“The difference between the Miami Open and other tennis tournaments like the US Open or Roland-Garros is that it is much more of a local, community-driven tennis tournament.”
–John Lynch, Trade Marketing Manager, Lacoste North America
Lacoste once again took over a VIP hospitality suite to engage key stakeholders.
While Florida is the land of gators, Lacoste showed up to the 2024 Miami Open with its rival signature crocodile. A platinum sponsor and official outfitter of the tennis tournament, Lacoste crocs invaded Hard Rock Stadium and the South Florida city from March 17-31, with branded banners, uniforms, pop-ups, parties and pools sporting the iconic green reptile design. A multipronged sponsorship spanning almost a decade has led the luxury sports fashion brand to bank some annual traditions while bringing forward new experiences this year for tennis fanatics under its Le Club Lacoste membership program.
“We’ve been evolving the Miami Open [activations] over the years,” says John Lynch, trade marketing manager at Lacoste North America. “The difference between the Miami Open and other tennis tournaments like the US Open or Roland-Garros is that it is much more of a local, community-driven tennis tournament, where there are a lot of locals from Florida and the Latin American market. We try to take the spirit and energy of the local community into every decision we make.”
Lacoste’s main activation point was its in-stadium retail space, featuring a Florida-style shopping experience with striped folding deck chairs, plants and bright green branded signage that welcomed consumers in. There, attendees could shop Lacoste’s ready-to-wear, fashion and sport performance collections, as well as co-branded Miami Open Lacoste souvenirs, including apparel, hats, accessories, croc plushies and tennis essentials.
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The pop-up shop’s biggest hit was its customization station with exclusive brand and tournament patches. New and existing Le Club members received complimentary customization of their Lacoste products, in which they could choose one of seven patches (five flag patches in the croc outline or two Miami Open ones) to place on their polos, shirts or hats.
“What we found this year, even more than in years past, is that we had more customers coming in with products from previous years, and now they’ve started collecting the patches for each year, which is very exciting for us to find out,” Lynch says. “These are not only one-off opportunities because our customers are really looking at this as a souvenir item and are coming back to us each year looking for it.”
Tennis brand ambassadors were on-site for meet-and-greets with fans, and in addition to the pop-up store, Lacoste set up two kiosks in the stands and a micro-store in the aisles of the stadium. “Spot the Croc” returned to encourage tournament attendees to take a photo of a Lacoste crocodile and text it in for a chance to win upgraded seats. The promotion ran during 10 sessions of the Miami Open.
The biggest draw at Lacoste’s activation was an apparel customization station.
Each year, Lacoste takes over a VIP suite in Hard Rock Stadium for local talent, influencers, key stakeholders and wholesale partners to view the tennis matches and enjoy hospitality perks. The modern, white lounge space carried the same Le Club Lacoste aesthetic, with plenty of greenery to evoke the brand color, photos of pro tennis players, tall green lockers filled with tennis equipment, and branded accents like pillows, balls and coffee table books. The suite’s stadium seats were outfitted in green and white striped fabric.
“This is the first time that we’ve pushed the envelope as far as really trying to connect the theme between the suite and the retail space, and that was making sure that our presence on-site had one message,” Lynch says. “In the past, we’ve done other themes in the suite, still on brand with Lacoste but much more of a lighter takeover, whereas this year we really wanted to make sure that the Le Club Lacoste theme was a common thread through all of our activations both on- and off-site.”
Beyond the stadium, Lacoste hosted a launch party and finals weekend watch parties at Soho Beach House Miami. The brand leveraged its global partnership with Soho House for its first event at the location, and House members jumped on the opportunity to attend the Le Club Lacoste kickoff party, which quickly sold out.
Tennis pros Novak Djokovic, Daniil Medvedev, Grigor Dimitrov and Arthur Fils attended the evening celebration, along with influencers and talent from Latin America, who were all treated to dj sets by Xwnia Wölf and Mia Moretti. Green lighting, towels and pillows showcased Lacoste branding, but the centerpiece of the Soho Beach House activation was the swimming pool that was converted into an aquatic tennis court, complete with a net and floating crocodiles.
Lastly, Lacoste curated hands-on tennis clinics for influencers to master basic strokes while capturing content and photos. Lynch says Lacoste sees the Miami Open as a global event, with the U.S. team partnering with staff based in the brand’s Paris headquarters and global digital and social teams.
“Because all of our players and key executives are in town, we want to make sure that we are pushing fun activations and communications but are also very focused on driving the business,” he says. “We have two weeks to really make a splash and make our presence known for the Miami Open before they ship off and go to the Monte-Carlo Masters. Right now, there’s a team getting ready for similar activations for the Madrid Open and then following Roland-Garros, but when the Miami Open happens, it’s definitely all-hands-on-deck in the U.S. team to make sure that we have as much communication visibility as possible.” Agency: Factory 360.
Photo credit: Factory 360
