Each year, millions of tennis fans from around the world gather to watch Wimbledon, the famed, grass-court, Grand Slam tournament that takes place in London each year. As usual, the championship came with its fair share of rivalries, underdogs, celebrity fans, and iconic brands, crowning two new champions: Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz and the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova.
In this blog, we analyze the more than 1.1 million mentions of Wimbledon across websites, media coverage, comments, blogs, forums, Instagram, X, Facebook, Reddit, and other social media and video sources to learn about some of the top topics driving conversation from May 1 through the morning after the tournament’s end on July 14. Read on to learn what got tennis fans talking and typing during this year’s Wimbledon tournament.
Most Talked About Players
Media Coverage Gender Gap
Most Visible Brand Sponsors
Top Conversation Drivers
Takeaways
Most Talked About Players
The most talked about male player, who was also the most talked about player overall, was men’s champion Carlos Alcaraz with nearly 420,000 mentions. Alcaraz of Spain beat Serbian tennis star Novak Djokovic in the final match.
On the women’s side, Italian player Jasmine Paolini took the top spot with about 104,000 mentions despite losing in the finals to the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejčíková. In terms of conversation, Krejčíková was the runner up with about 50,500 mentions.
Media Coverage Gender Gap
Though men’s and women’s Wimbledon champions have equal monetary prizes, gender gaps still appear in other areas such as media coverage. Over the course of the 12 weeks analyzed, media outlets consistently covered male players, and by extension the men’s side of the tournament, more than female players. Media mentions of both sides of the tournament peaked with the final games.
Most Visible Brand Sponsors
Many global brands sponsor Wimbledon, but Barclays was the most mentioned in relation to the tournament, receiving almost twice as many Wimbledon-related mentions as runner up Pimm’s. However, Ralph Lauren, who dressed the ballboys and ballgirls, was mentioned in posts that generated the most engagement.
When it comes to all brands whose logos appeared in Wimbledon-related images, Nike’s was featured most often.
Notably, Alcaraz was dressed in white Nike head to toe throughout the tournament, including as he beat Djokovic in the final match and accepted his trophy.
And Lacoste, who dressed Djokovic, was the second most visible brand.
Top Conversation Drivers
The athletes themselves were by far the top Wimbledon conversation drivers in terms of volume, engagement, and estimated reach. The tournament’s grass court and its impact on play were the second-most popular topic.
Still, celebrity attendees, including members of the British royal family, attracted an incredible share of attention, as well.
Indian actor Sidharth Malhotra’s July 10 Instagram post about attending Wimbledon with his wife actress Kiara Advani was the most engaged social media post of the tournament, garnering more than 2 million likes in five days. Prince William and Princess of Wales Kate Middleton’s Instagram post on the day of the finals came in a close second place.
Overall, Indian, British, and Spanish celebrities drove engagement. Of the top 14 most engaging social media posts about Wimbledon, 5 came from Spanish accounts (including 4 from Alcaraz), 4 were from India-based accounts (including two from Indian Premier League cricket team Royal Challengers Bangalore), and 4 were from UK-based accounts (including David Beckham and Wimbledon itself).
Takeaways
In broad strokes, our analysis found:
- Most visible brands dressed Wimbledon winners: Our logo recognition tool detected sportswear brands that dressed the athletes more than sponsors of the event itself. This makes sense considering athletes are the top conversation drivers of Wimbledon. For brands weighing event sponsorship against ambassadorships, visual and conversation analysis of past events is key to determining which activation has the most potential brand awareness impact.
- Wimbledon’s appeals to international, multi-sport fans: From Real Madrid to Royal Challengers Bangalore, the social media accounts with the most engaged posts point to Wimbledon’s fans in cricket and football audiences.
- Social and media conversations about athletes diverge: Though Paolini was the most mentioned female Wimbledon competitor across all sources, Iga Swiatek was the most mentioned in media coverage. Meanwhile, Djokovic landed more media coverage than Alcaraz, who led in overall mentions. Looking for the differences in mentions between data sources can reveal each athlete’s different spheres of influence.
In another year of thrilling tennis, Wimbledon sparked millions of online and converged with numerous digital marketing insights. The complete data tells a wide and detailed story — see for yourself by checking out our Wimbledon 2024 Analysis Dashboard.
