The ring light that launched a thousand ships LinkedIn posts!! (and now leading to Wimbledon issuing a statement that they won’t be credentialing creators next year… fascinating)
While you sickos were staying up till 3:30am ET watching Big Ben Shelton defeat Carlos Alcaraz (looking at you Rob), I was ingesting and dissecting the conversation around creators attending the US Open this year.
From using ring lights during matches, to posting about chicken nuggets with caviar (multiple times in feed), to maybe? smoking weed inside the venue, to publishing self-deprecating spon con making fun of everyone else getting the bag, creators have eschewed their basic Honey Deuce posts to undoubtedly become THE conversation outside of the action on the court.
As an agent who attended the US Open this year while multiple of my creators were activating both with the USTA itself, as well as US Open brand partners, I began to wonder what’s different about this event than any other within the sports world where there are 10x creators on-site like the Super Bowl.
Is it tennis’ demure atmosphere and code of conduct? (but isn’t the US Open the fun, young, late-night Major?)
Are the fashion/lifestyle majority creators attending somehow less knowledgable about the sport and/or more aggressive in their content capture?
To me, the US Open has done such an amazing job at making the event the place to be in NYC for a 3 week stretch, in part due to the status symbol that is associated with the court-backgrounded fit pic which has become ubiquitous from every corner of the relatively small stadiums to every other post as you swipe from your feed. There’s something about the playing surface as a frame for your greatest and latest OOTD that is desired by every single person in 2026, creator or not. While not wholly different than other large sporting events, the sameness and similarity of content combines with the behavior in the stands (where there were are rules and codes) to fuel the discourse online.
This leads me to today’s decree: CREATORS DON’T MAKE CONTENT IN SUITES
From a brand standpoint, I’m always a massive fan of creating as bespoke an experience for the creators you’re hosting on site during an experiential activation so that they not only have the proper time and space to do this in an unobtrusive manner (i.e. not during the quiet match) but also so they have an opportunity to make a unique video that goes beyond the templated fit check, cocktail, etc. mentioned above. That means, don’t just host 10 creators in a suite and expect magic to happen. In fact, when I was at the NHL, I feel like some of our worst attempts at trying to both capture our own content of creators and having creators make their own videos, came when we spent tens of thousands of dollars securing suites for the Stanley Cup Final. The lighting is dark, the music is loud, and quite frankly, the creators themselves go into VIP mode, much more eager to drink + eat + mingle than spring into on-camera action. But once I figured this out, I was able to structure a 1-3 day itinerary leading into the game where creators made unreal content in suitable settings, all in advance of the event to assist with driving tune-in (key marketing objective).
Not to mention that when you formally collaborate with a major sports team/League/entity, your creators likely are not even given the ability to showcase the athletes and action on the court/field/playing surface due to the robust, billion dollar footage licensing agreements made with broadcasters. There wasn’t a single creator I hosted during 7 years at the NHL that understood this (“look at the 20,000 other fans with their phones out recording”), but instead of arguing on the spot, I’d reassure them that their deliverables were already complete and to relax and enjoy the game without the pressure of having to perform live in a way that may be disruptive of the action for others attending.
(deep exhale) BUT, of course I am here to champion creators, especially the two on my roster who used drawing as their medium to capture the US Open, observing and documenting with a pen and pad so much so that I couldn’t even get them to pose for a staged photo if I tried haha. Really proud of how both collaborations turned out, particularly in light of all the press. Let’s jump in 👇
Greg Edwards x US Open | Fan Week Illustration
First off, major thank you to Kylie Sturgill and the entire USTA content team who were amazing partners throughout this entire collaboration (and I sincerely hope the negative press does not limited their ability to work with creators in the future).
Now onto the illustration - WOW
I know I’m (literally) paid to say this, but Greg’s art is absolutely incredible. From each individual frame, to the style and ability to package his work in such a way that’s native to social and instantly engaging, he’s an absolute juggernaut in the digital illustration game.
And I tested him haha. With roughly only 3 weeks to work with, Greg spent day after day in his Essex, UK, studio bringing the US Open Fan Week vision to life on screen.
Solid content performance on IG (100k views, may have been affected by the late Saturday publish time to showcase Fan Week before the tournament started in earnest), but beyond the views the comment sentiment was remarkable positive which we love to see. In today’s AI-slopificiation of all our feeds, the power of showcasing hand drawn art from an actual human creator can’t be understated. Incredibly excited to have completed this first project with Greg on my roster, stoked for what’s next.
Kevin Zych x Chase | US Open Experiences Sketch
If Greg was our first serve, Kevin Zych followed him up with an ace showcasing his own unique spin on what’s possible drawing the US Open.
As we’ve talked about before, finessing three-way brand deals can be challenging but proud of how Kevin kept the ball between the lines to produce some stunning sketches. With the goal to showcase the Chase on-site activations while also promoting the entire US Open experience, Kevin massaged his way around some brand guidelines within the content and offered fans a new angle on the event.
With that being said, we’re still working to find the format and template that engages his audience a bit better across all platforms. Kevin’s so successfully developed a style of video that led him to where he’s at today, but unfortunately it’s no longer exciting fans on social as it once did. Kevin will always be an artist first and foremost, but it’s a fascinating and exciting case study to me for how we can level up his content and mature him into a capital “C” creator.
I was fortunate enough to attend alongside Kevin for this US Open day, and it was so rewarding the amount of fans who stopped us to inquire about the art, learn more about the process, and genuinely engage with Kevin as a storyteller. If cameras and phones automatically trigger warnings for people in crowds, the sketchbook is like an open invitation to a human connection in a quite beautiful way.
The footage rights point should be settled before anyone arrives. A creator can have the best seat in the building and still be unable to make the piece the brand imagined. Build the brief around what they can actually capture, and give them a setting that works for their format. Hospitality and production are different jobs.