Vigilante Goes Off Court to Tout Tennis July 15, 2004 By Barry Janoff

NEW YORK The U.S. Tennis Association will launch the second phase of its branding campaign with two TV spots that will break in time for the U.S. Open in August. The effort, "Tennis. Come out swinging," via Vigilante in New York, which supports Tennis Welcome Centers (a network of 3,300 locations where new players are introduced to the game), broke in April with print ads featuring athletes and celebrities such as driver Jeff Gordon, boxing champ Roy Jones Jr., journalist Mike Wallace and actress/model Daisy Fuentes. The TV spots, "Forehand" and "Roy" (which features Jones), will run primarily on cable during this year's expanded tennis coverage, including the USTA U.S. Open Series. Campaign spending is estimated at $4 million. "These spots show tennis as being young, aggressive, hip and fun," said Larry Woodard Vigilante, agency president and strategy chief. "We want to help leverage all that is exiting about the sport and help translate that excitement into an increased number of people playing and watching the sport." Added Danny Robinson, chief creative officer at Vigilante, "We wanted to show the sport off the court and outside of tennis whites in order to make a quicker connection to the social aspects of the game and get people pulled into the action before we reveal we are talking about tennis. This is a sport that can reflect the fashion, language and social needs of young people."