ALMATY, KAZAKHSTAN – In a city where tennis has never been the go-to sport, a bold and unconventional move has turned heads, sparked conversations, and set a new standard for experiential sports marketing. Enter Mountennis, a groundbreaking activation by GForce Grey created to celebrate the arrival of the ATP 250 Series tournament in Kazakhstan’s cultural capital.
For the first time, the ATP 250 Series touched down in Almaty, a historic feat few saw coming. But with a city built on a slope and a population that takes immense pride in its mountainous surroundings, the challenge wasn’t just about introducing world-class tennis; it was about making it Almaty’s own.
The mobile operator Beeline Kazakhstan historically supports the development of tennis in the country and is a sponsor of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation. And, as a proud sponsor of the Almaty Open ATP250, was encouraged to promote the tournament among the city’s residents. This task was assigned to the advertising agency GForce Grey Kazakhstan.
“To draw the attention of the city’s residents to this historic event, shift social indifference, get people talking about it and as the main goal – encourage them to attend the tournament, it was decided that the city should set the rules of the game!” states Yuliya Tushina, CEO at GForce Grey.
Beeline Kazakhstan and ATP 250 introduced a brand new sport – tennis in Almaty-style, and called it Mountennis. The world’s first-ever sloping tennis court on a mountainside! A unique professional sloping court has been built in Almaty mountains, a court that fully reflects the entire culture of the city, located in the mountains on a slope.
We announced the unusual 2-day tennis tournament in Almaty-style, dedicated to Almaty Open and presented by Beeline Kazakhstan. In this tournament, the court, like the city of Almaty itself, has been sloped and placed on a mountainside.
Then, we held the amateur tournament on October 5th and 6th, 2024, with a live broadcast online being possible by the wide coverage of the mobile Internet provided by Beeline Kazakhstan. This unusual tournament served as the perfect prelude to Almaty Open ATP 250 a week before the start’, said Yevgeniy Kostylev, ECD at GForce Grey.
What started as an unconventional way to promote the ATP 250 tournament quickly snowballed into a cultural moment. Major TV networks covered the event, while bloggers and social media pages lit up with commentary and replays of the unorthodox matches. Mountennis didn’t just introduce tennis to Almaty, it made it a hot topic throughout the country.
The results? Staggering. With a reach of 1.2 million in a city of just 2 million, more than half of Almaty engaged with the campaign. The Almaty Open itself saw record-breaking attendance, drawing 40,000 spectators – far surpassing the 5,000 who attended Jared Leto’s live concert in the same week. For context, even the higher-tier ATP 500 Astana Open only managed to pull 38,000 attendees.
CREDITS
Agency: GForce Grey, Almaty, Kazakhstan
Managing Director: Yulia Tushina
Executive Creative Director: Yevgeniy Kostylev
Creative Group Head: Rafael Imamniyazov
Head of Art Department: Anton Ussenov
Senior Designer: Diana Korchevskaya
Designer: Aizhan Shagansariyeva
Designer: Omi Makarenko
Motion Designer: Alexandr Filatov
Client Service Director: Anna Kostyleva
Account Director: Anastasia Semenova
Account Director: Anastasia Ivanova
Production: Extreme Athletics
Client: Beeline Kazakhstan
Head of MarCom – Dinara Usinalieva
Senior Brand Manager MarCom – Zhuldyz Kononbaeva
Arkadiy Lozinskiy, Head of Media Department
Kazakhstan Tennis Federation:
Gulmira Zakiryanova, Director of PR and Marketing at the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation
Andrey Kvasov, Director of the Almaty branch of the Kazakhstan Tennis Federation
