The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour’s “Looking for a Hero” marketing campaign has wrapped up its second phase of production.
With the just concluded photo shoot, a total of 57 players are now featured in the campaign in the most ambitious effort to date by the Tour to promote not only current, but also rising and national stars of the Tour.
This year’s print shoot took place prior to the start of the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells and featured top players such as Ana Ivanovic and Jelena Jankovic; future stars such as Caroline Wozniacki, Alize Cornet, Anna Chakvetadze, Sania Mirza, Aleksandra Wozniak, Sorana Cirstea, Anne Keothavong, Peng Shuai, Sam Stosur, and Sabine Lisicki; and top doubles teams Rennae Stubbs/Sam Stosur, Anabel Medina Garrigues/Virginia Ruano Pascual and Yan Zi/Zheng Jie.
A third phase of the campaign, focused on the digital space and including community, user-generated and viral elements, is set to launch later this year.
The “Looking for a Hero?” campaign portrays the Tour’s players as modern-day superheroes both on and off the court and is designed to promote the Tour’s current and next generation of stars in their year-long race to the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha.
“I was very excited to be a part of this “Looking for a Hero?” shoot as I love being in front of the camera and this campaign represents a great opportunity to promote women’s tennis,” said World No. 3 Jelena Jankovic. “I really like how the campaign shows that women tennis players are not only great athletes on the tennis court but also glamorous and interesting women in our everyday lives.”
The players were once again photographed by noted American lifestyle photographer Nathaniel Welch.
The “Looking for a Hero?” marketing campaign consists of television, print, and digital advertisements, along with user-generated, community and viral elements. I
I like the counter-stereotype concept of women being promoted as hero’s and in effect role models. But don’t like the sexualised way in which many of of the young women we admire are being promoted. this doesn’t challenge stereotypes, just reinforces them. In particular it reinforce the role that women use sex in order to achieve, win, get ahead. Yes, it is often true, but I don’t think so much with the women that I admire.. at least, not in a vulgar way.