The All England Lawn Tennis Championships, known as Wimbledon, is underway in Southwest London.
It is one of the high points of the British sporting summer season and in sponsorship terms alone it attracts an estimated €45 million, making it the most valuable tennis tournament in the world.
Over the course of the tournament, we are looking at how some of the major brands involved, from Evian to IBM and Ralph Lauren to Stella Artois are activating their partnerships in 2021.
The latest campaign this morning is that of HSBC who have been the official banking partner for over ten years, and one of the most visible brands at the tournament.
They have a bank facility on-site and customers who visit are entitled to a free serving of strawberries and cream on sight of their HSBC debit or credit card.
They also operate ‘Court 20’ where customers can play a shot or two and get to meet some of the brand ambassadors, including Tim Henman who are popping in every now and again.
In recent years they have backed the Wimbledon Foundation by matching the money raised through the Wimbledon ticket resale scheme, a total of €1.4 million and rising.
This year’s operation of that scheme has not been possible due to Covid but the bank has stepped in to give the money that would have been going to a number of tennis-themed charities.
In a digital context, they sponsor the ‘Plays of the Day online content produced by Wimbledon. The branding is subtle though, only coming at the end.
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