DUBAI: If you have attended or watched matches at the Mubadala Abu Dhabi Open, the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships, or any of the WTA tournaments taking place this month, you may have noticed a new addition to the nets: the Mercedes-Benz three-pointed star.
In a groundbreaking deal, the automotive giant has become the premier and exclusive automobile partner of the women’s tennis tour.
The deal has the potential to be the largest in women’s sports history, with Mercedes-Benz committing to inject $50 million annually, for a period of 10 years.
The Mercedes star used to be a familiar sight at tennis tournaments, when the firm sponsored the ATP from 1996 to 2008, and it is now back flanking both ends of the net, but this time as a major backer of women’s tennis.
Tennis has been at the forefront of women’s sport for decades and the WTA tour views this new partnership with Mercedes-Benz as validation for all the work that has been done since the women’s tour was founded back in 1973.
Sarah Swanson, chief brand officer at WTA Ventures, told Arab News in a recent interview that the deal was “testament” to the work done recently and over “the last 50-plus years.”
“And I think the positioning of the WTA at really the forefront of women’s sports, and I would argue at the forefront of sports across the board, I think it’s validation of all of that.
“A brand as significant and premium as Mercedes-Benz choosing us as the best way to come to life in the sports space at a global scale is something that I think we’re so proud of and so excited to let fans see and be part of.”
Aligned values
For Mercedes, the WTA is a perfect fit, which is why they opted for a long-term deal of this magnitude.
Christina Schenck, global head of investor relations, digital and communications at Mercedes-Benz, told Arab News: “We’re not looking to get in and out.
“Obviously, we wanted to find somebody who shares our values and the values of the brand and the values of the WTA of tennis as a sport are very much linked.”
She added: “If you look at it, it’s diversity, first of all. We deliberately picked female tennis, also, to bring a little bit more visibility to female sport, that’s one.
“But also, if you look at them, if you look at the players, the precision, the strength, the endurance, these are all values or attributes that connect so well to us as a brand.
“In essence, you don’t get a title, you earn a title. And if you look at our brand and the history, we’ve been around for 140 years, and we’ve also had to earn the brand equity, and we have to earn it every day. So it is something where we connect really well.”
Swanson describes this deal as “a huge milestone” for the WTA, and it comes on the heels of a rebrand the tour unveiled 12 months ago. “It was a reimagining,” she said.
“The WTA has been at the forefront of this conversation for a very long time. But we felt like the WTA needed to own that leadership position, that No. 1 position in the women’s sports space. But more than that, a leader in media and sport and culture.”
While the players and tournaments have managed to attract many premier brands, Swanson acknowledges that the complicated structure of tennis may have affected the tour’s ability to maximize on its opportunities in the past.
“What has been missing is kind of that umbrella brand that brings it all together and owns that positioning,” she said.
“We’ve been growing so quickly in so many of our key metrics across the social space, across attendance, across viewership, all of those things.
“And then that’s what I think allowed us to go to market and have conversations that were a little bit different than they might have been three or four years ago.”
‘Major breakthrough’
The firm has also ventured into other sports.
Last month, Mercedes-Benz UK signed a multi-year deal to become the official automotive partner of the Women’s Super League and the Women’s Super League 2, the top two tiers of women’s football in England.
Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz AG has been an official patron of the Women's Open golf tournament since 2024.
Schenck believes the partnership with the WTA can lead more brands into the women’s sports space. “I feel this is a major breakthrough. I think it also shows our commitment long-term to the sport, and to the players.
“We want to bring our welcome home, that is a feeling that the brand stands for, also to the tennis court, for the players.
“For them it’s also not that easy to travel the world for basically the whole year, giving them a piece of coming home, a piece of feeling at home, and the same, obviously, with our customers, when they sit in our cars, they feel at home.
“So, that’s where we want to connect, and yes, it will be quite exciting.”
Part of the agreement with the WTA is for Mercedes to be the official car provider at all tournaments, which was difficult to negotiate, given most tournaments have their own deals in place with various automotive partners.
“This year about 60 percent of the tournaments are part of the deal. Next year that goes to like 80 some odd percent. And then we’re at nearly 100 by the third year,” revealed Swanson.
“There are a couple of tournaments that have automobile partners that are permanent, that are long-term. So yes, that was individual negotiation across the tour.”
With Mercedes on board, the WTA tour hopes to attract more premium brands moving forward.
A key difference between Mercedes and Hologic, the tour’s previous premier partner, is that the German carmaker is a consumer-facing brand.
“Our last premier partner was Hologic, which is an extraordinary brand and allowed us to do so much in the women's health space that I think really was industry-leading,” said Swanson.
“But it’s not consumer-facing. The difference with a partner like Mercedes is they want to be out locally in their dealerships, in their regions, working across the globe.
“They want to use their content to talk about the partnership very publicly. And they have all the internal systems and operations to do that. That’s different than we’ve had before.
“And so that, I think, is going to be transformational for us, kind of how we work with our partners, and absolutely for the players.”
‘We’re moving on up’
Alongside this deal with the WTA, Mercedes-Benz have signed two-time Grand Slam champion Coco Gauff as a global brand ambassador.
Gauff, 21, is not just excited about her own partnership with Mercedes, she is proud to see the three-pointed star make its way across WTA tournaments.
She told Arab News this week in Dubai: “For me, it was super cool. Obviously I feel like Mercedes is a great brand, been around forever. They built their status on that side of the world.
“I think for me to be able to represent that at such a young age I think is pretty cool for me. It’s such a prestigious brand.”
“I’m also happy they decided to support women’s tennis and allow me (to) be the face of that new transition for them. I think it’s great for the tour, great for women’s sports.
“It definitely shows we have market value. These big, prestigious brands want to get involved. Also like, Rolex has been part of tennis for a long time.
“Yeah, I’m very happy to be representing Mercedes. I’m happy the tour is too, it’s cool to see the little symbol on the net. I’m like, OK, we’re moving on up.”
‘You’re not investing in potential anymore, you’re investing in actual’
For a long time, investing in women’s sport used to be considered a charity endeavor and not many brands took it seriously.
A shift away from that mentality has been unfolding over the past few years and Swanson says we are officially past that stage. “The proof is going to be in the deals, and you’re seeing that now,” she said.
“The Mercedes deal is one, but it’s not just that, our broadcast deals. We’ve announced a new deal with the Tennis Channel that was sort of transformational.
“We announced a new partner in Poland that was really extraordinary from a media deal perspective, but certainly cross-sport. Mercedes just invested as well in the Women’s Super League in soccer in the UK.
“You’ve got WNBA rights deals, media deals, that are really changing sort of the scale of the landscape. And I think the conversation is going to change because the business is changing.
“It’s not even going to be an argument anymore, and that’s different from 20 years ago. But 20 years ago, you were saying you have to invest in potential, you have to sort of be part of it, and now you’re not investing in potential anymore, you’re investing in actual because the numbers are there.”
