The Best Brand Activations in Paris During Roland Garros
For fifteen days, late May to early June, Paris becomes the world capital of tennis. 630,000 spectators, broadcasts in 220 countries, thousands of sport professionals, media and brands converging on the Porte dâAuteuil â and well beyond it. For marketing teams, Roland Garros is not just a tournament. It is a window.
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An event that goes far beyond the courts
Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam on clay. It is also one of the few sports events capable of gathering very different audiences simultaneously: tennis fans, of course, but also fashion followers, luxury professionals, and mainstream media. The 2024 menâs final drew over 7 million viewers in France alone. The tournament is broadcast in 220 territories.
For brands, this composite audience is a significant opportunity. But the official entry point carries a significant cost: a mid-tier partnership exceeds $4 million per year. The four headline sponsors â BNP Paribas, Emirates, Engie, Orange â each invest more than $7 million for court-side visibility. These are not budgets accessible to most marketing teams.
So brands have found other ways to play.
Two strategies, two very different logics
Brand activations around Roland Garros fall broadly into two categories. The first is the street activation: taking over a public Parisian space during the fortnight to create a visible, accessible, shareable moment. The second is the private activation: organising a closed event â dinner, evening, product launch â in a venue selected for its character and address, for a precise audience. Press, influencers, partners, VIP clients.
Both approaches coexist. They do not serve the same objectives or the same budgets.
Street activations: when the brand takes over Paris
Asics installs a tennis court on Place de la RĂ©publique â 2024
This is the most documented example in recent years. Three days before the opening of Roland Garros 2024, Asics transformed the Place de la RĂ©publique into an ephemeral tennis court. The âRally for the Mindâ activation was open to all: rackets provided, free access, and several circuit players present â Ons Jabeur, Alex de Minaur, Corentin Moutet, Harriet Dart.
The stated objective was to promote the mental health benefits of sport, as part of a two-year partnership between Asics and the City of Paris. But the mechanics were also marketing: an iconic square, an unlikely court in the middle of Parisian traffic, world-class tennis players hitting with strangers. The content spread massively. Asics then donated the court to the City.
This is the classic format of the Paris pop-up in its sporting version: a transformed public space, an ephemeral setup that creates a city moment as much as a brand moment.
Private activations: when the venue makes the brand
This is the other side â less publicly visible but equally strategic. During Roland Garros, Paris fills with decision-makers, journalists, and content creators. Many are in the city for the tournament but do not spend their evenings in the stadium. Brands that have understood this organise off-site moments â invitation-only events in venues chosen for their character.
Lacoste takes up residence at the Shangri-La â spring 2025
For Roland Garros 2025, Lacoste took over two spaces in the former private mansion of Prince Roland Bonaparte, today the Shangri-La Paris on avenue dâIĂ©na. A gourmet pavilion on the façade side, and âSummer by Lacosteâ in the gardens â an ephemeral restaurant open from 30 April to mid-October.
This is not a retail pop-up. It is a brand residency in an exceptional venue, whose address says everything about the intended positioning. The Shangri-La gardens, with a view of the Eiffel Tower a few hundred metres away: the venue works for the brand without any explanation needed.
MoĂ«t & Chandon announces Roger Federer during the fortnight â 2025
Moët & Chandon chose the two weeks of Roland Garros to reveal Roger Federer as their new ambassador. The announcement took place at a private event bringing together public figures and media, with tournament access included in the invitation.
The format is deliberate: rather than a press release, a lived moment in a venue, with champagne and tickets for the following day. What gets photographed and shared is the setting as much as the announcement. The venue â not publicly disclosed â is part of the strategy.
Influencer evenings on the margins of the tournament â recurring
Each year, several brands organise private evenings during the fortnight in Parisian venues chosen for their views or their character. In 2025, the Pullman Montparnasse privatised its rooftop on opening night â Eiffel Tower view, content creators invited, content published in real time.
These events do not try to replicate the stadium. They exist alongside it, in the city, during the same days. They are brand activations that use Roland Garros as context â not as stage.
What this says about Paris as an activation platform
Roland Garros concentrates, for fifteen days, a very specific population: marketing directors, specialist and generalist journalists, international buyers, content creators with sports and lifestyle audiences. They are all in the city at the same time.
A density of decision-makers, a short window
A brand that organises two well-targeted events during this window reaches in a few days the kind of profiles it would take months to gather under other conditions. And unlike official tournament partnerships, these off-site activations require no negotiation with the FFT, no imposed visibility constraints, no mandatory co-branding.
Venues that work for the brand
Paris offers something other cities do not: a density of atypical venues â Haussmann apartments, rooftops with views, hĂŽtels particuliers with gardens â available for hire for professional events, in arrondissements that carry a premium positioning on their own. The address, the light, the architectural setting: all contribute to the brand message without additional staging effort.
đŻ What Native Spaces offers for Roland Garros
Native Spaces lists off-market private venues in Paris â apartments, villas, rooftops, private mansions â available for professional events during the tournament fortnight and beyond. Press dinners, launch evenings, brand activations for select audiences: venues that do not appear in standard directories, selected for their address, their character, and their ability to create a moment that stays with people.
Availability around Roland Garros books early.