BNP Paribas is the most important sponsor of tennis at the global level for over 40 years. Beyond just “badging” tennis tournaments, the bank is truly committed to play an active role in how tennis will develop in the future and ensure it will positively impact the fans and more precisely the younger generations. BNPParibas briefed us on two communication objectives:

#1 – Make an evenemential splash during the French Open and more particularly on the day of Final.

#2 – Develop a 360° communication campaign in order to promote this operation.

Through this communication, BNP Paribas wanted to address two major stakes:

- Raise its voice and create excitement amongst the largest audience possible during the French Open in order to valorize its partnership with French Tennis Federation.

- Communicate in a very engaging way (vs. purely corporate) on their commitment to younger generations through tennis.

Budget was €200K.

Catching the eyeballs and the attention of both the public and the media during the French Open tournament is a daunting challenge, especially if you are a bank (not the sexiest category, let’s face it!) and not a pure player like Nike, Adidas, Babolat, etc. There’s literally an avalanche of messaging of all sorts that turns Roland-Garros into one the noisiest places on earth for 2 weeks. Our initial conviction was that a purely “live event’ approach – as asked by the client in the original briefing and as it was done in the past – would not cut through the clutter and would clearly not deliver the expected PRability. Therefore, we focused our thinking on a simple yet ambitious goal: how could BNP Paribas hijack the uninterrupted news flow surrounding Roland-Garros in a truly ownable and memorable way?

Our starting point was a key observation: media outlets (and particularly TV) devote a truly significant amount of coverage to Roland-Garros every year, especially in France where the tournament makes the headlines daily, but they’re truly reluctant to amplify any messaging related to a brand.

A major piece of news sparked our thinking: at the end of the 2019 tournament, the mythical Court N° 1 was planned to be destroyed within the framework of the renovation work that will impact the entire venue of Roland-Garros. Could such an amazing piece of history disappear just like this, destroyed by bulldozers and turning the legend into ashes? Of course not!

In order to enable BNP Paribas to convey its purpose driven messaging during the entire tournament and deeply engage with the fans, we created an ephemeral collection celebrating the Roland-Garros myth and its glorious Court numéro Un: the Collection Court N°1 by BNP Paribas, featuring over 1000 collectors’ items, all manufactured in France and all made from RECYCLED parts coming from the famous court. Chairs recycled from the stands, tarpaulins transformed into bags, hourglasses filled with court clay: for all tennis fans, it was a truly unique opportunity to own a piece of history. And to do it for a good cause: all these collectibles were sold for the benefit of Yannick Noah’s association which helps the integration of young people via tennis. A truly coherent way to close the loop.

- Each object of the collection was sold out within 48 hours after the sales opening

- Over 110 media fallout in digital, press, television and more than 73 millions of contacts generated

- +30% traffic increase on the tennis dedicated website of BNP Paribas (vs. past year)

- BNP Paribas = 1st brand mentioned on social networks during the whole Roland-Garros tournament

- € 30,000 donation collected for Yannick Noah’s Fête le Mur association.