The Challenge

USTA New England, one of 17 regional branches of the U.S. Tennis Association, partnered with Dynata and Kinetica to address a key challenge in their national growth initiative, “35 by 35”.

“35 by 35” is an ambitious goal to reach 35 million tennis players nationally by 2035. With most tennis players participating recreationally and outside of formal membership structures, USTA New England needed a way to identify, engage, and count these individuals toward their ambitious target. 

Traditional tracking methods failed to capture the vast population of casual tennis players who weren’t part of paid membership. To bridge this gap, USTA New England introduced a free membership tier aimed at converting recreational players into trackable participants. The challenge was twofold:

• Tracking: How to find and validate these players. 
• Activation: How to reach and engage them effectively. 

The Solution

USTA New England partnered with Kinetica, pioneers in localized sports, recreation, and wellbeing intelligence, and Dynata to transform market research into actionable audience segments. Dynata recruited panel respondents to take part in Kinetica’s ongoing survey on Sports, Recreation and Wellbeing in the U.S., delivering deep insights and pinpointing recreational tennis players at a hyper-local level. Together, they turned raw survey data into precise, targetable audience segments that powered smarter marketing strategies.

The scale of Dynata’s panel enabled the identification of the following Tennis target audience from the respondents of Kinetica’s survey:

• Played recreational tennis in the past month. 
• Visited parks frequently. 
• Lived in zip codes with high recreational activity. 

The Impact

USTA New England launched Meta advertising campaigns using the custom audience targeting segments to drive free account sign-ups. The goal was to build a lead list that could be nurtured into paid memberships over time.  

• 43% increase in free sign-ups during the campaign period. 
• 60% year-over-year (YoY) growth in free accounts. 
• 3% increase in paid memberships, representing a 7% YoY growth. 

In addition to the incredible results above, the long-term post-campaign value continues; USTA New England implemented a drip email strategy targeting new sign-ups, which has shown high open rates, indicating strong engagement and interest. This campaign demonstrated how data-driven audience activation can unlock new pathways for growth in recreational sports. By identifying and engaging previously untraceable players, USTA New England continues to drive significant results for the national U.S. Tennis Association’s “35 by 35” initiative.