On May 8, 2014 at a ceremony attended by 1,750 people from the sporting world in Battersea Evolution, The Championships, Wimbledon won the prestigious Sports Brand of the Year at the 2014 BT Sport Industry Awards.
Andy Murray’s historic victory, as the first British men’s singles champion in 77 years, saw record-breaking figures across television, online and social media, with a global TV audience passing the one billion mark for the first time.
A peak UK audience of 17.3 million viewers tuned in to watch Murray’s victory against Novak Djokovic on Sunday, July 7, and wimbledon.com received 54 million visits.
Steeped in history, Wimbledon is renowned for its traditional values, but the judges of the Sport Industry Awards praised the brand’s innovative digital work. A new iPad app launched in 2013 received 370,000 downloads, while the website, which was relaunched in 2012, enjoyed 430 million page views during the Wimbledon fortnight.
“We had a social media audience of over three million people so it’s not surprising therefore we have been receiving numerous nominations and awards for our work in this area,” said The All England Club’s Chief Executive, Richard Lewis. “But we are certainly not going to stand still, so for 2014 we have a new mobile app for iPhone and Android.”
Wimbledon, which was also shortlisted for Digital Platform of the Year and Best Use of Social Media, beat Manchester United FC, the UEFA Champions League and adidas for the top spot as best brand.
“The winners of the BT Sport Industry Awards 2014 reflect the international nature of this fantastic sector, and are testament to the unique place the British sport industry occupies on a global scale,” said Nick Keller, Chairman of the Sport Industry Group. “From London to Australia, Dunblane to New York and Liverpool to South-East Asia, the work rewarded tonight has been selected from an absolutely stellar shortlist in which the quality has been higher than ever.”
There was further success for tennis at the awards, with adidas’ sponsorship of Andy Murray triumphing in the category for Best Sponsorship of a Team or Individual, as the No.1 brand talked about on social media during Wimbledon.
The #AllinforAndy hashtag as well as adidas’ real-time game, #Hitthewinner saw @AdidasUK gain around 35,000 new followers, culminating in a chance to meet the Wimbledon champion the day after his victory at an event in South London.