TSN is the official Canadian broadcaster of the US Open – a tennis tournament that occurs in late August/early September. It’s a time when people are wrapping up vacations and getting ready for school. And it’s a time when sports fans are focused on baseball, golf and the start of the NFL season.

Watching tennis on TV is not high on people’s list of things to do. The challenge was to grab the interest of attention-divided sports fans by serving up an advertising ace.

With a budget of less than $20,000 the team needed to be highly targeted with its idea and execution. By studying the media habits of sports fans, the insight that people participate more in certain sports during major professional events was uncovered. When tournaments like Wimbledon and the US Open are on, avid and occasional tennis players flock to local courts to play.

Visiting local tennis courts demonstrated there wasn’t much in the way of media. A couple of posters in clubhouses or on courtside bulletin boards could be put up, but those wouldn’t make much of an impact beyond adding clutter to already cluttered spaces. The team wanted to create something that would give tennis players more than an ad – a never-before-seen experience.

So a new interactive media to promote the broadcast was invented – 15,000 tennis balls were wedged into tennis court fences on busy Lakeshore Boulevard in Toronto to bring the TSN US Open message to life. Combining design and sport, the experience enhanced local tennis courts rather than cluttering them with “advertising,” and the target responded positively. The murals not only showcased the US Open on TSN, but also inspired the target while they were on the court and motivated them to watch more tennis while they were off the court.

More Canadians than ever watched the US Open. Total viewership was up 24% – 2 million viewers – compared to last year, buoyed by record viewership in the opening week of the tournament when Canadians are historically slow to tune in.