SERVING UP A SUMMER OF TENNIS: THE LTA'S LANDMARK SOCIAL MEDIA SUCCESS.
ENGAGEMENTS UP 70% YOY
VIEWS UP 94% YOY
FOLLOWER GROWTH OF 90,636
The summer of 2024 served up a rare and golden opportunity for British tennis . The convergence of Wimbledon, the Olympic Games, and the retirement of Sir Andy Murray created a moment that the LTA could not afford to let pass. With social media playing a crucial role in broadening the sport’s appeal beyond traditional broadcast audiences, the LTA, together with Little Dot Sport, utilised the moment to create a cross-platform campaign to elevate tennis’ visibility, drive engagement, and inspire participation across the UK.
Objectives
The summer campaign ran across YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, X and Threads. The use of multiple platforms was designed to:
MAXIMISE TENNIS VISIBILITY
During a high-profile summer of sport and contribute to the LTA’s broader mission of inspiring more people to pick up a racket and play.
ENGAGE AND DIVERSITY AUDIENCES
Reaching beyond traditional tennis fans, in particular to younger and female demographics.
CELEBRATE THE LEGACY OF SIR ANDY MURRAY
In a meaningful and engaging way.
Strategy and Execution
To achieve these objectives, a multi-pronged approach was devised, tailoring content to each of the platforms and the three major events: Wimbledon, the Olympics, and Andy Murray’s retirement. The strategy combined proactive content creation, effective collaboration with partners, and agile digital execution to ensure maximum impact.
Wimbledon: Reaching New Audiences Through Social-First Storytelling
Recognising Wimbledon’s power to captivate the nation, in collaboration with the LTA we developed a strategy to extend its reach beyond TV audiences, in particular to young and female audiences, by focusing on personality-driven and interactive content. Key initiatives included:
- Creating a unique visual identity for the tournament to deliver clear, scroll-stopping graphics across all the platforms.
- Developing content ideas for athlete access windows to create to be used during Wimbledon.
- Leaning into engaging social-first content formats, including gamification filters on TikTok, quizzes, and challenges.
Combined results across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook:
- 72.9 million views on LTA content during Wimbledon (+200% YoY).
- 4.6 million engagements (+160% YoY).
- 35% female viewership on YouTube (up from 16% in 2023).
- The 25-34 demographic was the most engaged audience across YouTube and Facebook.
The Olympics: Owning the Conversation Around Team GB’s Tennis Journey
The Olympics provided a massive national moment for tennis with several Team GB tennis players in action - including Andy Murray in his final every tournament - but cutting through the noise of multiple sports required a highly focused approach. The plan was to ensure that the LTA social channels (Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and X) were the go-to destination for following British tennis players’ Olympic journeys.
Key tactics included:
- Creating a distinct Olympic visual identity to drive recognition.
- Covering every key moment in real time, ensuring no big stories were missed.
- Partnering with Eurosport for access to Olympic footage, complemented by pre-banked content to navigate live content restrictions.
Combined results across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook:
- 41.3 million views across the Olympic period.
- 3.2 million engagements, making the LTA the most engaged British national governing body (24% higher than the next closest NGB).
- 61% of respondents in an August survey reported having seen or heard something about tennis in Britain that month (up from 50% in 2023).
Andy Murray’s Retirement: A Legacy Worthy of Celebration
With the retirement of Britain’s most successful and beloved tennis player, the LTA had the responsibility not only to honour his achievements both on and off the court but also to use the moment to inspire future generations.
To achieve this, they launched the ‘Thank You Andy’ campaign, which included:
- A hero film celebrating Andy’s career, narrated by Martin Compston, launched on YouTube (created by partner content agency, Whisper)
- Multiple social-first video assets, including highlights, compilations, and archive footage.
- Numerous hero graphics and a roll-out of social-first video content - including highlights, compilations, archive clips and originals - celebrating Andy’s achievements on and off the court.
Combined results across YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, X and Facebook:
- 26 million impressions in the first four weeks.
- 10 million+ video views.
- 1 million+ engagements.
- ‘Andy Murray’ and ‘retirement’ were among the most common responses in a survey on public awareness of tennis in August 2024.
Impact and Long-Term Benefits
- Tennis visibility reached 61% in August 2024, up from 50% the previous year.
- 6.5% of adults interviewed during September said they'd played tennis in the past 4 weeks. This compares to 4.2% in 2023.
- 16% of people who saw tennis coverage in July or August said it made them more interested in playing, rising to 28% for recently lapsed players.
Conclusion
The Serving Up a Summer of Tennis campaign exemplifies how a strategic and creative digital-first approach can elevate a sport’s visibility, engage new audiences, and drive participation. By capitalising on a once-in-a-lifetime summer of tennis, we were able to help the LTA position themselves as a leading force in the digital sports landscape, proving that impactful storytelling, audience engagement, and collaboration can transform social media into a powerful engine for growth.
Through record-breaking numbers and a tangible impact on participation, this campaign stands as a blueprint for the future of sports marketing in the digital age.
CLIENT FEEDBACK.
"Little Dot Sport have been instrumental to the successful year we've had on socials. Their platform insights and data knowledge are second to none. ”
David MacDonald-Watson, Social Media and Broadcast Production Manager