BNP Paribas & Roland Garros: We Were There
BNP Paribas and Roland Garros wanted to celebrate their 40-year partnership in 2013. The client needed an integrated campaign to engage tennis fans and the wider community. The challenge was to transform the rich history of the tournament into a shared, participatory experience. They sought to collect and amplify personal memories, inviting people to relive their most memorable moments and strengthen brand connection through storytelling.
Creative Idea
BNP Paribas crowd-sourced fan memories to tell Roland Garros' 40-year history.
BNP Paribas celebrated its 40-year partnership with Roland Garros by collecting and sharing 300+ personal stories and memories from people connected to the tournament. The brand transformed tennis history into a crowd-sourced narrative, inviting fans to participate and relive their most memorable Roland Garros moments through an interactive campaign.
Mapping Forty Years of Clay Court Memories
From Logo to Storytelling Partner
The campaign marked a strategic pivot for BNP Paribas, moving away from passive "logo on a backdrop" sponsorship toward becoming an active curator of tennis culture. By leveraging the "We Are Tennis" platform, the brand aimed to reaffirm values of loyalty and proximity. Executive Creative Director Sylvain Thirache noted the goal was to give a voice to the collective history of the tournament, ranging from legendary players to the "unsung heroes" like ball boys, referees, and tournament doctors.
The Virtual Stadium Experience
At the heart of the production was a sophisticated 3D digital recreation of the Court Philippe-Chatrier. This interactive hub allowed users to explore over 300 unique video anecdotes, each geo-tagged to the precise location in the stadium where the memory occurred. Whether it was a spectator’s specific seat in the stands or a player’s defining moment on the clay, the tech mapped the emotional history of the venue. To build anticipation, the team used a "39 Years" tease, gathering historical content to frame the 2013 tournament as the live 40th chapter.
Global Reach and Fan Integration
The campaign achieved massive scale, with videos reaching 700,000 users in the first month and a television broadcast on France TV engaging 13 million viewers. Beyond digital screens, the initiative lived in 2,500 BNP Paribas branches. The brand further incentivized engagement by offering "money-can't-buy" experiences, such as allowing fans to flip the coin at the final toss or act as the official tournament photographer, effectively turning a corporate anniversary into a participatory fan festival.
Creative Strategy Deconstructed
Company
BNP Paribas leveraged its 40-year tenure as the primary sponsor of Roland Garros to act as the official historian. This long-term commitment provided the brand with the authority and physical access to turn the stadium into a living archive.
Category
Sports sponsorships usually center on elite athletes and trophy moments, often ignoring the fans. Category norms focus on brand visibility through logos rather than meaningful engagement with the people who actually sustain the sport's culture.
Customer
Tennis fans possess deeply personal, unrecorded memories of the tournament that define their relationship with the sport. They crave recognition that their presence in the stands—the 'I was there' moments—is as vital as the matches themselves.
Culture
Digital culture has shifted the power from brands to people, favoring crowdsourced authenticity over corporate polish. There is a growing desire for 'storydoing,' where fans aren't just consumers of history but active participants in creating it.
Company
BNP Paribas leveraged its 40-year tenure as the primary sponsor of Roland Garros to act as the official historian. This long-term commitment provided the brand with the authority and physical access to turn the stadium into a living archive.
Category
Sports sponsorships usually center on elite athletes and trophy moments, often ignoring the fans. Category norms focus on brand visibility through logos rather than meaningful engagement with the people who actually sustain the sport's culture.
Strategy:
Transform a corporate anniversary into a collective legacy by making fans the co-authors of Roland Garros history.
Customer
Tennis fans possess deeply personal, unrecorded memories of the tournament that define their relationship with the sport. They crave recognition that their presence in the stands—the 'I was there' moments—is as vital as the matches themselves.
Culture
Digital culture has shifted the power from brands to people, favoring crowdsourced authenticity over corporate polish. There is a growing desire for 'storydoing,' where fans aren't just consumers of history but active participants in creating it.
Strategy:
Transform a corporate anniversary into a collective legacy by making fans the co-authors of Roland Garros history.
Results
The campaign successfully gathered more than 300 anecdotes from the public. These anecdotes, displayed on a virtual Roland-Garros platform, were viewed by more than 12 million people on France Television. Additionally, the experiences created for fans, such as handing over the final trophy to Rafael Nadal, were broadcast to more than 2 billion viewers worldwide.
300+
anecdotes gathered
12M+
views on France Television
2B+
global broadcast viewers for trophy handovers
Strategy Technique
Lean Into Nostalgia
The campaign invited fans to relive their most memorable Roland Garros moments, tapping into collective longing. It leveraged the 40-year partnership to celebrate shared history and strengthen connection.
Explore Technique
Creative Technique
Glorify the audience
The campaign collected over 300 personal stories, making fans' memories central to the 40-year celebration. It elevated their connection to Roland Garros, transforming history into a shared narrative.
Explore Technique
Craft Breakdown
This campaign's craft is exceptional in its multi-platform execution, blending historical reverence with interactive engagement to create a deeply personal connection between fans and a sporting event. Its strength lies in orchestrating both digital and real-world experiences.
The campaign uniquely allowed fans to not only revisit history but also actively participate in creating new historical moments through dream prizes, transforming spectators into integral parts of the tournament's narrative.
The 'virtual Roland-Garros' platform, interactive terminals, and seamless integration of user-generated content provided an innovative and engaging digital hub for collecting and visualizing anecdotes.
The 'We are looking for...' notices were exceptionally well-crafted, specific, and intriguing, effectively piquing curiosity and prompting real individuals to come forward with their unique stories.
The consistent visual style across all campaign touchpoints, from the bold, green and black search posters to the sleek digital interfaces, created a cohesive and recognizable brand identity for 'I Was There'.
The campaign's magic truly comes from the synergy between its compelling copywriting which initiated the search, the innovative digital platform that housed the collected stories, and the imaginative experiential design that allowed new anecdotes to be created, fostering a deep, participatory connection with Roland-Garros.
