Situation:

For over 46 years ABN AMRO has been the proud sponsor of The ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament. At the tournament’s core is the limitless passion of all those involved: the international talent, the ball boys and girls, and the organization that makes this tournament a success every year. As a bank that firmly believes in the circular economy, they are constantly trying to accelerate the sustainability shift.

Brief:

Develop a concept that highlights these three pillars during the tournament:

- Tennis

- Limitless Passion

- Sustainability & Circularity

The idea needed to be a new creative idea. Not something to amplify an existing idea.

Objective:

Make sure that ABN AMRO customers and tennis fans in general know that ABN AMRO is the main sponsor of the WTT with the aim of accelerating the sustainability shift by creating a brand activation with impact before, during and after the tournament.

We discovered that 300 million tennis balls are produced every year, almost nothing of which is recycled. Not very sustainable. We found out that it is nearly impossible to recycle tennis balls. So hard, in fact, that it hadn’t really been done very successfully before. So, it was time to Change the Game. Make the impossible possible.

We did something unprecedented. Something that would definitely grab the attention of our target group.We used a top-secret recycling process that allowed us to repurpose old tennis balls and transform them into brand new products. A tennis vibration dampener, a sustainable roof tile and ‘The Circular!’: a sneaker worn by the ball boys and girls at the tournament.

We didn’t stop there! We asked visitors to bring their old tennis balls to the tournament so that we could re-purpose them to create a brand-new Krajicek Playground for which we needed 50,000 used tennis.

Insight:

300 million tennis balls are produced every year of which almost nothing gets recycled. A major issue in the world of tennis. We need to change the game.

Key message:

The title of the campaign was 'Game Changers'.

People or innovations that change the game forever.

Target audience:

Existing and non-existing customers between 18-65 interested in tennis and sustainability.

Creation and distribution assets:

We created multiple brand new products made from recycled tennis balls. We call these products: Game Changers (innovations that change the game forever). A behind the scenes video of each Game Changer was made and shared online via multiple digital channels including YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and LinkedIn. We also created a campaign film with the two biggest Dutch tennis players, both also Game Changers in their own right. The video was used to share the goal of the bank; making tennis more sustainable.

Implementation:

The videos were shared on various digital channels including YouTube, Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter and LinkedIn. The products (Game Changers) were showcased at our exposition at the World Tennis Tournament.

One of the Game Changers was the Circular. A sneaker made from recycled tennis balls. These sneakers were worn by all the ball boys and girls as well as the umpires during the tournament to generate attention for the campaign.

Timeline:

- The production of the products started in November 2018.

- The tournament took place in February and lasted one week.

- The videos were launched in the beginning of February to generate awareness in build-up to the tournament.

Scale:

- 123.000 visitors at the tournament

- 5 million+ online video impressions

- 2 million+ Snapchat impressions

- 1.98 million Twitter impressions

- 123.000 visitors at the tournament

- 5 million+ online video impressions

- 2 million+ Snapchat impressions

- 1.98 million Twitter impressions

- 20.000 old tennis balls collected to be transformed into a Krajicek Playground

- 8 online articles

- 8 regional newspaper articles

- 2 national newspaper articles

- 2 national radio shows

- 1 television show

- The Circular sneakers were sold out