The green green grass of home

It's that time of year again and I love it. Players in their whites, beautifully manicured grass courts, Pimms & lemonade, strawberries & cream, and wall-to-wall coverage on the BBC. Wimbledon is upon us again. An institution, the mecca of tennis tournaments, unique is so many ways. Ever since Mark McCormack, the Godfather of sportsmarketing, offered his services to the All England Club in the mid-sixties, the event has generated annual profits in the region of £25 million to £30 million, whilst sticking steadfastly to its traditions and principles. Not easy, I can tell you!!

So how do they do it? Wimbledon’s TV rights are their major source of income, with around 12,000 hours of coverage being beamed into almost 200 countries. In 2009, the cumulative TV audience reached 380 million. That’s a lot of hours, a lot of countries and a lot of people. Its not quite the World Cup or the Olympic Games but it is up there as one of the world’s most viewed sports events. Next to that, you have the ticketing (and the queues), the hospitality (which ranks amongst the most expensive in the world), the merchandising adorned with the famous Wimbledon logo and of course the sponsors.

What is remarkable is the lack of visible sponsorship and how they maintain a sports event the way they were before sponsorship was a part of our lives. When you visit the tournament, you have to look really hard to find a sponsor, when you watch it on TV, it is very hard to identify any sponsors. And yet they are there, but most of are there fulfilling important jobs that have real relevance to their core business that they don’t jump out at you in the way that some sponsors do. Rolex is the official time keeper and their logo appears on the scoreboard on most courts. Logical. Ralph Lauren dresses the ball boys and officials in a very stylish, discrete way. Logical. Evian is the official drink of the championship and player drink their water between and after matches. Logical. Slazenger provides 52,000 balls every tournament and you will see their logo discretely placed on the court backdrops as you would in any tennis club. They have been a partner since 1902! Surely one of the longest sponsorship deals in history. Again, it’s logical.

Like Slazenger, many of these partnerships, have been in place for years. They are logical extensions of their brands. Sponsorship is about association, it’s about your brand in action, it’s about adding value to the lives of the fans, spectators, viewers...... If you find that “logical” association between your commercial brand and a rights holder’s brand, then you will have a winning sponsorship formula.

Game, Set and Match!