it’s competition, and then you add the experience onto it, of this jammed together for two weeks with everything from chicken nuggets with caviar on top to…Honey Deuces and champagne…This is an elevated experience that only happens for these two weeks, and so everybody feels like they have to be there.”

This year, though, the average price for resale tickets to the Open has soared, making the event less accessible to everyday fans, who used to be able to take in matches at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center without completely breaking the bank.

As prices have risen, US Open sponsors, including several in the luxury category, have shifted their activation strategies to focus more on making fans outside the grounds feel like a part of the action.

Take it outside

It’s not only the US Open that’s out of reach for many fans, a dilemma marketers have become hyper-aware of. For other high-demand (and highly priced) sporting events, like the World Cup and the Masters, sponsors are increasingly activating outside of spaces accessible exclusively to ticket holders. The strategy not only provides a taste of the event experience to more people, but, in doing so, stretches the reach of the sponsorship.

Grey Goose, for instance, has in recent years taken to making its iconic Honey Deuce cocktail available outside US Open grounds through partnerships with bars and delivery services. This year, coffee brand Lavazza teamed up with companies like Eataly and Highsnobiety to take its beverages offsite during the tournament.

“There are a couple of elements of hospitality, of course premium moments, but also…moments of connection between people that now make it really like a cultural experience,” Daniele Foti, VP of marketing for Lavazza North America, told us. “So bringing the US Open outside of the stadium, to me, is key.”

IBM, as the official AI and cloud partner of the US Open, powers the tournament’s app and other data, tech, and IT operations, but the brand has been lately leaning more into consumer-facing sports marketing. In a continuation of that strategy, the company is hosting a free, four-day pop-up at Madison Square Park during the last week of the tournament.

The company first put on the pop-up during last year’s US Open, and more than 500,000 people came through the space, according to Sarah Meron, chief brand and communications officer. As a B2B brand, IBM is primarily focused on reaching potential clients and the people who influence them, like media and analysts, and New York is home to much of that cohort, Meron said. Sports-related activations also give IBM an opportunity to showcase its tech—which can sometimes be “really esoteric,” she noted—in a fun, relatable way.

“It’s not how many people walk by; it’s how many people we can influence in terms of perception and understanding of IBM,” she said. “It’s one thing to just put up an activation and have it sit in a park or sit on a sidewalk, and people walk by. I don’t know how much value that has to a brand like ours…If people won’t line up to do it, you won’t see it from us again.”

I want to know what love is

Some brands are stretching access beyond experiences. Oura, the official wearable of the Open, is running out-of-home ads around New York, according to CMO Doug Sweeny; it also has deals with athletes, including American tennis stars Coco Gauff and Taylor Fritz, to show the product in use to a wider audience than just those who watch the Open. The brand’s messaging and goals differ based on the ad or activation, he added.

“It is a considered purchase, so a consumer may see Coco Gauff talking about it in her feed, they may run by it in a Target, they may see an ad in the New York Times or ESPN,” Sweeny said. “There are multiple touchpoints, but those stories tend to be a little bit more deliberate based on the medium.”

Other brands are embracing social media as a way to broaden the reach of the sport and their campaigns around it. When it comes to influencers, though, they aren’t exactly the most welcome attendees—at least among some tennis fans (and players) expecting more decorum.

Mercedes-Benz, the exclusive auto partner of the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and the former official vehicle of the US Open before 2022, has been leveraging social this slam season, though not via creators: The brand counts Gauff as a brand ambassador, and she stars in its latest campaign, which the automaker is promoting heavily through organic social, Ryanne Webber, senior manager of brand communications for Mercedes-Benz USA, told us.

The social content includes BTS videos of Gauff, which give fans greater access to the star while fostering a sense of relatability for the brand among “multiple audiences,” Webber said. That’s a goal for her team, despite Mercedes being a luxury brand, she told us.

“It is bigger than just the TV campaign,” she said. “How do you extend the experience beyond what is on site, because it is unrealistic for a large audience to be able to experience it in the same way?”

Through its long-term deal with the WTA, the Mercedes team is looking to grow the sport by creating moments that feel relatable and accessible to people who aren’t already fans. Educational content can be helpful to that end, while also providing brands with authentic messaging opportunities, said Beni Brown, global director of strategy at Buttermilk, a creator marketing agency that works with brands including Gap, Armani Beauty, and L’Oréal.

Brands involved in the US Open may find some inspiration from Formula 1, another major luxury-adjacent sport that has made huge audience strides.

“That’s what F1 did so well: bringing people into this world that has been so closed off, that they might not understand,” she said. “The brand being a bit of a window into that…feels a bit more of something that the consumer can walk away with and be like, ‘Oh, do you remember that exhibition? That’s where I found out about what love means’ [in tennis].”