A fresh Wimbledon tradition: Followers

Wimbledon is commonly viewed through the prism of formal, traditional customs: tennis whites, pristine grass, august guests in the royal box, scant commercialism.

So how is it that this most classic of tournaments, which begins next week, is the runaway tennis leader in the most brash of mediums: social media, with more than 6 million followers across seven platforms. The French Open ranks second among the sport’s four Grand Slam tournaments, but with only half of Wimbledon’s count. The U.S. Open, which markets itself with an aggressive, in-your-face New York-style, many of the qualities that seem suited to the noise of social media, is a distant fourth.

In addition, of the seven measured platforms, Wimbledon ranks second in only one, slightly trailing the Australian Open in its number of YouTube channel subscribers. In every other category, it’s No. 1 — in some cases, by significant margins.

“We work hard to create content that celebrates Wimbledon,” said Alexandra Willis, head of digital and content at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, which owns and operates the event.

Wimbledon tries to give fans who can’t attend the feeling of being on the grounds. Photo by: GETTY IMAGES

That content, intended to have fun around the event, is vignettes often produced by sponsors, or separately by Willis’ content team, with the goal to convey the very attributes of the tournament that at first blush make it an incongruous leader in social media.

Last year, for example, Wimbledon pushed through its social media platforms a two-minute video from one of its partners about Rufus the Hawk, who scares pigeons away from the grass courts. The video, narrated in the “voice” of Rufus, went viral and to date has nearly 2 million views. Rufus even has his own Twitter persona (@RufusTheHawk), with 6,964 followers as of June 18.

Produced by tournament sponsor Stella Artois and part of a series of ads titled “Perfectionists,” the video had nothing to do with beer. Instead, it is a story about how the hawk is a “perfect” flying bird that keeps pigeons away. It ends with a hand laboriously painting the Stella Artois logo. The message: the hawk is perfect, the tournament is perfect, and the beer is perfect.

The campaign’s success led to a significant growth in the tournament’s base of social followers.

Other ads from Stella under the “Perfectionists” label have also focused on its partnership at Wimbledon, showcasing racket stingers and a trophy engraver.

While brands work with the All England Club on the creative, not all social media efforts pass muster. The club rejected a proposal from Wimbledon sponsor Evian last year.

“It just wasn’t on brand,” said Mick Desmond, the club’s chief marketing officer. “Our partners, we work with them a long time to represent what we do. We won’t run something that is just a quick commercial.”

Two macro trends specific to Wimbledon give it an edge over the other Grand Slams. First, its host broadcaster, BBC, does not allow advertisements at all during the fortnight. So sponsors are limited in their exposure and need to look for other forms of communication.

“Every sport that is on BBC is forced to be more creative,” said Carsten Thode, director of consulting at Synergy, a London-based sports marketing firm. “You have to find other creative ways of connecting with the audience.”

Also, he said, American sponsor

Sponsor Stella Artois found social media traction for itself and the venue with a feature about a hawk that keeps pigeons off the grass courts.

contracts commonly include clauses that require sponsors to spend a specific amount on traditional TV advertising. That means they generally spend less on the creative for social media.

“In terms of how rights holders use social media forms, I think we are further ahead than in America,” he said.

Nicole Jeter West, who manages the U.S. Open’s digital media efforts, said social media tracking is about more than

just the number of followers. It’s about how those followers engage, which is where the organization is seeing growth.

“Our engagement across different platforms is up 31 percent in the past year,” she said. Also, unlike the other Grand Slams, the U.S. Open has star-studded events like Arthur Ashe Kids Day and Opening Night, and the social media buzz from those spectacles

emanate outside the Open’s own platforms.

That said, West concedes that while the U.S. Open has recent guidelines for sponsors about social media, there are obligatory ads the social media team runs that are not directly tied into the event.

Of course, the U.S. Open all but revels in being overly commercial, but whether that commercialism has resulted in the Open’s current social standing among the Grand Slams is unclear.

Still, the Open has been first in other ways. It opened its first Snapchat account last year; Wimbledon will do so this week. The Open also is just starting an effort to coordinate social media messages with the top U.S. tennis players and their social media accounts.

And to be clear, the goals of the two summer Grand Slam tournaments are different when it comes to their social media efforts. For Wimbledon, Willis said, it is to give those fans who are not at the event a feel for the tournament. The new Snapchat account, for example, will encourage fans on the grounds on day one, and the last day of the Finals specifically, to post photos. Willis’ team will then aggregate and create a story from the submissions.

For the Open, West said, audience engagement is important, but the effort also aims to drive ticket sales. At Wimbledon, famous for its long “queues” to get in, that is not a consideration.