Roddick - American marketing's dream boy

He might be just a blond, sort-of-cute tennis player with a big serve, to you, but then what would you know?

You see a crushing forehand, we see a snug demographic fit. You see a big, slightly one-dimensional game, we see "a fitness and lifestyle icon".

You see a backwards cap, an easy smile and the Stars and Stripes after a Davis Cup victory. We see vertical, and horizontal integration with our other assets, which are many and may some day approach profitability, although that is not what this is about.

You see 19-year-old Andy Roddick, Wimbledon's 12th seed, the world's 14th-ranked player. We see Andy Roddick, sports marketing experiment.

Andy Roddick, you see, is our Frankenstein. With him, we may just revive tennis to something other than the fortnightly fixation of the Grand Slams. We won't just sell Andy to endorsers, we will sell us as well. If this thing works, we'll make sure you won't be able to have one without the other.

First, let us introduce ourselves. We are Clear Channel. We are from San Antonio, Texas. We operate 1,200 radio stations across the United States. We are, in the words of an internet author "the primary conduit through which Americans are exposed to popular music".

We also own a company called SFX, named after its founder, a guy from the Bronx called Robert F X Sillerman. Sillerman made $250 million in the mid-90s from his share of the sale of a lot of radio stations. With that money, he built a sports management company from pre-assembled parts. He paid $250m over 15 months for the companies who look after Michael Jordan, Kobe Bryant, David Beckham, Greg Norman, and a few thousand others. Then, in February, 2000, he sold SFX to us for $4.4bn, which included the $1.1bn debt he had taken on to buy those companies in the first place. Isn't America a wonderful country?

So now we have 1,200 radio stations, 19 (soon to be 37) TV stations and 770,000 billboards. And Andy Roddick.

Here is Josh Schwartz, the director of talent marketing in the SFX tennis group. "What we want to do is go out to companies on Andy's behalf and package media buys within endorsement agreements. This would not only provide Andy with more exposure, but also make it easier for a company to say we can do promotions and advertising through Clear Channel."

We like to think of Andy and his career as a blank canvas, upon which our marketing artistry can be expressed. Of course, one day we would like to conquer the world with Andy. For now, we will settle for bite-size pieces of it. Reebok, whose tennis clothes are worn by Andy, see him reaching out to "a younger, fashion-forward consumer".

Schwartz brought back these impressions from last year's US Open. "He has an audience that's wide-ranging. It's a bit of 14 to 18-year-old girls and 18 to 24-year-old males, they think he's cool. The hardcore tennis fans are interested because they're waiting for him to do something great. They were on the edge of their seats to see if he could hit a 143mph serve."

Those age groups tell us that Andy is gold. Every advertiser wants to speak to that audience and win its loyalty before its tastes are set. Here is someone whose voice will carry. Words have a powerful impact. So we describe Andy as "cool and hip, but not edgy". Edgy is for snowboarders. It scares advertisers. "Despite what people might say, he's not an angry young kid. He's not a Limp Bizkit or Korn [these are musical groups] type, but he's hip and he's cool. There's a distinction."

In fact, we think Andy might be a throwback – there's a strategy! – to 20 years ago. Schwartz again: "There's a really great opportunity to build a foundation, to use Andy to elevate the game to where it was in the early 80s – McEnroe, Connors, Lendl – all of those personalities the people want to go and see."

So there's our guy; a young, cool, hip, handsome, fitness, lifestyle, cross-demographic icon. Don't you love him?