Sipsmith is a premium London dry Gin operating in a cluttered category full of premium looking Gins all clamoring for attention.

Sipsmith needed a way to rise above, so it took sponsorship of Wimbledon, one of the world’s most high-profile premium properties going.

We needed to generate as much fame for the partnership as possible, to make the most of this once in a brand lifetime opportunity.

Our audience was everyone who engaged in Wimbledon, from attendees, to those watching at home, to those lightly following on social media.

We had to maximize our share of voice and be the brand that everyone was talking about at Wimbledon.

When the keys to Centre Court landed in the wing of Sipsmith’s rather dapper brand ambassador, Mr Swan, his task of announcing the gin brand’s new partnership with the Championships was never going to go to plan. In typical ‘Swan-style’, he mistakenly announces Wimbledon to be the ‘Official Tennis of Sipsmith Gin’, rather than the other way around. It’s not long before things snowball and Mr Swan gets more and more carried away. From the grass, to the ball machines, to the lawnmowers, to the tournament's pigeon-scaring hawk, he claims everything Wimbledon-y to be now Officially Sipsmith’s.

We had to establish our sponsorship fast and powerfully.

Other brands like Pimm’s and Amex had built up their sponsorship over the years or had big media budgets behind them.

We couldn’t outspend other sponsors. We had to outsmart them.

We realised that most sponsorship of premium properties like Wimbledon follows the same pattern. They announce the partnership. They take it seriously. And they pay homage.

So our strategy was to disrupt the order of play of Wimbledon sponsorship.

We would push at the boundary of acceptability.

We would be subversive.

We would put ourselves front and centre.

The risk for us was not ruffling feathers, the risk was being ignored during our most expensive brand activity to date.

Our Official Tennis film ran across TV, BVOD and YouTube and as cinema at Wavelength Festival. Our OOH ambient ran in the grounds of the tournament plus we ran a static OOH poster at London Bridge. Our Official Tennis film ran 21st June to 11th July 2021 whilst the rest of the ambient and OOH work ran for the duration of the 2021 tournament. As cinema it ran 16th July until 5th September 2021.

We have seen some impressive performances on Centre Court over the years, and similarly, our Official Tennis campaign had spectators on their feet.

Despite being only in its first year, and with limited media budget, Sipsmith won the largest share of voice of all alcohol sponsors, beating extremely well-established brands like Pimm’s, who first took sponsorship in 1971.

Crucially, taking a bold and disruptive approach to sponsorship didn’t just pay off at Wimbledon. We managed to stand out from the crowd at bars and supermarket shelves all over the UK: During the sponsorship period Sipsmith also enjoyed the largest share of voice of all Gin brands in the UK.

With such a grand slam in its first year, Sipsmith has renewed its sponsorship for a second year.