US Open 2024 Runs New York Times Native Digital Ads to Drive Ticket Sales

We recently noticed the US Open Tennis Championships, which attracted 957,000 visitors last year, running large, high-impact ads on the top of the home page of The New York Times website (see screenshot) to promote ticket sales for the annual sports event being held August 26 to September 8, 2024 in New York.

We have run ads on this major digital news platform which reaches millions of visitors to promote our clients’ events to highly targeted, affluent audiences so wanted to share several takeaways from the US Open’s execution.

– The ad unit we saw for the US Open is part of The New York Times Flex Suite, a proprietary group of premium native ad formats that enable you to address different objectives i.e. reach, video views, click through and engagement.

– The US Open used the 16:9 aspect ratio Video Flex Frame ad format, a flexible, full-bleed ad unit which serves across desktop, tablet web, mobile web and mobile app and maxes out at 1605 x 270 pixels on desktop.  It dynamically adjusts in size and layout across different devices and window sizes to provide an optimal user experience.

– The creative asset has three sections on desktop. The US Open ran (1) a video on the left side which highlights different aspects of the event – functionality in the ad enables users to control video play and sound. (2) The middle section had a logo, headline, tagline with dates and “BUY TICKETS” call-to-action – tight character limits required by this format mean low-density copy which maximizes the visual appeal of the ad. (3) An image of a player was featured on the right side. 

– We noticed two versions running. Sections 1 and 2 were the same but a different image was used in section 3 i.e. the US Open chose to feature different players on the right side of the ad.

– The size and placement of this ad unit, its in-line delivery, seamlessly integrated into the content experience, and the number of times we saw the US Open ads, made them hard to miss.

If you are looking for new ways to differentiate your visitor marketing and ticket sales ads and reach new audiences at scale, consider native ads and this platform’s privacy first, granular targeting options as they can yield favorable engagement rates.

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Posted on June 12, 2024