The WTA tour leads the way for women’s pro sports

Joel Ayer    March 12, 2012

Company Overview

The WTA is the global leader in women’s professional sport with more than 2,500 players representing 92 nations competing for a record $96 million in prize money at the WTA’s 53 events and four Grand Slams in 32 countries. More than 5.2 million people attended women’s tennis events in 2011 with millions more watching on television and digital channels around the worldFurther information on the WTA can be found on http://www.wtatennis.com/. (wta fb page Mar 12 2012)

The most popular players on facebook of the WTA is Maria Sharapova with over 6.7 million fans. Serena Williams has over 2.5 million followers on twitter. Both of these along with other top players keep an active presence on the these medias and keep fans strongly engaged.

The CEO of the WTA tour is Canadian, Stacey Allaster. She took over in 2009 rebranded the name, fron the Sony Ericcson WTA tour to simply the WTA tour, expanded the sponsorship possibilities and kept the tour more marketable.

Sony Ericsson says the tour’s geographic spread and social networking presence—most of its top players send out daily Twitter updates to their fans—were reasons for its decision to remain a WTA sponsor. The company’s six-year relationship with the tour has given it “a very recognizable brand name across the world,” says Stephan Croix, head of global marketing partnerships.

As of Aug 2011, the WTA tour and its players have reached a fanbase of 23 million on social media sites, a four times increase since Mar 2010.

Besides well-known social media channels of Facebook and Twitter, WTA’s campaign “Strong is Beautiful” received close to 1.8 million views on YouTube and online TV show series “Xperia Hot Shots” attracted close to 819.000 Facebook fans and achieved 3 million YouTube views in a matter of months.

Overall

The WTa keeps a very active social media presence, with the players actively corresponding fans. They have strong leadership with people who have marketing vision. They launch online marketing campaigns and these have been well received and create excitement for the tour which is the global leader in professional sport for women.

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One thought on “The WTA tour leads the way for women’s pro sports”

  1. Nadina Ayer

    I absolutely love reading about the power of tennis and sport in general. This is a great example of the efforts and successful outcomes in women’s sports. Professional athletes including professional tennis players love connecting with their fans using the social media channels. This has such big impact on the spectating aspect of the game. If you ara a fan of an athlete or a sports team, you will already know this. Besides the professional female tennis players mentioned by Joel above, take a look at Roger Federer’s or Rafael Nadal’s facebook page for instance, you will see various efforts (e.g., trivias) put towards connecting with fans on a more personal level; they show responsibility and respect toward their fans through “thank you notes” and timely updates on their matches and everyday activities.

    Thank you for sharing this article and facts associated with it. Great efforts!

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