Night Tennis

Night tennis

DECEMBER 2007

NIGHT TENNIS

UPFRONT, OTW, DECEMBER 2006, COMMENTS

Sony Ericsson are behind a new event that brings the alien worlds of tennis and clubbing together under one roof. The result is Night Tennis - probably the most notable intersection of music and tennis since our beloved Cliff Richard sang Singing in the Rain at Wimbledon 96.

The idea is to transform an indoor sports-ground into a nightclub and have tennis pros compete in a glow-in-the-dark tournament, while live sets are pumped out from top name DJs and VJs. This is possible because tennis balls are UV reactive (they’re apparently made by the same stuff as luminous police jackets) and, using an installation of 28 UV cannons over a specially painted ‘UV sensitive’ tennis court, contestants can play a rally-focused, close-quarters version of traditional tennis - the highlighted body movements helping them to predict their opponent’s next move.

Two Night Tennis events have already been run alongside Ericsson’s sponsorship of the Women’s Tennis Association championship, the finals of which were contested from November 7 to 12 in Madrid.
Both nights featured blazing feats of comet-tailed tennis, and attracted some top seed DJs, with Darren Emmerson and Groove Armada supported on the night by house DJs from local Madrid nights. It’s not merely a spectator sport either. The organisers gave out bracelets and glow-sticks at the door, while the lines of the tennis court made a cool glow-in-the-dark dancefloor. There were also a fair number of models milling about, and between the madness of neon tennis and big name DJs, local fashion designer Ruben Gomez Navarro unveiled his new collection of UV reactive clubwear, which will hopefully cause neon to be ‘back in’ this time next year.

Both Emerson and Groove Armada agree that the main attraction of Night Tennis is that it sounded so crazy it had to be good.

“As big fans of the game, the concept of Night Tennis has the kind of twist to it that we like with our music,” say Groove Armada.“We had no idea what to expect, but we love the concept of playing in the dark - we’ve been pioneering it for years.”

Dean Taylor, the Sponsorship Marketing Manager at Sony Ericsson, said that the night is a good pre-curser to possible future projects from the mobile company involving the provision of sport and musical content to mobile phones.

“It’s an interesting concept for us, and the UV idea helps knit our interest in clubbing and music with our sponsorship of sports events. We’d welcome the idea catching on, and if it’s successful, we’d like to repeat the night for the Miami open, and other specific events around Europe.”

While obviously a neat marketing opportunity, Night Tennis is also a playful fusion of interests that has created some innovative results. We’d love to see other big industry names create similar synergies between their sponsorship interests - a football and live music event from Carling, maybe, or an alarming hybrid of clubbing and bi-plane racing from Redbull - but for the mean time we await Night Tennis in the UK, and will be asking for champagne and strawberries the next time we go out.

Words: Leo Batchelor

From: December 2006 Issue

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