WTA engages Phar Insight to boost lead partner search

The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) has appointed Phar Insight, the research division of marketing and sponsorship agency Phar, to aid its search for a new lead global partner.

The WTA has been searching for sponsors for its top tier position for over two years. This is after telecommunications company Sony Mobile did not renew its lead global partner contract, which expired at the end of 2012.

Phar Insight will undertake an analysis of the value the lead global partner sponsorship opportunity can deliver to brands. As well as calculating the value delivered from on-court branding at 54 events in 33 countries, Phar Insight’s work will focus on the range of other benefits, including access to its 2,500 professional players, provided to a brand through the partnership. 

Steve Tseng, chief sales officer at the WTA, said: “We have worked very hard to create a partnership which goes much further and deeper than year-round global media exposure alone, and provides brands with unique access and content to enable them to engage meaningfully and distinctively with consumers.

“An analysis just of media value would never capture the extent and depth of the value that a brand can receive from this partnership. Phar Insight’s analysis now enables us to have a much more strategic discussion with brands, by enabling us to demonstrate more comprehensively the value that the LGP opportunity can deliver.”

Alastair Macdonald, director of Phar Insight, added: “It’s easy to get blinded by the sheer scale of the media exposure that the WTA schedule delivers for a brand, but this only tells one part of the story.  A large number of powerful strategic attributes makes the LGP opportunity one of the most interesting currently available in world sport.”