21 days before the first ball is served at Wimbledon 2019, the All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC) launched a new campaign, called #JoinTheStory, which aims to show how the world’s most famous tennis tournament and the world’s key news events are entwined.
The brief behind the work is to further build global engagement and cultural relevance for the 142-year-old tournament.
Beginning back at the start of the Wimbledon Championships in 1877, just a year after the game of lawn tennis was devised, and right through its 142 year history this campaign takes a trip through time pairing tense finals and great champions with iconic news events in history.
The campaign, created by McCann London, sets out to showcase Wimbledon’s status as the oldest tennis tournament in the world and its significance alongside the biggest stories of recent world history to show how sport and society have an interlinked history.
#JoinTheStory showcases Wimbledon moments throughout time and juxtaposes paired tournament and significant news events: Amelia Earhart became the first female aviator to fly solo across the Atlantic Ocean in the same year as Althea Gibson became the first black woman to win Wimbledon, while at the same time Roger Federer first lifted the trophy the human genome was documented and in the same year that the first man landed on the moon, Billie Jean King lead the struggle for equality in tennis.
The campaign is spearheaded by a hero fim called ‘The Story Continues’ which pairs the tennis/historical events to the tune of an orchestral cover version of Oasis’ ‘Live Forever’
The spot will run on both TV and online during the three-week build-up to Wimbledon, while the championships’ broadcast rights holders, the BBC, is also being encouraged to show the film.
The hero video is supported by an AELTC mini-series produced by Livewire Sport that showcases five of the stories referenced in the trailer.
These podcasts continue the theme by exploring the cultural relevance of certain Wimbledon champions to world events: from Borg and McEnroe in 1980, to the outspoken Andy Murray winning in 2016 (the year of the EU Referendum).
The podcasts will be distributed by Wimbledon’s own channels from 24 June.
A social media campaign strand continues the #JointheStory initiative and encourages people to share their experiences and memories of Wimbledon.
“The story of Wimbledon began in 1877 and we’ve been making headlines ever since. Each tournament creates new heroes and new stories; while our greatest moments have shared the front page with two world wars, the moon landings and the invention of the Internet,” explained AELTC head of commercial and brand James Ralley.
“This global campaign truly celebrates Wimbledon’s ongoing role at the forefront of world news and events.”
Other marketing strands from the AELTC for 2019 will also include outdoor and ambient advertising in the local London SW19 area to target visitors, media and local stakeholders.
An additional, inventive activation strand ahead of the 2019 Championships sees some of the tournament’s most iconic matches brought to life through a series of ‘Wimbledon Rematch’ experiential events.
Inspired by Secret Cinema and promoted by PR agency Boom, this initiative takes fans back to 80s for immersive cinema screening of epic Björn Borg and John McEnroe final that blends sport, theatre and cinema and ‘where the on-court drama between ice-cool Swede Borg and American super-brat McEnroe will be re-lived’.
This marketing phase sees the tennis club aim to engage younger audiences and encourage those who had never been to Wimbledon to fall in love with the championships.
It take place in the new ‘Troubadour Wembley Park Theatre’ and tennis fans/cinema goers will be asked to dress in appropriate 80s clothing for the event.
Punters will enter in to a room with live actors playing TV reporters, players and paparazzi, projections of archive images and films, plus period props.
Half of the space will be dedicated to Wimbledon: complete with a commentary box, press conference zone and umpire’s chair, as well as SW19’s famous green benches and ivy-decked walls.
Plus, underneath a Wimbledon clock from the time there will be a long bar decorated with key 80s players, such as the year’s women’s finalists Evonne Goolagong-Cawley, the first mother to win the competition, and Chris Evert.
The other half of the space will be dedicated to the era: a living room playing VHS footage detailing 80s history, a video games arcade and jukeboxes.
After about an hour of exploring, fans will proceed through to “Centre Court” where they will watch a recreation of Borg’s battle with McEnroe.
There will be five showing of core 90-minute performance (between 28 and 30 June with tickets priced at £49.50) and it will be a blend of theatre and film and will “re-tell the story of the match and its drama”.
Promoted through a lead video and supporting online content
Will you go for a McEnroe wig or a classic Borg polo?
Either way, it's time to travel back to 1980 and relive a truly classic Championships with #WimbledonRematch
Tickets are on sale now for this first of its kind, immersive live experience: https://t.co/VtPkIuk79y pic.twitter.com/bXml4NZ3pI
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) May 21, 2019
‘Wimbledon Rematch’ 1980 was created in partnership between the All England Lawn Tennis Club and events business Rematch and for further details see https://www.rematchlive.com/.
“We recognise that we can’t welcome everyone into our grounds, so we wanted to provide an alternative opportunity to engage with Wimbledon — and hopefully fall in love with it,” said AELTC head of communication and digital Alexandra Willis.
“The folklore around the rivalry between Borg and McEnroe doesn’t need introduction in tennis circles, but for modern-day fans it’s a throwback to the days when an ice-cool Swede held off an American super-brat. Not only did they bring drama on the court, off the court they had their own fan bases. They were icons of the time.”
The #JoinTheStory campaign was created for Wimbledon’s Brand and Manager Harry Kerr, Head of Marketing and Commercial James Ralley, Commercial and Media Director Mick Desmond and Head of Communications, Content and Digital Alexandra Willis by McCann team.
The agency unit was led by Chief Creative Officers Rob Doubal and Laurence Thomson and Creative Directors Rob Webster and Alexei Berwitz and included Senior Creatives Matt Searle and Olly Wood, Business Director Tommy Smith, Account Manager Alice Lindsay, Project Director Daniela Loccisano, Chief Strategy Officer Theo Izzard-Brown, Planner Emily Ellis, Executive Producer Jonathan Davis, Agency Producer Anna Cartwright, Head of Art Dan Howarth, Designer Matthew Thomas and Head of Business Affairs Molly Strasser.
The animation studio was Blinkink, with Director Elliot Dear, Executive Producer Bart Yates, Producer Georgina Fillmore, Production Coordinator Maryam Anibaba, Directory of Photography Max Halstead, Art Director Sean Hogan, Wardrobe Zelda Sellars and Post-Production Comp Lead Sean Martin, Compositors Emre Samioğlu, John Wilkinson Dan Ruiz, plus 3D Lead Quentin Vien and 3D Team Members Sandrine Gimenez, Lisa George-Gilroy, Sophie Blayrat, Klaas-Harm de Boer, Florent Rousseau and Mark Ardisson, with Matte Painter Metin Gungor, Editor Christina Conradi, Titles and Motion Graphics by Roland Lukacsi, Stock Source and Image Rights through Jody Winterbottom @ The Directors Studio, as well as News Researcher and Writer Rebekah Lucking.
The Sound Engineer was Jack Sedgwick @ Wave, the Sound Producers Beth Tomlin and Matt Wyatt, music was Live Forever composed by Noel Gallagher and published by Sony/ATV Music Publishing Ltd, arranged by Fred Ashworth with the master recording owned by Native Music Supervision Ltd.
The campaign launch was timed to leverage the end of Rolland Garros and the clay season and the start of the grass court swing.
The road to The Championships 2019 begins today
Lining up for week 1 in the grass court season…#Wimbledon pic.twitter.com/bsUzx0TVYm
— Wimbledon (@Wimbledon) June 10, 2019
This year’s Wimbledon Championships runs from 1 to 14 July.
Comment:
The scale and ambition of this campaign is to be admired (and retro – from nostalgia to old school gaming – is certainly on trend).
And we’ve certainly never seen an immersive theatrical sports cinema experience quite like ‘Wimbledon Revisited’ before – a first of its kind surely.
But while it certainly succeeds in driving home a message about Wimbledon’s lengthy heritage, we aren’t quite sure what to make of the idea of comparing tennis triumphs with some of the greatest feats of human endeavour ever take place.
Building on its campaigns from the last few years – such as 2017’s ‘A Year in the Making’ (see case study) and 2018’s ‘Take on History’ (see case study).
The latest work again reflects the AELTC strategy of trying to reinvent Wimbledon for the digital age, while still retaining the traditional heritage and values.
Links:
Wimbledon / AELTC
https://www.youtube.com/user/Wimbledon
https://www.facebook.com/wimbledon
https://www.instagram.com/wimbledon/
McCann
Livewire Sport
Boom
Leave a comment
You must be logged in to post a comment.