By Liza Horan

New York—Everyone knows tennis is "good, clean fun," but the Lever2000 "Raise Your Game" campaign won't be employing that hokey phrase.

As "the official soap and body wash of the U.S. Open Series" and U.S. Open partner (click for press release), Lever2000's comprehensive sponsorship includes packaging free lesson vouchers inside more than 2 million bars of soap. People can redeem the vouchers for a beginners clinic at any participating tennis facility listed here. (Facilities who would like to take part can click here for details.)

It is the single largest push for recreational tennis outside those by the governing bodies (USTA, TIA), such as Tennis Welcome Centers.

That Unilever—one of the world's top consumer goods companies with more than $50 billion in sales last year—invested in tennis for the Lever 2000 campaign is significant. While neither the USTA nor Unilever will acknowledge the cost of the sponsorship, consider that:

- The sponsorship straddles both sides of the game—pro and rec—to expose both groups to the Lever 2000 line.
- Massive marketing support includes TV, print and online promotion in the U.S. Open Series cities and beyond.
- It aims to make new players out of all consumers, but especially pro tennis fans.
- It packs great value for consumers.
- It showcases tennis as a valuable means of marketing

The free lesson is a portion of the Lever 2000 sponsorship package. The "Raise Your Game" program includes a sweepstakes for a free trip to the U.S. Open; instruction content produced in partnership with USTA Player Development that includes access a video library of pro players in action; Webisodes of mixed doubles competition; and more.

In addition to personal care brands (Vaseline, Dove, Signal), the British company holds food lines (Hellman's, Lipton, Slim-Fast) and household cleaners (Surf). They are No. 1 in skin and deodorant products and certain foodstuffs (click for Unilever fact sheet).

This promotion is another example of tennis as a viable, growing worldwide platform.

"Any time we have a company of stature like that of Lever associated with tennis it's great," says Kurt Kamperman, chief executive of USTA Recreational Tennis. "The fact that they're helping us promote the sport to new players is fantastic, and we know that they best way to introduce the game is through a teaching pro. That's what makes this promotion all the better."

Lever 2000's first foray into tennis was a 2006 U.S. Open sponsorship.

"We were very pleased with our partnership with the USTA in 2006," says Unilever Marketing Director Srini Sripada. "That was one of the key drivers for us to decide to continue to work with the USTA." Lever 2000 recently extended the relationship with the USTA through 2008.

"We believe that the Lever 2000 brand and the game of tennis are a great match," Sripada says, "and that we can use our sponsorship of the U.S. Open Series to encourage people to get active through this fun and exciting sport, no matter what their age or skill level."

The "try tennis for free" voucher is the first promotion of its kind for Lever 2000.

"We think it is a very exciting promotion that people will find particularly compelling because it’s accessible to everyone across the country," Sripada explains. "The idea behind the promotion stems from Lever 2000’s commitment to encouraging all Americans to lead healthy, active lifestyles. We are challenging Americans to “Raise Your Game” on physical fitness through tennis, a fun sport the whole family can participate in. We are anticipating this promotion will be a huge success."

To hear him, one might think Sripada is a tennis promoter, not the Marketing Director of one of the world's largest consumer goods manufacturers. Actually, he is both.