Are you watching the tennis and waiting for the semi finals on Friday with bated breath? Are you keeping up with all the celebrity related Wimbledon news, or are you more interested in whether sisters Venus and Serena Williams will play each other in the final? Or does the most prestigious tennis Grand Slam in the world leave you cold? From an event manager’s perspective it’s a fantastic study in branding and
experiential event management.
From the branding angle it’s all about the old when it comes to Wimbledon. First hosted by the
All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet club back in 1877, the history of the tournament is a key ingredient for why it’s widely regarded as the most prestigious to win. From small details like players still facing strict rules about wearing whites to encouraging grand nostalgia about British summers and strawberries and cream, maintaining the brand is key to Wimbledon’s success.
Keeping up with the times
The challenge though, is to keep the event up to date while maintaining the brand. Event goers have more money to spend and expect more than ever before. No matter how much history your brand has, if you give them a poor experience your customers will get bored and complain about you endlessly on social media or worse, go elsewhere next year.
So imagine it’s your job to create the perfect attendee experience. Manage an event that lives up to the sporting hype and delivers a great show and amazing atmosphere for ticket holders and the PR and return on investment that sponsors are expecting to see. What would you do, how would you innovate to keep raising the bar year after year?
Immersive experiences and technology
An obvious answer is to look at the technology available and as experiential marketing comes of age, we’re seeing smarter use of mobile technology to build truly interactive experiences across the events industry. You may think the event is only about watching the tennis, but think of all the other ways you could help fans can get involved in the thrill of the matches whether they are at the event or even from home …
Using social media to extend the reach of an event is an obvious one, but what about creating an app to let fans simulate playing tennis with their favourite (or least favourite!) player, with live scoreboards for the simulations including updates to social media? Other sporting events are making use of RFID (radio frequency identification) to track movement of participants using a wristband and allow them to interact seamlessly with digital services. How about being able to tap your wrist band to send a message of support to your favourite player via a live message board at the event?
Staying true to the brand and what attendees want
Whether you’ve got an amazing history and brand like Wimbledon to build on, or if you’re working hard to establish a new sporting event, you need to keep coming back to creating a fantastic experience. Get those who’ve paid for tickets fully immersed in the thrill of the event and suck those watching at home into participating even though they’re not in the thick of it.
Smart event mangers will stay on top of the latest technology trends to bring new thinking as well as knowing the value of spot on branding, excellent sponsorship management and having the right suppliers in place. If you’re looking to learn from scratch, have a look at our
postgraduate or
diploma courses which give you all you need to launch your career in events and include a module on ‘Sports, Hospitality and Sponsorship’. If you’re looking to brush up your skills in specific areas why not have a look at our
masterclass courses? 
