Playing Favorites

We value every project we conduct here at The Taylor Group, but I suspect that everyone has their one or two favorite projects, or favorite clients.

Some like our consumer electronics projects because they're facinated with the latest gadgets. Some enjoy our media and entertainment work because they watch the very TV shows we research. Others really get into our pharmaceutical-industry work because . . . well, you get the point.

My choice is the research we do for the United States Tennis Association. It has been almost three decades since I learned to play tennis, and I still play, though not that well much of the time, but as regularly as possible. And even though Comcast appears ready to move NFL Network from my Sports Pack to the Digital Classic level of service, I'll still keep the Sports Pack because where else but The Tennis Channel are you going to find 14 hours of tennis a day from Doha or Monte Carlo or Shanghai?

And as a fan, it was gratifying to see our work cited in the June issue of Tennis magazine.

The article referenced our annual research for the USTA that measures the level of tennis participation and tracks participation changes from year to year nationally. It noted that in 2008 U.S. tennis participation grew to nearly 27 million, the highest number recorded during the last 15 years.

That's great news for tennis, and I am already looking forward to what the 2009 study will show.