Champions Trophy News Coverage
Published on: Aug 3, 2018The team at the Royal Tennis Court and HRP have achieved great coverage for this year’s Real Tennis Champions Trophy by way of social media – Facebook, Twitter and Instagram and live streaming, this coverage is one of the objectives the event hopes to achieve year in year out to help raise awareness and the profile of the game, the Royal Tennis Court and Hampton Court Palace.
A highlight piece of coverage was a 5 minute interview with Nick Wood on the BBC Radio Surrey breakfast show, which aired a couple of weeks ahead of the tournament. Presenter Lesley McCabe visited the courts to watch a match, with Nick teaching her about the sport’s history, as well as mentioning the upcoming Champion’s Trophy. I’ve attached a recording, but it’s also available on Iplayer for another 8 days (listen from 1:25:22):https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p069yq1y
The recording above can only be accessed if you are within the United Kingdom.
Two weeks ahead of the tournament, we hosted a press morning and invited journalists to come down and have a taster session of real tennis, allowing them to get hands on with the sport. Led by Nick Wood, journalists learned the rules of the game, tried some shots themselves and also discovered how the balls are created. This resulted in features in both Surrey Life (attached) and Britain Magazine. On social, Londonist created a video about the sport, which they tweeted to their 1.37million followers, whilstVisitBritain (the national tourist board) ran a real tennis-themed Instagram story takeover on their social channels to their 381,000 followers (collage attached), including a swipe up link which directed people to the HRP website to book tickets to the tournament.
Following a press release ahead of the tournament, Country Life included the tournament in their ‘Things To Do’ roundup and regional title Richmond and Twickenham Times ran a piece encouraging locals to book tickets to the tournament. Mature Times ran both a print (attached) and online piece about the championships, as well as website Women Talking.
Once the tournament kicked off, international news agency AFPsent a team down to cover the event, including a reporter, videographer and photographer. This led to an article being syndicated across a range of international media, including Yahoo News, Le Progres (France), La Croix, Times of India, The News International and the Khmer Times. The video they created can also be viewed via an article on Al Arabiya, which includes interviews with Nick Wood and player Rob Fahey.
