Wimbledon is looking to increase the tournament’s international presence with aggressive advertising and marketing campaigns.
It is currently running an active promotional effort in the United States. Officials told the SportsBusiness Journal that the All England Club is working "really hard to keep Wimbledon relevant" among the American public, especially young sports fans, at a time when there are few American men at the top of the game.
Officials also told The Telegraph that Wimbledon looked at other parts of the world, including Asia and South America, to gauge perceptions of the event, and adjusted its marketing accordingly. It plans to increase its promotional efforts internationally, especially in Asia.
"When you talk about emerging markets, Wimbledon should be up there with the big international sporting brands—not just the Super Bowl but the World Cup, the Olympics, the Masters, the Premier League, the NFL and the NBA," said Mick Desmond, the media and commercial director of the AEC.
Though the tournament is also aligning itself with some social-media networks, officials refuted the SportsBusiness Journal's report that it’s paying celebrities to mention Wimbledon on Twitter.
"That’s not quite accurate," said All England Club marketing executive James Ralley. "We have done a deal with Twitter’s ‘Niche’ platform which uses bloggers as a promotional tool, and we have focused on the ‘Wimbledon weekend’—the finals weekend—as a time to have themed parties."
The tournament has estimated that about 1 billion people will watch some portion of Wimbledon during the Championships’ fortnight.
Novak Djokovic and Serena Williams are the defending champions at the Grand Slam.