The archive · Advertising · Marketing decision · 2026
Wimbledon films Centre Court from a butterfly's view — 'Where beauty meets the battle'
For the 2026 Championships, VCCP shot Wimbledon from a Holly Blue butterfly dodging serves, turning garden calm into a fight for survival.
All England Lawn Tennis Club (Wimbledon)
What it had to solve
The All England Lawn Tennis Club wanted a second chapter of its 'There Is Only One Wimbledon' platform for the 139th Championships. The brand truth — tennis in an English garden, where beauty collides with battle — needed a film that made the contrast tangible. Butterflies are frequent court visitors, and Henri Leconte's famous 1986 story of one landing on his racket became the seed.
How it works
Wimbledon's 2026 campaign is the second chapter of 'There Is Only One Wimbledon', the global brand platform created with VCCP. The brand truth it carries is a contradiction: tennis in an English garden, where timeless serenity collides with the ferocity of elite sport at Centre Court.
VCCP's answer was to change the witness. Instead of another montage of champions, the hero film follows a Holly Blue butterfly — a real, frequent visitor to the courts — as its peaceful flight around the grounds is shattered by forehands, backhands and big serves flying past in full flight.
The idea grew from tournament folklore: in 1986, French player Henri Leconte scooped a butterfly off the court mid-match, walked it to the crowd and the people went wild. That story gave the campaign an authentic origin and a delicate protagonist whose danger makes Wimbledon's intensity visible.
Directed by Sanjay de Silva through Division Global, with support from VCCP's content studio Girl&Bear, the campaign launched on 8 June 2026 across TV, social and striking local out-of-home, running on broadcasters from the BBC and ESPN to Eurosport and Jio Star in the run-up to the 139th Championships.
Why it lands
- A butterfly in the firing line of professional serves makes Wimbledon's beauty-and-battle duality physical, turning an abstract positioning into a story with stakes.
- Leconte's 1986 anecdote gave the campaign a true, shareable origin that no rival tournament can copy.
- Using a delicate creature as protagonist flips the usual power narrative, celebrating Wimbledon's unique contrast rather than just its champions.
- The single image scales effortlessly across film, social and OOH, giving every touchpoint the same instantly readable idea.
What it did
The film gave Wimbledon a distinctive second act to its global platform and a shareable origin story — Leconte's butterfly — tying the campaign to real tournament folklore. It ran across global broadcasters and markets in the run-up to the 29 June–12 July Championships, reinforcing the tournament's position as the point where heritage beauty and athletic battle meet.
What you can take
To dramatise a contradiction, pick a witness the conflict endangers: the butterfly makes beauty and battle collide in one frame, so audiences feel the duality.
Since then
The 2026 campaign ran globally through the Championships, which took place from 29 June to 12 July, marking wheelchair tennis's 50th anniversary with Alfie Hewett's participation in the film. VCCP published the work as a flagship case on its own site, and industry press from LBB to Famous Campaigns covered the butterfly device as the campaign's defining idea, extending the 'There Is Only One Wimbledon' platform into its second year.
Sources
- Holly Blue Butterfly Experiences the Emotion of The Championship in Wimbledon Film
- Capturing the Emotion of The Championships, Wimbledon
- Wimbledon's new ad follows a butterfly dodging serves on Centre Court
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