Taking the Tennis to the Regions.

The ASB Classic is New Zealand’s premiere tennis tournament, but with people living outside of Auckland feeling disconnected to it, we needed a way of bringing the ASB Classic to them.

ASB asked Copper to create a nationwide activation that would promote the brand’s love of tennis and celebrate the ASB Classic tournament, outside of its home in central Auckland.  

Generating competition entries and maximising the social media footprint, were key components to the campaign’s success.

We knew, in order to capture the imagination of the regions and for them to feel connected to the ASB Classic, we had to do something unexpected that would catch people off guard and make them smile.

Commuters arrived early one morning to find their local commuter hub had been transformed into the ASB Classic tournament.

Our Tennis Take Overs popped up at shopping malls and transport hubs around the country. ‘Ball-kids’ served up complimentary strawberries and cream, gave out drink bottles, branded bags and cold towels. Comedians acted as ‘umpires’. Armed with microphones and sitting on tennis umpire chairs, they cracked tennis themed jokes as pedestrians walked by, entertaining the gathering crowd. The ball-kids got people entering the competition to win tickets to the ASB Classic, by inviting them to pose in out photo booth with over-sized comedy tennis props.

The campaign was a clean win, with over 7,290 people stopping for a quick game, to enter the competition or pick up some branded merch. And well over 116,000 people experiencing our Tennis Take overs, either live on location or on social media.

ASB won. New Zealanders won. Game, set and match.