The ‘unofficial’ issue with sports sponsorship
In this guest post, Shabaz Hussain wonders what a posh British drink’s surprise social media win at Wimbledon says about sports sponsorship for brands.
According to a recent Brand Intelligence Report from Amobee the brand most associated with The Championships at Wimbledon in 2015 across social and digital is Pimm’s – a traditional cocktail drink that spectators enjoy at the event.
What makes this more interesting is that fact that they were not an official sponsor of The Championships.
Wimbledon is a classic old-school high profile Tennis Championship that keeps its values (and commercials) firmly rooted in tradition; wearing all white, no play on Sunday, and no court branding. As a ‘clean’ venue, similar to The Olympics there are significant impacts on how sponsors approach their sponsorships and activations.
Pimm’s (and lemonade) is the quintessential English summer drink and has been consumed in great quantities at Wimbledon and Henley Regatta (the two quintessentially English summer sporting events) since time immemorial.
If not the No. 1 brand (pun intended), it would be in the top 3 or 4 automatically exactly because of it’s long-standing presence – it has become part of the tradition, part of what makes Wimbledon, Wimbledon.
Wimbledon is one of the world’s few premier sporting events that doesn’t allow itself to be emblazoned with garish banners and logos. The US Masters is another. In the 1970s, during the early days of professional tennis, Wimbledon’s “commercial” interests (as indeed were the US Masters) were represented by the late Mark McCormack of IMG, and he negotiated a series deals of interlocking long-term interests with amongst others, Rolex (official time partner) and Slazenger (official balls). The closing of the Rolex deal is described brilliantly in his book “What they don’t teach you at Harvard Business School” – less “show me the money”, and more “feel the loyalty”.
As Shabaz’ article intimates, that long-term partner brand loyalty still exists even in this logo-infested, experiential-sodden, digital app crazed world, 38 years later.
Long may it continue.