It’s a bumper summer of sport this year headlined by two huge sporting events, Euro 2024, and the Paris Olympics. However, let’s not forget the annual highlight of the tennis calendar, Wimbledon. As the tournament unfolds over the next two weeks, Luscid’s Chief Strategy Officer, Damien Gillman, analyses the value this prestigious event holds for brand partners, by giving a data-driven run-through of where the Luscid platform places the event including brand values.
Wimbledon is the most prestigious tennis tournament globally, with 128 players entering last year’s (2023) event, in both Men and Ladies’ singles competitions. The championship welcomed 532,651 visitors in 2023, an increase of 13% compared to 2017, not to mention the broadcasting volume of viewers watching at home. The event attracts a significantly high audience, which is an undeniable fact, however, brands must carefully select sponsorships that align with their target audiences and core values. This strategic approach ensures more effective and authentic marketing partnerships, on any scale.
Competitor Levelling up via Luscid’s Global Impact Index
We generated a personalised Luscid report to find out where this prestigious event sits within our platform, on a brand value level, and compared it to other tennis events across the year.
Through Luscid’s proprietary Global Impact Index, combining digital metrics including search and social data, Wimbledon ranks as the number one top event on the tennis calendar. The index score of 849.2 indicates that it has 8.5 times more global impact, than the average among our database of over 9,000 sporting properties. This places it comfortably above the US Open which scores: 660.2, and Roland Garros which is a shade behind at 553.5. This confirms the potential that exists for brands to drive mass awareness across a range of target audiences.
Effective sponsorships aren’t just about reaching a wide audience, they’re about creating long-lasting impact. While visibility is important, smart sponsors aim for something more valuable: deep brand engagement that drives customer conversion and ensures a positive Return on Investment (ROI). The key to this engagement lies in the harmony between a brand’s core message and the tournament’s intrinsic values. When these align, it creates a powerful connection that resonates with fans and potential customers alike, turning viewers into loyal supporters.
Innovation at the heart of The Championships at Wimbledon
Since the 1990’s there have been several long-standing brands that are central to Wimbledon’s sponsorship portfolio, however, in the last 5 years, Luscid’s commercial data has identified nearly $50m incremental annual investment arriving, via the likes of:
On the face of it, these are brands with progressive and future-facing values at the heart of their messaging. Can Wimbledon facilitate modern brand engagement while maintaining its traditional values?
Through studying the greatest uplifts in brand values over the years, we have seen growth in a few relevant values; which is likely to be a combination of the changing face of the tournament, alongside the impact that these brands’ activation programmes will be having:
- Data-driven: plus 67 points since 2019
- Technology: plus 78 points since 2019
- Innovation: plus 64 points since 2019
The tournament has managed to retain hold of its core association with the likes of tradition, quality, luxury and premium. They have also harnessed the power of innovation such as technology to provide a relevant space for a new suite of brand partners.
Proving engagement potential via Luscid’s Brand Value Index
In sponsorships, brand values are crucial, guiding companies towards partnerships that authentically reflect their principles and resonate with their audience. Luscid’s bespoke platform streamlines this process, matching brands with companies sharing similar values. Wimbledon, with its pillars of Heritage, Integrity, Respect and Excellence, attracts forward-thinking brands seeking impactful sponsorship strategies. Aligning with Wimbledon’s ethos, these brands create partnerships that go far beyond visibility, delivering genuine meaning and lasting impact.
Our proprietary data methodology leverages both social and search data to highlight positive sentiment conversation, alongside the consumer appetite to engage, across a selection of nearly 100 brand values. We have leveraged our technology to remove the guesswork and assumption from one of the most presumptive elements of marketing. Below is a consolidated list of Wimbledon’s top 10 ranked brand values, which in a lot of ways, do sit within the playbook for what they stand for:
- 6.26 times more positively aligned than the average sporting property (relates to Tradition).
The fabled history of the event comes out strongly in this scorecard. Wimbledon has a strong list of long-term partners such as IBM (1990), Champagne Lanson (2001), Ralph Lauren (2006), and Jaguar Land Rover (2015). Alignment between the list above, and the values that these brands will be seeking to amplify, instantly stands out:
Wimbledon offers brands a trusted platform to reinforce their industry standing with target customers. Recently, the tournament has diversified its partner portfolio, attracting brands seeking a more modern positioning, as seen above.
Work to be done to enhance CSR values
Alongside the future-facing side of technology, many of these latest brand partners will likely be looking for a developing association with progressive CSR values. When compared against the average seen in the world of sport, the headline is one of improvement, but with more still to be done.
- Diversity and Equality: 83.4 (plus 23 points since 2019)
- Sustainability: 71 (plus 18 points since 2019)
To provide some context to this, it’s interesting to view the example of Formula 1 – a property that has displayed similar historic values but has made a huge CSR push in recent years.
- Diversity and Equality: 111.9 (plus 61 points since 2019)
- Sustainability: 105.4 (plus 34 points since 2019)
Sports sponsorship can offer brands a powerful platform to engage their customers on a much more emotive and engaging level. Selection of the right sponsorship asset is key to achieving this, and via the Luscid platform, this is not a task that needs to be left to guesswork or assumption.
To learn more about how Luscid can enhance your sponsorship strategy visit our website, here.
The Luscid Key
The Luscid Brand Value Index measures positive sentiment conversation in relation to chosen brand values. We identify keyword groupings in line with each value, before measuring the proportion of mentions for chosen property as an index against the average of 9,000 properties within our database.
