Why La Roche-Posay is betting big on tennis

Fans attending the US Open won’t need to fret if they forgot to pack their own sunscreen—La Roche-Posay will once again have them covered.

For the third year in a row, the skin-care brand is the official sunscreen of the US Open, and this year, La Roche-Posay’s presence will be more pronounced than ever, with free sunscreen and dermatologists abound.

Guillaume Monsel, VP and head of marketing and digital at La Roche-Posay, told us he’s looking forward to having the brand continue holding the title as the tournament’s official sunscreen for “years and years,” particularly amid the brand’s increased focus on tennis.

“Tennis is one of those sports where you spend the most amount of time outdoors…and we wanted to make sure we were also reaching a premium, affluent, and approachable consumer, as well,” Monsel told Marketing Brew. “Our goal as a brand is to make sure we’re getting mass awareness and reach through these events as well.”

With this year’s US Open now in full swing, Monsel told us he’s thinking about ways to expand the brand’s roster of tennis partnerships, both athletes and tournaments, and continue to use the sport as a vehicle for sunscreen-related PSAs.

For the love-love of the game

While La Roche-Posay partners with or sends products to skiing, snowboarding and surfing athletes, Monsel said tennis remains the brand’s main focus.

“We really want to develop one sport well, and then once we feel we’ve done it in the right way, we’ll explore other sports, but not in the next six months,” he said. “We really want to make sure we’re making an impact in the sport.”

Earlier this year, tennis stars Madison Keys and Frances Tiafoe appeared in a campaign for La Roche-Posay as brand ambassadors to promote everyday sun protection. The two were present at a La Roche-Posay-hosted press and influencer event at Edge NYC last week, where they played pickleball against fellow ambassadors and players Taylor Fritz and Alex de Minaur. Jannik Sinner, currently the world No. 1 in men’s singles, is also an ambassador for the brand.

The years-long deal with US Open marked the brand’s first tennis tournament partner, and La Roche-Posay now sponsors several others, including the National Bank Open in Canada and the Miami Open. According to Monsel, the brand is also looking at ways to work with high school and college tennis players, as well as with the Professional Tennis Players Association to help support rising stars in the tennis world.

Third time’s the charm

Monsel said La Roche-Posay prides itself on providing free sunscreen to everyone who wants it at each tennis event, which is part of the reason why the brand has limited itself to fewer than 10 each year.

While some of last year’s US Open attendees may remember getting free non-sunscreen products from La Roche-Posay, like the now-viral Cicaplast Balm, Monsel said that was a one-time experiment that won’t be repeated this year.

“We wanted to see if we would see a spike in sales in the New York market in the coming months but the product took off because of social buzz and attraction…so it wasn’t really a clean read on if it was the US Open or not,” he said. “This year, we’re gonna stick to sunscreen only.”

This year’s US Open attendees should expect to see a La Roche-Posay booth full of sunscreen and volunteer dermatologists from The Dermatology Specialists answering skin care-related questions. Three other sunscreen giveaway stations will be scattered around the grounds.

As La Roche-Posay has grown its presence, Monsel said he’s excited to see the US Open evolve into a luxury brand in its own right.

“The brand of the US Open has really elevated in the last few years, and we’ve been a part of that journey through the hundreds of influencers and celebrities we’ve brought in,” he said, citing Taylor Zakhar Perez, Noah Beck, Dixie D’Amelio, Shaun White, and Lindsey Vonn as some athlete and influencer attendees that La Roche-Posay has brought to the grounds in recent years.

Beyond the booth and social media partnerships, Monsel said La-Roche Posay will run ads during the tournament broadcast.

Monsel said he’s excited to hear from customers inside the booth and think of ways to utilize those one-on-one conversations. The brand’s “Every Day is a Sunscreen Day” campaign from earlier this year was borne out of consumer conversations around some people’s lax approach to wearing daily sun protection, he said.

But there can be downsides to opening up a dialogue with consumers, especially in a country with expensive healthcare.

“The derms sometimes tell us, ‘This person wanted me to do a full-on body scan in front of everyone, like top to bottom,’ or ‘This guy showed me his behind to see if a mole was suspicious or not,’” Monsel said.

While it is the Open, it’s perhaps best not to be that open.