We wanted to leverage Roland-Garros 40th partnership anniversary and BNP Paribas’s involvement in tennis to demonstrate our brand historic values: generosity and loyalty, and use tennis as a way to increase engagement towards the brand. We also had to maximize the awareness of We Are Tennis (BNPP's tennis sponsorship ecosystem). The campaign was to be directed to people who love, like and celebrate tennis in France, but also to clients and even BNPP co-workers. The strategy was to gradually address the target groups from tennis fans to a mainstream audience, using relevant medias (from social sponsored posts to TV commercials).

We wanted to show what it meant to be a sponsor for 40 continuous years. How time, players, equipment, and spectators or even the logo from BNP Paribas changed multiple times over the years. We wanted to show how many untold memories people related to the French Open and its historic sponsor. We also let fans write the history of 2013 French Open, by having the chance to win one of the 15 dreams that we made available: bring the trophy to the tournament winners, perform the toss for the final on the central court, be the official tournament photographer...

"We Were There" celebrates 40 yearsof partnership between BNP Paribas and French tennis by creating a one- of-a-kind web documentary on the last 40 French Open. From players to spectators, referees to ball boys, officials, doctors, celebrities, We Were There captures all the memories from who ever attended Roland-Garros, on the court, the stands, or in front of the TV, and gave the chance to the fans to write their own story of Roland-Garros 2013 and bring the trophy to the tournament winners.

“We Were There” resulted in the production of 149 short videos, 20 from which were broadcasted on national television generating over 12 million-views exposure. Online videos were streamed 700K times, 600K users visited the dedicated campaign website and BNP Paribas’s We Are Tennis saw a 20% increase of its Facebook fan base. It also led to over 100K BNP Paribas clients setting an appointment with their bank manager during the tournament period, with the chance of having their meeting moved in the stadium during a tennis game. 63% of the French population remembered being exposed to the campaign.