Is the WTA’s Focus on Image Good or Bad for Women’s Tennis?

By
at Internationaled.org

Published: August 1, 2014

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Strong is beautiful. That's the tag line for an ad campaign the WTA Tour adopted to promote its players. The marketing campaign features players in glamour attire, full makeup and athletic poses.

Sporty, yet sexy and physical, but flirty, the WTA walks a fine line when branding its product.

The WTA is clearly a tennis organization, established to promote its players. However, sometimes how those players are promoted makes the WTA seem more like a talent agency, grooming spokesmodels to pitch various products.

It's working. Female tennis players are the most recognizable women in sports. The WTA is the only professional women's league in which players earn anything close to what their male counterparts make.

When the Strong is Beautiful campaign launched two years ago, Stacey Allaster, chairman and CEO of the WTA, spoke about how the goal was to make players more accessible to fans. 

We want to develop a closer relationship with our fans and attract a new generation of fans to women's tennis, and the Strong is Beautiful campaign is one way to get it done...The unique combination of athleticism, strength and determination on the court and success, interests and inner beauty off the court is what makes women's tennis so attractive to millions around the world.

Women's-rights activists might shudder at the thought of professional female athletes promoting themselves as fashionistas and sex symbols. After all, from the boardroom to the classroom, these activists have fought for women to be taken seriously. 

That is why the WTA's marketing strategy is brilliant. The WTA found a way to market the sport and promote women as individuals. They have created superstars with significant wealth. 

Perhaps this balancing act of promoting the sport—wink wink—while pitching beauty queens is the reason the WTA continues to grow as other women's leagues...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Tennis

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