Driving Tennis Participation With Nature Valley

Arjoon Bose, UK and Northern Europe marketing lead for Nature Valley at General Mills and David Atkinson, managing partner, Space, speak to Sport Industry Group about the evolution of the Nature Valley’s sport sponsorship strategy, driving tennis participation in the UK and the partnership with the film ‘Battle of the Sexes’…

How has Nature Valley’s sport sponsorship strategy evolved since London 2012?

AB: The London 2012 Olympics was our first sports sponsorship in the UK while we were still a relatively young brand here. It helped drive awareness whilst gaining traction with our major customers and helping us fast track our distribution.

At the back end of 2015, we were exploring a meaningful partnership to tie into the launch of our new gluten-free Protein range in the summer of 2016. In the US we have a history of partnerships in golf and skiing, in the UK we wanted to build an association with a sport that would align with our brand values while also being more accessible and offering us scale.

That is how and where conversations with the LTA began and as a result in 2016 we became Official Snack Bar of British Tennis. First and foremost, for us, the knowledge that tennis was the second most followed sport in Britain meant we were going to be able to talk to a sizeable audience across age and gender. Secondly, we were genuinely inspired by the British Tennis vision for driving mass participation and for growing the sport at the grassroots level. The mission aligned well to our brand ethos of getting people outdoors.

It’s fair to say that with the rise of a British world number 1 in men’s singles and doubles in the last year as well the first British woman in the Top 10 in over 30 years, there hasn’t been a better time to be associated with tennis here. With popular stars who the public can get behind along with the increased funding from the LTA to invest in facilities and infrastructure means this great sport is enjoying a real renaissance in its traditional home.

What has been the main aim of the work with Nature Valley?

DA: We have been working with Nature Valley for around eight months now. Ultimately Nature Valley’s ambition is to drive more people back to playing tennis. Increasing the number of tennis participants and supporters has been a big drive for the LTA, and Nature Valley as a supporter has aligned with this drive. We need to highlight that tennis is for all – anytime and anywhere – you only need a racket, a ball and space. Therefore, the opportunity to promote equality and diversity whilst bringing people back to the game has driven the campaign.

AB: Tennis is the second most followed sport in Britain however it’s still not considered accessible enough. For summer 2017, we created our first integrated marketing campaign #thecourtisyours – where we were saying tennis is for everyone, it does not matter who you are or where you are – Nature Valley wants you to get outdoors and give tennis a go. The summer was about embedding this story to move people from watching to playing. And the cherry on the cake was to have a talismanic but highly authentic ambassador to inspire the nation and Johanna Konta fit that bill perfectly.

Whilst Johanna is a key spearhead, we want people to know you do not need to be a pro to enjoy tennis and that any surface is a court. It is a sport that is cross-generation and cross-gender and that is what we are wanting to champion.

Through #thecourtisyours we are able to direct people to the LTA’s local free court finder, reducing the barriers to entry to grassroots tennis. This summer there were over 150,000 more court bookings compared to the previous years. And at our end, we’ve seen a strong sales uplift in the summer and our share, penetration and repeat rates on Protein and the overall Nature Valley brand are tracking ahead of our expectations.

Our next big ambition will be to get people playing more tennis more often throughout the year and not just concentrated in the summer months.

Your most recent activation, Battle of the Sexes, saw you take on one of the big, current societal issues – what can you tell us about the campaign?

DA: The ‘Battle of the Sexes’ activation is part of the wider #thecourtisyours campaign that was originally designed to embrace a number of initiatives in tennis.

We saw this as a perfect opportunity to reinforce the tennis message during the classic off-season, and to get people back on the court and playing. The activation at Westfield is an amazing example of how it is free and easy to play tennis, we had local school children playing on the same court as Johann Konta and Pat Cash. It was really important for us to showcase that tennis is not just a summer sport. It also fitted in well with the Nitto ATP World Tour Finals taking place in London at the same time.

The original plan was to have an activation at the O2 around the Finals, but when we saw the Battle of the Sexes film was due to be released we felt we had a greater opportunity here. It epitomised everything the brand stands for from equality to the fact that anyone can play tennis. Add to that the original game between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs was the most watched tennis match of all time meant that it was a perfect opportunity to reinforce our message. With Billie Jean King winning, it helped put women’s tennis on the map in an equal footing and led to the start of the WTA tour.

The turnaround for this Battle of the Sexes activation has been very quick, in fact the final sign off was only three weeks prior to the event. That is testament to the collaborative working relationship with Nature Valley and everyone involved. We were not going to settle for anything less than a premium activation, and that is exactly what we have achieved with Konta versus Cash. It is not often that all sides are willing to be so bold, but their desire to think big with their activations helps maximise impact in minimal time.

AB:  Being able to pay tribute to one of the most famous sporting events of all-time via its cinematic rendition was an incredible partnership opportunity for the Nature Valley brand, not to mention the exciting idea of creating a live event with the first of its kind full-size tennis court in the biggest indoor shopping mall in Britain.

Our activation celebrates the inclusivity of tennis by bringing together two diverse champions of different eras as a homage to the real event and marks in a light-hearted way how far the sport has come in terms of equality since that iconic Battle of the Sexes of the 70s in the Houston Astrodome, which was so much more than a tennis match.