This short, Maria Sharapova fronted teaser webfilm, promotes the Wimbledon official water brand’s new tournament ticket giveaway – which is a digital hunt for pink tennis balls.
Rolled out the weekend before the championships starts, an online Evian ball boy is posting daily clues between 22 June and 25 June on Twitter and Facebook. Followers then need only follow the clues, go to the locations and ‘check in’ before he leaves to win prizes. Each day the first person to arrive receives a Sharapova signed pink tennis ball, the next 10 gets an Evian T-shirt and everyone is entered into the VIP ticket draw.
As well as the webfilm teaser, the ‘Ball Hunt’ is backed by print and online ads, promoted tweets and sponsored stories on Facebook.
This digital ball hunt is just one element of the wider campaign undertaken to bring Evian’s Wimbledon partnership to life. The brand is also running a major outdoor campaign across central London (also fronted by brand ambassador and women’s world number one Maria Sharapova), as well as exclusive behind-the-scenes footage on www.wimbledon.com, Wimbledon-themed special edition Evian bottles for sale and a parallel set of UK special offers.
For tennis fans travelling via Wimbledon and Southfields underground stations there will be an Evian free sampling programme.
Inside the Wimbledon grounds, Evian’s Live Young Suite will host celebrities and press. Inside, guests can enjoy games like table tennis and a retro tennis themed photo corner designed to bring out the inner child in everyone.
Once inside the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club’s grounds there is an ‘Evian Café’ and the brand’s ‘VIP Live Young Suite.”
The activation dovetails with the brand’s current umbrella ‘Live Young’ big idea – with Sharapova wearing an ‘Evian Baby Inside’ T-shirt – which are regular features of the brand’s current advertising creative.
Also, this year the All England Club, in partnership with agency Space, is building its own temporary Wimbledon Village on the golf course next to where consumers famously queue for hours for tickets. To help amuse and interest the fans whilst they wait, the new tennis village will have spaces for sponsors to showcase their brands and services.
Here Evian will be hosting a ‘Live Young Experience’ for the queuing tennis fans at SW19, who will be offered the chance to enter Evian’s pink shipping container, complete with a ping pong table, umpire, photo competition and strawberry and cream milkshakes.
Also in this new village there will brand activity from a number of sponsors including HSBC, Robinsons and Evian, which will serve its water in its branded area.
Comment:
This innovative multi-faceted leveraging of its rights follows Evian’s strong history of active engagement at Wimbledon. See previous case study.
Of course, it is essential that Wimbledon sponsors create tangible, dynamic campaigns that leverage their rights before, during and after the tournament. After all, the All England Club does not allow sponsor hoardings within the grounds of Wimbledon itself.
Partly in order to provide support for its sponsors (as well as enhancing the spectator and fan experience), Wimbledon itself is introducing a number of new initiatives this year.
As well as the new ‘Wimbledon Village’, the property owner has overhauled of its website (with main sponsorship from IBM) and enhanced streaming of action from the tournament.
Wimbledon doesn’t allow sponsor hoardings within the grounds of Wimbledon itself. Indeed, officially it doesn’t have sponsors but rather works with a set of 13 partners and suppliers who help deliver the tournament.
Of course, Wimbledon isn’t quite a totally ‘clean venue’, as certain partners have on-site branding opportunities such as Slazenger’s logo on its tennis balls, Robinson’s on the umpires’ chairs, Ralph Lauren on the ball boys and girls uniforms, Rolex’s branding on its scoreboard clock and IBM’s logo on the service-speed gun.
Interestingly, internally Wimbledon’s operational team compares itself to just one other global sporting event – The Masters golf tournament in Augusta. It is reported that the two organisations swap knowledge and insights and compare experiences in a relationships based upon shared values and visions.
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