Activating brand sponsorships: How to win at Wimbledon
Every summer, Wimbledon ushers in a fresh wave of excitement across the nation, and the globe. With world-class tennis, Pimm’s and the iconic strawberries and cream, there’s something for everyone. Our client OPPO briefed Eat the Fox to develop a creative and strategic response to maximise OPPO’s Wimbledon sponsorship and drive brand awareness in the UK.
As part of this, we needed to showcase OPPO’s Find X5 Pro smartphone through our activations– capable of delivering incredible low-light imagery and video, and capturing and displaying imagery in 1 billion colours.
This year’s tournament marked the first in a post-pandemic world, meaning that we could develop a grand slam of activations to put OPPO at the centre of the action, both off- and on-site at Wimbledon.
On the hunt for the next iconic colours of Wimbledon
This year marked 100 years of Wimbledon’s iconic centre court. Inspired to celebrate the centenary, we asked tennis fans across the UK to celebrate the Colours of Wimbledon.
With green, purple and white synonymous with the tournament, we called on spectators to submit vibrant photos to help find the next big colours of Wimbledon, whether it’s the red of the iconic strawberries and cream, or navy of the umpires’ uniform. We’ve got activations planned to highlight the new colour – watch this space!
Wowing at Wimbledon – off the court
To celebrate the first week of Wimbledon matches, we boosted our annual two-week takeover at London’s ‘Summer by the River’ festival at the iconic Scoop amphitheatre. We offered a public screening of the day’s games, and nearly 80,000 Londoners came out to view the tennis outside in the great British sunshine at Tower Bridge on Southbank. To maximise the sponsorship, we created a bespoke stage with OPPO x Wimbledon branding, featuring a high-def screen. For the takeover, we secured 12 pieces of coverage, including features in Secret London and Londonist.
To get the pubic to experience the OPPO Find X5 Pro smartphone, we created a ‘Selfie Serve’, allowing anyone to have their photo taken on the Find X5 Pro and printed onto ice cream. More than 1,400 people took part over three days, showcasing the phone’s incredibly tasty camera capabilities!
On top of this, we offered a sold-out VIP section for media, with the best seats in the house for influencers, analysts and OPPO’s channel partners. To further enhance the experience, we set up a bespoke astro-turfed area, complete with cloud-like OPPO branded bean bags. Guests received complimentary cocktails and a meal, ensuring they enjoyed Wimbledon matches outdoors in style. 25 media, influencers and analysts attended, including CCS Insight, Glamour, Independent and The Mirror.
As part of the takeover, OPPO’s Wimbledon tennis ads ran during a break in the tennis action, which featured rising tennis star Francesca Jones. All-in-all, the ads ran 6 times every hour, 10 hours a day, with 3,750,000 impacts delivered.
Acing activations at SW19
On site at Wimbledon, for the women and men’s finals weekend, we put on a VIP Hospitality Suite for customers, media, celebrities and influencers – delivering an ultra-premium experience. The team worked with experiential agency Create London, to bring OPPO’s Hospitality Suite to life, complete with a bespoke branded flower logo wall, product retail display and elevated branding throughout the space. Suite attendees enjoyed a bespoke Wimbledon tasting menu, and had the opportunity to speak with tennis legend Greg Rusedski.
We hosted 80 VIP guests in total, including influencers and celebrities Sam Thompson, Zara McDermott, Montana Brown, Liv Bentley, Tiffany Watson, Jim Chapman, Sarah Tarleton and Alice Living – a total reach of 8.39 million, and logging more than 50 social posts over finals weekend. The Daily Mail featured imagery of guests in OPPO’s suite as part of the publication’s ‘who’s who’ at Wimbledon piece. Media including Sky News, The Times and Wired were in attendance, too – and we set up an interview for OPPO UK & Ireland MD Charleen Fang with GQ.
Serving up the ultimate Wimbledon ace
Overall, Wimbledon 2022 was a smashing success, with the team securing 21 pieces of print and online coverage in tech, national and lifestyle media around OPPO’s Wimbledon activities, with a reach of 539M. Attendees amplified OPPO’s sponsorship further through social posts, documenting their days at Wimbledon and The Scoop, with more than 75 social posts with a total reach of 8.7 million.
With an ace under our belt, we met our KPIs and helped OPPO to maximise its sponsorship of Wimbledon, raising brand awareness. We’re very much looking forward to serving up another year of exciting activations – watch this space in 2023!
