What it had to solve
Mark the return as Official Beer with a 360 campaign about the modest beginnings behind two great legacies — Wimbledon and Sebastian Artois himself — inspiring consumers to leave their own mark on the world.
The idea
Tell Wimbledon's origin as a hard-sell: a young man hawking tickets to an event nobody has heard of, encouraged by a barman pouring an unknown Belgian beer.
How it works
A Technicolor-styled TV film directed by Andreas Nilsson, set in Victorian London and inspired by classics like Gone with the Wind, anchored outdoor and digital work, plus 'The Time Portal' — a five-day immersive theatre experience in London created with Olivier-nominated troupe Les Enfants Terribles and Framestore, the studio behind Gravity's VFX.
What it did
Ran as a fully integrated 360 campaign with the five-day immersive experience in London; no business results were disclosed in the coverage.
Background
In June 2016 Stella Artois unveiled its Wimbledon campaign, marking its return as Official Beer of The Championships and the second chapter of its 'Be Legacy' platform. Mother's film, directed by Andreas Nilsson, goes back to Victorian London 'at a time when no one had ever heard of them' — of either brand.
The story follows a young man trying to sell tickets to a brand-new event that turns out to be the very first Wimbledon. Rebuffed by colourful Victorian characters and ready to give up, he is lifted by a bar owner who offers him a taste of an unknown beer from Belgium, an early export from the Artois breweries — he is not the only one trying to turn an unknown name into a lasting legacy.
The 360 campaign extended beyond the film: outdoor and digital work, and 'The Time Portal', a five-day immersive theatre experience in London transporting audiences back to Victorian London in search of the first Wimbledon, created with Les Enfants Terribles and Framestore. Senior brand manager Rowan Chidgey framed the parallel journeys of 'this legendary tennis tournament and our best-selling Belgian beer' as inspiration for audiences to make their own mark.
Why it lands
The insight sells the sponsor by proxy: Wimbledon's origin is the story, and the beer appears as the fellow struggler, so the sponsorship reads as shared history instead of logo placement.
Casting both institutions as underdogs flatters the viewer's own ambitions, which is what the 'Be Legacy' platform needed the work to do.
The immersive theatre extension let the film's Victorian world be walked through physically, turning a 60-second spot into a five-day London event.
What you can take
Pair your origin story with a bigger institution's: shared humble beginnings make a sponsorship feel like kinship rather than cash.
Since then
The campaign ran through Wimbledon 2016 across TV, outdoor, digital and the five-day Time Portal experience; coverage at launch disclosed no commercial results.
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