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McCann scoops Wimbledon global prize for IPG

McCann in London has been rather quiet since Mark Lund, formerly of DLKW, Now and the COI, took over as group supremo but it’s finally landed a high profile win with the All England Lawn Tennis Club (or AELTC as it, rather inelegantly, styles itself) with a brief to grow the brand in international markets.

Wimbledon is still, arguably, the biggest tennis tournament in the world and the AELTC reckons it has a billion supporters worldwide. Wimbledon makes buckets of money although all this largesse doesn’t seem to produce many decent British tennis players (Murrays aside).
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McCann, leading an Interpublic team, beat off BBH Sport, a WPP confection led by Grey and Droga5/IMG among others.

AELTC commercial and media director Mick Desmond, who some of you might remember as the capable and affable sales boss of Granada TV, says: “After a thorough process we’ve appointed IPG, led by McCann London, as our agency partner. Throughout the process, the IPG team worked with us as partners, demonstrating skill, commitment and insight in solving our challenges. Our objective is to enhance the strength of the Wimbledon brand worldwide and we are confident that IPG are the right partner for that task.”

McCann boss Lund says: “We recognised early that marketing opportunities of this nature don’t come along too often – it’s easy to apply superlatives with a organisation as iconic as Wimbledon. Our work now is to help build the future and protect the legacy while helping to develop a globally significant superbrand in a sympathetic and commercially astute way.”

Indeed it is. Premier League football clubs are beginning to make zillions from the enthusiasm of fans abroad, no matter how second rate their performance may be in European terms (Barcelona and Real Madrid are streets ahead). AELTC (why don’t they just call it Wimbledon?) could join them. Or we may never hear anything else…

Anyway, a good one for McCann and Lund.

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