Traditional Wimbledon Advertising is Still a Winner!
Wimbledon 2015 has definitely been a glorious one and from the looks of the BBC, there wasn’t one single purple and green umbrella on show well right up until Sunday; typical finals weather… This meant two things: lots of Pimms and of course, even more of Wimbledon’s famous strawberries and cream in the sun!
Centre court has brought lots of entertainment around the world over the last two weeks, and the lawn tennis tournament is seen on TV in many parts of the world and as such, attracts top corporate sponsors. This year’s sponsorships have included the usual, such as Rolex, who have had the official time keep of the tournament since 1978. 2015 brought an exciting new sponsor, Jaguar, who has launched partnership with the Championships as the official car brand. There were also no fears of dehydration for 2015, with Robinson’s still having its large presence as it has since 1934! They celebrate 80 years at Wimbledon with the hashtag “#playthirsty”. On a different type of hydration front, Lanson still remain as the official champagne supplier; we love their tennis ball champagne jacket a great example of how to combine sponsorship of an event with your consumer marketing, they have been using the hashtag “#ThePerfectServe”.
After having so many brands sponsoring the event, Wimbledon still does not allow sponsorship signage anywhere across the club’s 14 acres including Centre Court. It’s still seen that Wimbledon maintains a traditional approach, keeping the game first and the advertising second!
This year Serena Williams defeated Garbine Muguuza in the women’s final and Novak Djokovic beat Roger Federer for his this third title! The match was thrilling and a tiebreaker in the second set showcased world class tennis at a new level! Murray’s Wimbledon final drew the highest UK TV audience back in 2013 where 17.3 million Viewers watched the Wimbledon final against Novak Djokovic. British tennis hero Murray and big sponsors are also seen to attract the large audiences through the BBC, highlighting the importance behind players and what they bring to Wimbledon and the BBC.
This year Wimbledon 2Day, the BBC’s new highlights show, has been heavily criticised for ‘dumbing down’ coverage, but more people are watching than last year, with a peak audience of 1.6 million a day, we can’t really agree with the critic’s here. 2015 also brought some other exciting catches – with many celebrities and royal’s attending Wimbledon. Our very own former England captain David Beckham wows Wimbledon’s crowd after catching a tennis ball in graceful style with one hand. The applause in the crowd, goes to show the UK still has a soft spot for Beckham.
Wimbledon is still seen as the main major out of the 4 Grand Slam Tournaments, so why are they still keeping their advertising so traditional opposed to soaking up lots of new brands and excitement across their acres?
With world class celebrities, royals and top sportsman attending year after year the brands such as IBM who sponsor the speedometer and manage the data and records, keep their sponsorship deals tight because it’s so hard to sponsor elsewhere on the grounds. Realistically would Wimbledon really feel the same to all us Brit’s without the Rolex clock outside centre court and the Robinson’s squash advert creeping upon us – course not! Crowds love the consistency Wimbledon brings to the UK as we wait to see what our favourite Wimbledon brands bring to the tournament year after year!
Tags: advertising, brand, sponsorship, Sports Marketing, wimbledon