Have you ever wondered how it’s possible to command more than a few seconds of someone’s time in the packed madhouse that is Times Square, a.k.a. the “Crossroads of the World” and the unofficial sensory overload capital of America?
As it turns out, the answer is easy: Lure the curious with the promise of a mega-selfie.
To promote the United States Open, which begins in Flushing, N.Y., on Monday, the United States Tennis Association offered visitors the opportunity to have pictures of themselves posted on six billboards throughout Times Square.
For two hours on Thursday, throngs of tourists and even a few locals took it up on the offer, lingering on a spot of concrete near 43rd Street and Broadway and whirling around to take a selfie with their own giant images displayed high above. Very meta.
Nicole Kankam, the managing director of marketing for the tennis association, said the digital takeover was an attempt to attract a new type of tennis fan: someone who is younger, who is more digitally savvy and, crucially, who might buy a ticket and help fill the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. (Thanks to renovations, the center will be able to host an additional 100,000 fans by 2018.)
“We’ve really got to engage a more socially active, a younger, more diverse demographic” to draw a hipper crowd and sell those tickets, Ms. Kankam said. “Socially engaging fans is a way to do that.”
Success would be measured by social media impressions, she said, like tracking use of a special Snapchat geofilter created for the occasion and hashtags like #USOpen.
Not surprisingly, along with photos of visitors came a parade of advertisements: A retractable roof on Arthur Ashe Stadium! Serena Williams! Andy Murray! Lobster rolls! Justin Timberlake! Chef Morimoto!
A square packed with so many starry-eyed tourists and rowdy Elmos raises a question: Who would actually still be in town in this vacation month to buy tickets?
Birgit Caroen, a 24-year-old Belgian tourist passing through New York on her way to Canada, said that she was a tennis fan “10 years ago, when there were a lot of famous Belgian tennis players,” but that she wouldn’t be able to attend.