Usama Al-Qassab, The All England Club’s marketing and commercial director, leads the charge for the 158-year-old brand’s growth – and it’s clear to see it’s as ambitious as ever.
“This is a challenge we constantly wrestle with, balancing heritage and innovation is key to brand relevance, perhaps the most crucial measure of future growth and ongoing success,” he says. “Wimbledon is considered in what it does and why, data-driven in decision making, researching with a myriad of guest segments, and this helps us make informed choices that are effective and efficient.”
Tradition with a twist
Al-Qassab’s career is one that sees Wimbledon as his first sporting venture, but is no stranger to the world of marketing.
After starting out at Creative Review, he joined Proctor & Gamble, which he describes as “the best Marketing training ground in the world within brand management”, where he undertook a variety of roles internationally and domestically in brand and digital. He then went on to become Playstation’s regional VP marketing, and Disney’s VP marketing EMEA.
Growing a brand that already has a recognisable global identity is something he isn’t a stranger to.
“It is tough to have a single campaign for a global brand with such a broad demographic and guest segmentation,” he explains. “Thankfully we have constants that are instantly recognisable, allowing us to focus on the tennis and our unique sense of place in this year’s campaign.”
Where Beauty Meets The Battle, by its creative agency of record VCCP, celebrates the representation of Wimbledon being “the pinnacle of the sport and tennis in an English garden”, with a butterfly at centrestage.
“Our butterfly represents both the grounds and their beauty, and by proxy our traditions, and is pitted against the battle we see on the court, with players pushing themselves further than ever before to conquer their opponents and make their dreams a reality.”
Despite adorning a new creative look for this year’s Championships, Al-Qassab notes that consistency within work and brand architecture tends to be received much greater by consumers.
Its brief to VCCP, he says, was for an “overarching campaign that would work for several years”.
He continues, “Wimbledon across all brand metrics remains at the pinnacle of tennis and sport and is distinctive from our beautifully manicured courts to all white playing uniforms to the extreme effort that players are willing to push through in order to win the most prized competition in annual summer sport.
This year’s campaign focused on the players, highlighting grace and poise, balance, power, effort, and the guts required to win – engaging for Wimbledon fans of old and new whilst creating a FOMO for those who have never watched before. The data we have on this year’s broadcast growth and global engagement is showing we delivered on those objectives and much more.”
Guardian of an iconic brand
The AELTC’s growth metrics from 2026 alone are staggering; UK +9 per cent, US +17 per cent, India +19 per cent, Germany +14 per cent, Japan +40 per cent.
Despite its continual brand-building quest, how, as a marketer do you grow one of the most respected brands in sport while keeping its timeless heritage at the forefront?
“You can’t please everyone, and don’t try to,” Al-Qassab says pragmatically. “It is far better to have a campaign that the vast majority loves and a select few dislike than work that stirs no emotion and is forgettable.
“Mediocrity is the enemy of good work and brave decision-making is needed to not pick the comfortable ‘banker’ route that is average.”
He admits that Wimbledon is always looking for innovative ideas from its agencies, that focus on bigger, better, and fewer deliverables. IBM – its Official Technology Partner since 2018 – has been on a journey with the brand as technology continues to evolve tennis’ traditions.