Bringing Digital to Wimbledon

Issues

What role should communication process play in enhancing Wimbledon Brand Value?

How should Wills use technology – digital media – to expand its market in terms of Wimbledon fans in areas outside traditional base and remain competitive in a global sport market that is aggressive?

Analysis

Wimbledon as a brand has in the past experienced a lot of growth which was aided by the unique grass courts that defined the Championship as being different from other tennis tournaments such as Australian and US open. The improvement on the image has been buoyed by a focus on brand building rather than maximizing on the audience of the Wimbledon tournament. However despite the success of the brand in UK especially for the men’s tournament, there has been sluggish growth both in terms of participants and audience in other major areas in the world especially such as United States.  This is evident in the lack of a title contender for the men’s tournament.  The brand has also been attracting few sponsors as compared to other global tournaments which use ground courts and are more focused on the audience and increase in revenue. The sponsors attracted by the brand have only limited their support to advertisements that shows their sponsorship and this has not helped in wider engagement and hence improvement on the brand. Creation of value for the brand is a major issue, given the unconventional model of this tournament

 The use of the digital media has been unmatched by any other form of digital marketing even in large market such as United States.  There is a need to expand the fan base for Wimbledon beyond the traditional UK, Australia and Japan to areas such as India, China and Southeast Asia. The engagement resulting from the use of digital media has not yielded the desired results and this is made difficult by the fact that some elements of Wimbledon Brand are not compatible with use of aggressive commercialization. AELTC still depends on broadcast revenues for the major part of its income which indicates that engagement from digital –led content has not been effective in improving the market share of this tournament. While other major markets are improving their fan base around the world, Wimbledon faces the risk of being left behind if the digital content –led campaign do not build the desired engagement to increase the fan base. Remaining competitive in a sport market that is increasingly aggressive is a major issue for Wimbledon Tournament.  For Wimbledon to remain at par with growth of other major sports in terms of market share it, the digital content has do deliver.

Recommendations

 For the communication process to enhance the brand value, the appropriate engagement will have to be achieved. Willis should adopt a communication strategy that focuses on the major stakeholders including the participants, fans and sponsors and which engages individuals. All the communication channels should share a common message that highlights the quality and value of grass court tournament and engage these individuals directly. Once an organization has created an effective brand, its implementation should involve consistent point of contact with the target market (Holtzhausen & Zerfass, 2014).

For the digital media to improve competitiveness of Wimbledon Tournament and its fan base, it has to create enthusiasm and excitement through specifying the personal elements such as talent and victory and doing so though original content. This includes showcasing high-profile players, shining spotlights on fans especially true diehards.  Digital media provides way for organizations to have direct contact with customers by building a strong relationship with a brand and unrivaled audience engagement (Kaufmann, 2015).

References

Holtzhausen, D., & Zerfass, A. (Eds.). (2014). The Routledge handbook of strategic communication. Routledge. 542

 

Kaufmann, H.-R. (2015). Handbook of research on managing and influencing consumer behavior.17