The Nike "swoop" wins out on Roger Federer's tennis togs, but the Mercedes tri-star is everywhere else.
The fourth Grand Slam event of professional tennis, the US Open is now underway, the stars of the circuit battling it out, over two weeks, for a multi-million-dollar purse. This premiere event is the highest-attended athletic event in the world attracting over 729,000 visitors, and hundreds of hours of live tennis coverage and highlights on national broadcast and cable television channels throughout the world. Seems like a good deal, right? Not necessarily so.
The Lincoln division of Ford was the first auto brand to sponsor the US Open in 2000 and had special commercials shot with John McEnroe. Five years later when Lincoln opted not to renew its contract, Lexus became the sponsor and retained Andy Roddick as a spokesperson. Not coincidentally Deborah Meyer had headed marketing at both companies when the deals were made. Last year Lexus, minus Meyer, decided it, too, would not renew its sponsorship.
Long term contracts with favorable options were dumped along with the celebs. Wasn’t sponsoring paying off? Was it not worth the ROI? Didn’t it impact sales? Questions to be resolved.
You'll be hard-pressed to miss the Mercedes logos during the 2010 US Open.
But, in October 2009, Mercedes announced it was becoming, with dubious distinction, the third US Open automotive sponsor, with a four-year contractual commitment. Unlike Lincoln and Lexus the Germans have not been an amateur tennis sponsor. From 1996 until 2008 Mercedes-Benz sponsored the ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) Masters Tournaments, a multi-million prize series of forty men’s events played around the world culminating in the final event staring the top ten players.
Yet the question remains: As the third auto sponsor of the decade, what motivated the tri-star brand to believe it could make the US Open become an important marketing asset when the others obviously did not?
This is the first question I asked Stephen Cannon, marketing czar at Mercedes-Benz USA, in a recent telephone interview. His response? “The Open is in our largest market with our biggest and most influential dealer body at an important time of the year. It delivers a high profile audience with very desirable demographics, is celebrity driven and a place everybody wants to be seen. Getting our brand out in front of those customers during that timeframe in an engaging way with more of everything on site at the venue than the two previous sponsors and a major television buy makes all the sense in the world to us, with all due respect to our predecessors.”
Take away the corporate speak and it seems to be just more of the same — but as it turned out the first night of the Open Mercedes picked a winner: Roger Federer, arguably the best men’s tennis professional ever, was signed on as an ambassador not as a spokesperson, shill or player wearing a logo. Just a strong association. Federer is already appearing in a Mercedes commercial for the SLS, but last Monday when he hit his ‘tweeny shot ” between his legs for a winner, Mercedes aced the two previous car brands with a long term deal with Federer. Nonetheless, he will not wear a Mercedes logo, Cannon noted, adding that Federer is “pretty Nike-ed out already.”
To make certain fans attending the US Open know Mercedes is a major sponsor a variety of Mercedes-Benz-logoed signs, interactive displays, promotions, banners, booths, an information center and of course displays of Mercedes-Benz vehicles will be displayed on the grounds of the Billy Jean King Tennis Center.
Additionally the Mercedes logo will be on the nets and all court banners during all men’s singles matches which results in hundreds, if not thousands, of hours of exposure to the MB tri-star during live telecasts, re-broadcasts and sports news shows.
“We also undertook an ‘extreme home makeover’ of the double size hospitality suite,” said Cannon. Invited guests – big dealers and big deal customers — will relax here with spectacular views of the action in Arthur Ashe stadium, the major venue of the US Open. Fans driving a Mercedes to the Open in Flushing Meadows, Long Island, New York will get free parking in a special lot and a service coupon
Mercedes has made a significant television advertising buy on the three networks covering the US Open, CBS Sports, ESPN2 and the Tennis Channel, is sponsoring live web fees of 200 matches is featured on the official website, USOpen.org and on an interactive game on tennischannel.com.
Will this big investment be worth it? “Almost everyone walking in the gate at the US Open is a potential Mercedes-Benz customer” replied Cannon. That duly noted, it’s going to take at least four years to find out: when Mercedes either renews or cancels their participation.