AdMiration feature: Sipsmith’s “Wimbledon Campaign Serve”

For this week’s AdMiration feature, we looked at consumer response to Sipsmith’s “Wimbledon Campaign Serve” ad, which promotes Sipsmith’s status as an official Wimbledon sponsor. 

Read on to get our 3-2-1 snapshot of the ad (3 facts, 2 learnings and 1 reflection) and learn how their ad was received based on our data.

The ad begins with a bottle of Sipsmith on a small table with two glasses — one with strawberries and one with lime. The screen says, “A winning serve?” and an announcer says “15-40.”

Two people dressed in tennis whites pick up the glasses and smile at each other. One tips her glass in a “cheers” motion while we hear the sound of a tennis racket hit a ball. The other returns the motion while tennis sounds continue and the two go back and forth like that. “That’s the spirit" appears on screen. 

Finally we hear an applause from the audience with a close up on Sipsmith gin on a tennis racket and the words “A smooth serve every time.” The final image is the Wimbledon logo with the words “Official Sponsor” and the Sipsmith logo. 

3 facts

• Sipsmith’s ad performed well with consumers, landing in the top 25% of UK ads in potential to drive immediate sales (Sales Impact: 75) and in the top 50% of UK ads in potential to drive brand equity over the longer term (Brand Impact: 53).

• Audiences overall enjoyed the ad (Enjoyment: 3.8 vs. 3.7 norm), particularly appreciating the tie into Wimbledon and the clever play on words — with both “A smooth serve every time” and “That’s the spirit” driving peaks in “love” in the ad. Those under 45 found it even more relevant and emotionally resonant — particularly responding with more love throughout the entirety of the short ad than the general UK audience. 

• The ad generated strong purchase uplift for the brand (Purchase uplift: 27% compared to a 15% norm), indicating that more people are likely to consider the Sipsmith brand after viewing the ad. 

2 learnings

• It’s possible to convey a lot of information while saying very little! Using almost no spoken dialogue and relying heavily on visual and audio cues, Sipsmith establishes its connection to Wimbledon and conveys the refreshing nature, great taste and quality of its gin. 

• Always make your ad exactly as long as it needs to be to tell the story you need to tell. This ad is quick and to the point because the idea is very simple: “A smooth serve” can apply to both tennis serves and gin pours. Making this ad any longer would unnecessarily drag out that idea, so 14 seconds is plenty of time. 

1 reflection

Being the official sponsor of a cultural event, particularly the only sponsor in your category, is a great opportunity to stand out and tap into a relevant cultural moment. 

But to make the most of the opportunity, it’s important to execute in a way that’s relevant to both the event and your brand. Your brand needs to shine through, ensuring you’re advertising your brand as well as the event. 

With this ad, Sipsmith connected the idea of “smooth serves” to both gin and tennis — and relied on visual and audio cues to capture the essence of Wimbledon. It benefits from the associations with Wimbledon, which helps the ad implicitly convey quality for the product. 

How can you find a way to connect your brand to your next relevant event in a credible way? 

This ad from creative agency Atomic London is part of a multichannel campaign (including print, social, digital and point-of-sale) to raise awareness of Sipsmith’s official sponsorship of Wimbledon. 

Brought to life by photographer and director Julia Fullerton-Batten, the campaign aims for an “effortless, slick, cool and unequivocally British” tone, with an offbeat sense of humor throughout. 

Louise Rudaizky, managing director at Atomic London, said of the campaign, “With this campaign, we wanted Sipsmith to show up in a way that feels naturally part of British summer culture – a bit witty, a bit stylish, and unmistakably Wimbledon. It’s not just about being at the tournament, but capturing the mood that comes with it, wherever you are. We’ve taken those familiar tennis moments and given them a Sipsmith twist, creating something fun, crafted and full of character, just like the gin.”

“Wimbledon Campaign Serve” performed well with audiences, landing in the top 25% of UK ads in potential to drive short term sales (Sales Impact: 75) and the top 50% of ads in potential to drive brand equity into the longer term (Brand Impact: 53). 

And the ad performed even better with younger audiences.

While the ad meets the norm on distinctiveness for the overall audience (Distinctiveness: 3.7 vs. a 3.7 norm), adults under 45 see it as much more distinctive than other ads (3.9 vs. 3.7 norm). 

They also see the ad as more emotive (Overall Emotion: 63 vs. 53 norm), enjoyable (Enjoyment 4.0 vs. 3.8 norm) and relevant (Relevance: 3.8 vs. 3.6 norm) than the overall audience. 

Wimbledon appeals to audiences of all ages, including older audiences, so this difference likely can’t be attributed to Wimbledon's appeal. Rather, it likely landed better with younger audiences due to the combination of the narrative and play on words, the young people featured and the relevance/prominence of gin in younger people's lives.

While the ad is very short at only 14 seconds, it does convey a lot about Sipsmith gin. The ad told the audience something new about the Sipsmith brand (New Information: 3.5 vs. 3.3 norm). And more than half of respondents (52%) said that the ad conveyed that Sipsmith is a refreshing beverage, while 46% said it conveyed that Sipsmith had a great taste. One respondent noted, “It was set in the summer which brings warm memories of enjoying the weather outside and when it's hot, it's nice to have a gin on the rocks" and another liked “the refreshing look of the drink and the tennis atmosphere."

The ad also conveyed that Sipsmith was “great for socializing" (44%) and “high quality” (41%). 

And of course, like the ad says, it conveyed that Sipsmith is smooth. One respondent noted, “It echoes my thoughts about Sipsmith being smooth."

And all of that in only 14 seconds and almost no spoken dialogue! It was achieved through visuals — the nice weather, the crisp and clean tennis outfits, the play on words, the look of the drinks and importantly, the association with Wimbledon. This all comes together to convey high quality, refreshing gin. 

And, importantly, the ad makes viewers more likely to consider the brand the next time they are buying spirits, with a purchase uplift of 27% compared to a 15% norm. This is important for a category with so many brands and subcategories — ensuring your brand comes to mind positively and remains in the consideration set is critical.

This is particularly important as Sipsmith is a smaller player in the category, therefore it has a lower pre-exposure consideration. But this ad helps to put the Sipsmith brand in the consideration set alongside the big established players!

Finally, there’s a bit we can learn from the second-by-second emotional response. For the total audience, laughter begins when the man returns the “serve” by tipping his drink and peaks when the ad shows both characters standing together continuing to toast each other. 

The dominant emotion through this beginning of the ad is like, but love comes out on top when the brand and the “A smooth serve every time” line are shown toward the end. There’s also a spike of love when “That’s the spirit” is shown — indicating that people love the play on words. 

Looking specifically at the under 45 audience, we see very similar trends — except that love is the dominant reaction for almost the whole ad. Clearly, this group had a stronger emotional response than the total audience. 

Here’s what some people had to say about the ad:

• “I liked the serving sound in the background. I also liked the look of the drink in the glass. I liked the connection the advert has to the Wimbledon game."

• "I liked the concept of serving and returning the cheers, not a ball. Liked the sound effects, the setting, the tag line of a smooth serve every time."

• "I liked the element of humour and the reference to Wimbledon which showed that this is a drink for occasions and demonstrated how smooth it is."

• "I liked the link between ‘smooth serve’ and tennis. I also liked the fact it is a Wimbledon sponsor."

• "Liked the tie into the Wimbledon championship by their actions and play on words."

• "There is an element of fun about it in how they pretend to play tennis with their drinks, it is lighthearted."

What a fun ad to conclude Wimbledon this week! 

What did you think? Let us know by interacting with our coverage of the ad on LinkedIn.

And to wrap up, did you catch this Audi out-of-home ad? We love that it taps into a moment in culture and plays with the brand's established assets. The ad brings them together seamlessly and perfectly, showing us that clever can be simple!

Great work, Audi!

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