New Balls Please! The LTA Launches Play Your Way

Today, the LTA and The&Partnership London launch Play Your Way, a commitment to opening tennis up to the nation. Every summer, tennis climbs the sporting agenda, with Wimbledon fever helping to entice fans onto court. This year, the LTA wants to inspire people of all abilities, age, location and background to pick up a racket and play however they want. 

The campaign uses an array of emotive and nostalgic vignettes of tennis balls being hit, lost and found, set against a backdrop of modern Britain, tackling perceived misconceptions of the sport. Be it bouncing off the garage door, splashing in the canal or stuck in the rafters of Centre Court, the audience are able to transpose themselves into each moment, without judgement and are left wanting to join the fun of playing their way. 

Yan Elliot, executive creative director, The&Partnership London commented: “We felt that the best way to encourage people to play was to take the stigma out of not being very good. Our message is clear; get out there and give it all you’ve got. If it happens to stay in the court, then so much the better, but don’t stress about it. Just play your way.”.

From script to shoot in just 12days, The&Partnership London and Outsider teams utilised a documentary style approach to navigate the ever-evolving lockdown restrictions and British summertime weather, achieving two days of filming across 25 different locations. With a mix of wide angle, close-up and drone shots, plus some ingenious CGI and sound design, the team were able to capture the breadth of Britain along with some of those harder to reach places that all tennis balls manage to find. 

Richard Daish, marketing and commercial director, LTA commented: “Tennis has always been a fun, engaging sport, but not everyone feels like they can play. Play Your Way will show that tennis can be played in any way, by any one, no matter their experience or understanding of the game. The campaign gives us a chance to drive people to the entry points of tennis.”

So, ‘…whether you’re a big timer or mistimer’, Play Your Way is an invitation to anyone and everyone, that re-writes the rules of tennis by celebrating individualism and welcomes all playing styles. 

Anthony Abou-Zeid, business director, The Kite Factory commented: “Fundamentally, this campaign is aimed at encouraging tennis participation at any level by anyone. To help drive that sentiment, we needed to make sure that we behaved in a way that wasn’t polarising to new participants, showing another perspective of tennis which hasn’t been seen before. It wasn’t just about what we say but how we say it. We identified lateral ways of speaking to audiences about tennis beyond the ‘expected places’ through smart digital targeting across search and social media as well as presence across national broadcast channels. To further bring our campaign to life, we accessed ambient media formats across Out of Home to elevate our message, encouraging engagement in our campaign and drive participation in tennis”. 

Find out more about Play Your Way at www.lta.org.uk/playyourway