Wimbledon Eyes India Market: Courts Cricket Fans in Strategic Expansion Play

New Delhi: The All England Lawn Tennis Club (AELTC), organizers of the prestigious Wimbledon Championships, are strategically targeting the Indian market, leveraging the nation's passion for cricket to expand its global footprint. Prominent Indian cricketers such as Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Dinesh Karthik, and Sachin Tendulkar have been frequent attendees at the iconic tournament, signaling a deliberate effort to connect with the Indian audience.

Rohit Sharma's photograph on Wimbledon's Instagram account garnered a record-breaking 4.5 million likes, highlighting the potential for engagement within the Indian market.

AELTC Chief Executive Sally Bolton has identified India and the US as key markets for expansion. Brendan Dinen, Head of Marketing at Wimbledon, emphasized the importance of collaboration rather than competition with cricket, acknowledging its dominant position in the Indian sporting landscape.

"Cricket is much loved and certainly king for Indian audiences. So rather than trying to compete with that, I think it's about trying to find interesting ways to collaborate," Dinen told TimesofIndia.com. "Both sports are rich in heritage. England and India Test matches are happening now. So I think there's interesting ways to be able to bring that to life for audiences, so that they might want to come and watch it as well."

Wimbledon is actively pursuing innovative strategies to engage the Indian audience:

• Social Media Engagement: Partnering with Indian social media influencers to provide exclusive behind-the-scenes content.
• Cross-Promotion: Collaborating with broadcast partner Star Sports to create tennis-cricket crossover trailers, maximizing exposure during the popular Indian Premier League (IPL).

Despite its global prestige, Wimbledon recognizes the potential for further growth, particularly in India. The tournament garnered 60-70 million engagements last year across broadcast and social media platforms. With a potential audience of over a billion in India, the scope for expansion is substantial.

Dinen emphasized the importance of younger audiences in Wimbledon's growth strategy:

"Younger audiences and audiences of the future are crucial to us. It's clear in the activity that we focus on and our content strategy, whether that's for Instagram, YouTube and the sort of content we create."

To cultivate a stronger connection with Indian fans, Wimbledon aims to host events in India. Due to the monsoon season, the AELTC are collaborating with PVR INOX to broadcast the finals in theaters. Another strategy involves extending invitations to Indian cricket icons like Kohli, Tendulkar, and Rohit to the Royal Box, capitalizing on their massive social media followings.

While upholding its time-honored traditions, Wimbledon embraces technology to enhance the fan experience. This includes using Artificial Intelligence (AI) in collaboration with IBM to provide real-time match analysis and answer fan questions through the 'Match Chat' assistant on its app and website. This AI tool allows spectators to engage using pre-written prompts or their own questions, providing immediate responses and in-depth match insights.

"We continue to embrace technology, and it sits at the heart of the balance between heritage and innovation," Dinen stated. "And in terms of things like Virtual Reality, we work on areas such as gaming. We've brought experiences to life in places like Roblox. So we absolutely want to make sure we bring the brand and the Championships to life in new and interesting ways."