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Racket Up America

A new industry-wide promotion is designed to drive more sales at retail and help stimulate the marketplace.

A new promotion by the tennis industry is designed to help drive consumer sales of racquets and will offer a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a lucky winner to serve for $1 million and win a trip to the US Open.

In the unique promotion, called “Racket Up, America!”, anyone who buys a new tennis racquet — of any brand, and at any retail or pro shop — from July 15 through Sept. 30, 2009, could win a chance to serve for the $1 million grand prize, along with a trip for two to the finals of the 2010 US Open. The serve for $1 million will take place in New York’s Madison Square Garden on March 1, during Tennis Night in America.

Consumers register their racquet purchase at playtennis.com/million and are immediately entered to win. Also available will be other prizes totaling $10,000.

“This strong collaborative industry effort is part of the TIA’s emphasis on finding additional ways we can positively impact the economic health of our industry within the current player base, in addition to our ongoing focus on growing tennis participation,” says TIA President Jon Muir. “It’s vital that we continue to help both create consumers for our sport and find ways to drive the economics of our industry day-to-day at retail.”

Participation, according to an annual survey by the TIA and USTA, is at a 15-year high in the U.S., with nearly 27 million players. In addition, research by the Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association shows that tennis participation has far outpaced that of all other traditional sports, growing 43 percent in the last eight years.

“The message that tennis is a fun, healthy activity is getting through to consumers, and new programs and formats that all of us in this industry support are showing positive results in terms of participation growth,” Muir says. “Now, we’d like to help make sure the tennis retail market follows suit. As more and more people play tennis, we’ve seen a surge in players restringing their current racquets, rather than buying new ones.”

“Our ‘Racket Up, America!’ promotion and the way the industry has been able to gather unified non-branded support to grow the game has really helped tennis stay ahead of other participation sports,” adds Jolyn de Boer, the executive director of the TIA. “We think this collaboration, across all lines in the tennis business, will serve us well in this economy and position us for continued growth when the overall economy picks up again.”

For more information on “Racket Up, America!”, including official rules and details, go to playtennis.com/million.

How You Can ‘Racket Up!’

To boost retail sales overall, and to boost your business, the “Racket Up, America!” promotion needs your help and support.

The TIA has put together advertising and marketing material that you can use to help promote the contest and your business. All you need to do is go to playtennis.com/partner to download what you need and to find out more information.

At the partner website, you’ll find “Racket Up, America!” ads, web banners, fliers, templates and other material that you can adapt for your business to promote this to your customers. Distributing fliers with each racquet sale will help urge consumers to register their new purchase. Email blasts about this promotion to your customers or members will help get them into the store, as will banners on your website and ads or articles in your local media.

From the July 2009 issue
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