Although faced with the loss of its title tournament sponsor, the future appears bright for Tennis Canada, thanks to strong support of some longtime sponsors and an aggressive new marketing strategy.

When legislation restricting tobacco advertising and sponsorship passed earlier this year, it appeared that Tennis Canada and its du Maurier Open tennis championships would be among the hardest hit of the cultural and sports events that have been relying on tobacco company sponsorships for survival.

The legislation takes effect Oct. 1, 1998 and title sponsor du Maurier recently advised Tennis Canada that it won’t renew its sponsorship agreement for 1999 although it wants to continue to have some sort of involvement with the organization.

So the search is on for a new title sponsor.

Stacey Allaster, director of corporate sales and marketing for Tennis Canada, says a consultant has been hired to do a complete analysis of other events, with respect to what investment title sponsors make, and assess the tangible assets and value of the Tennis Canada tournaments, both domestically and internationally.

She says du Maurier has been a great sponsor and it’s only through Imperial Tobacco’s support of the past 18 years that the tournaments have been built into the very attractive sponsorship opportunities they are today.

First on the list of things to do, says Allaster, is to work with existing sponsors to market the title spot. Fortunately, she says, some have already expressed an interest.

While she wouldn’t name potential sponsors, Allaster says ‘There’s no doubt with the desirability of our audience, the key prospects will be industries such as automotive, banking, financial services, telecommunications, computer hardware and software.’

This year’s men’s du Maurier Open will be held July 26 to August 3 in Montreal while the women’s event, a Tier One tournament, takes place in Toronto from August 9 to 17.

Allaster says much of the value of the tournaments comes from their international television exposure, adding the event popularly known as the Canadian Open is actually seen in over 160 countries.

‘Last year we got 122 international hours of coverage, [on Eurosport in the European market, and espn in the American market] so when we go to the market we have a very solid domestic program to offer companies, combined with global branding opportunities,’ she says.

Cafe de Colombia is among the sponsors that has recognized the value of Tennis Canada. For its second year, Cafe de Colombia is the next major sponsor after du Maurier.

The company, whose advertising and sponsorship activities are driven by BBDO New York, began its association with tennis first through the U.S. Open but Allaster says it found it got more value for its investment dollars with Tennis Canada.

She says Cafe de Colombia is capitalizing on the international television coverage provided by Tennis Canada to build its brand and increase recognition of its Juan Valdez logo.

Allaster says the company’s logo will be placed on the back wall in the prime television camera spot and an actor who plays Juan Valdez will be sitting in the front row of the stands right over the logo, says Allaster.

As part of its sponsorship, all coffee served on site is free. Last year more than 110,000 free cups of coffee were served between the two events, Allaster says.

The Friday of each tournament will be designated Cafe de Colombia Day, says Allaster, with the Juan Valdez character greeting fans and handing out coffee samples.

In support of its on-site activities, Cafe de Colombia spots will be seen on ctv, tqs, tsn, rds and espn during the televised play.

To further increase the attractive of a Tennis Canada sponsorship, the organization is doing its best to offer a turnkey service, says Allaster.

She says as marketing budgets and staff became leaner at sponsor organizations over the past few years, Tennis Canada has picked up the slack by setting up an internal event agency to provide communications, pr, media relations and event management services to its sponsors.

The tournaments have attracted two new sponsors this year: Diners Club/Enroute, the new official charge card of the Canadian Opens, and TeleDirect, publisher of the Yellow Pages.

Prior to the event, Diners Club/Enroute is leveraging its involvement by awarding anyone who is approved for a card two tickets to the 1998 Canadian Open finals and the chance to win tickets to Wimbledon, the biggest international event in the tennis calendar.

For its part, TeleDirect has taken over sponsorship of the Daily Draw Sheet, an eight-page digest-sized guide to daily tournament events.

Now it will be available free to attendees and called the Yellow Pages Draw Sheet, to build on the company’s themeline, ‘What Are You Looking For?’

The newspaper, radio and television campaign for the Canadian Opens was created by Taxi Advertising & Design of Toronto.