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A Battle Cry For Our Sport

By Peter Francesconi

There’s a new rallying cry for tennis, and it’s being spread by tennis retailers, racquet manufacturers, teaching pros, tennis associations and more: “Racket UP, America!”

RUA is not just a slogan, though. It’s an industry-wide promotional campaign for the sport designed to drive tennis awareness and to help retail sales.

The basics are simple: When a consumer buys a new racquet, they register their purchase (through Sept. 30) at playtennis.com/million and they’re entered into a drawing where they can win a chance to serve for $1 million, or win a trip to the 2010 US Open finals, or win $500 in tennis merchandise. (The potential million-dollar serve will take place at the BNP Paribas Showdown in New York’s Madison Square Garden on March 1, during Tennis Night in America.) In the promotion’s first couple of weeks, thousands of consumers went on the website, registered purchases and were entered into the drawing.

Maybe more important, feedback from retailers on RUA has been positive. The industry, through the TIA and its partners, is collaborating to stimulate the retail tennis business, and from those dealers who have contacted us, they appreciate this effort. If you’re not taking advantage of the RUA campaign, you’re missing out on an important chance to increase your business.

The key here, though, is that we — all of us in this business — need to make “Racket UP, America!” the rallying cry for tennis players. This specific promotion goes a long way toward making that happen, by bringing attention to tennis and helping push this sport’s overall public relations efforts. The RUA battle cry should generate excitement and interest in tennis, so that overall participation — and particularly our key frequent-player group, the heart of your market — continues to grow.

But this campaign needs your help, too. You need to promote “Racket UP, America!” in your stores and facilities, on your websites, to your customers, and to your local community. It’s easy and free to do this, too. Go to playtennis.com/partner and download all you need — fliers, posters, ads, website ads, press releases, email templates and more.

We’re now in the throes of the US Open, the premier pro event for tennis. What better time is there to get people in your community to “Racket UP!”

Peter Francesconi
Editorial Director

See all articles by Peter Francesconi

About the Author

Peter Francesconi is editorial director of Tennis Industry magazine.

From the September 2009 issue
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