Usama Al-Qassab, The All England Club\u2019s marketing and commercial director, leads the charge for the 158-year-old brand\u2019s growth \u2013 and it\u2019s clear to see it’s as ambitious as ever.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis 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,\u201d he says. \u201cWimbledon 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tradition with a twist<\/p>\n
Al-Qassab\u2019s career is one that sees Wimbledon as his first sporting venture, but is no stranger to the world of marketing. <\/p>\n
After starting out at Creative Review, he joined Proctor & Gamble, which he describes as \u201cthe best Marketing training ground in the world within brand management\u201d, where he undertook a variety of roles internationally and domestically in brand and digital. He then went on to become Playstation\u2019s regional VP marketing, and Disney\u2019s VP marketing EMEA.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Growing a brand that already has a recognisable global identity is something he isn\u2019t a stranger to.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is tough to have a single campaign for a global brand with such a broad demographic and guest segmentation,\u201d he explains. \u201cThankfully we have constants that are instantly recognisable, allowing us to focus on the tennis and our unique sense of place in this year\u2019s campaign.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where Beauty Meets The Battle, by its creative agency of record VCCP, celebrates the representation of Wimbledon being \u201cthe pinnacle of the sport and tennis in an English garden\u201d, with a butterfly at centrestage.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOur 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite adorning a new creative look for this year\u2019s Championships, Al-Qassab notes that consistency within work and brand architecture tends to be received much greater by consumers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Its brief to VCCP, he says, was for an \u201coverarching campaign that would work for several years\u201d.\u00a0<\/p>\n
He continues, \u201cWimbledon 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.<\/p>\n
This year’s campaign focused on the players, highlighting grace and poise, balance, power, effort, and the guts required to win \u2013 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\u2019s broadcast growth and global engagement is showing we delivered on those objectives and much more.\u201d<\/p>\n
Guardian of an iconic brand<\/p>\n
The AELTC\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n
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?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cYou can\u2019t please everyone, and don\u2019t try to,\u201d Al-Qassab says pragmatically. \u201cIt 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.<\/p>\n
\u201cMediocrity is the enemy of good work and brave decision-making is needed to not pick the comfortable \u2018banker\u2019 route that is average.\u201d<\/p>\n
He admits that Wimbledon is always looking for innovative ideas from its agencies, that focus on bigger, better, and fewer deliverables. IBM \u2013 its Official Technology Partner since 2018 \u2013 has been on a journey with the brand as technology continues to evolve tennis\u2019 traditions.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Usama Al-Qassab, The All England Club\u2019s marketing and commercial director, leads the charge for the 158-year-old brand\u2019s growth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":628072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[111,139,69,145],"class_list":["post-628071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-new-zealand","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=628071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/628071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/628072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=628071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=628071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=628071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}