Welcome back to The Activation, where we breakdown branded worlds across sports and entertainment for CMO’s, rights-holders & agencies.

Our aim, to make you the smartest person in the room when it comes to sports and entertainment sponsorship activation.

Todays deep dive

We’re breaking down how Stella built one of the most impactful annual sponsorship activations with Wimbledon - stick around to the end for a free link to the full playbook artifact.

Stella Artois is now in its 12th year as the Official Beer of Wimbledon. A partnership that started in 2014 and has gradually become one of the most consistent and well-executed sports sponsorships.

Being the Official Beer of The Championships - Wimbledon gives them pouring rights across all on-site bars, brand presence throughout the grounds and the right to use Wimbledon IP across retail, packaging, and campaign creative.

A re-positioning play

In the UK, Stella carries a complicated legacy. It spent decades associated with the wrong end of British drinking culture, far from the manicured lawns and white dress codes of SW19.

The Wimbledon partnership is a long-term brand repositioning play.

If Stella can feel at home in the most tightly controlled brand environment in sport, it shifts perception globally, not just locally.

After 12 years, it is working.

Wimbledon famously doesn’t provide partners with the extensive highly visible broadcast branding placements switched on in all other sports and events, so quality and considered activation is critical - and highly refreshing.

This year the activation strategy runs across five areas: a new product launch, two ambassador pillars, an on-trade takeover, a retail programme, and a creator and influencer layer.

They all connect back to one idea: Wimbledon traditions, elevated. And that is the theme you will recognise in most of their activations.

Lets get into it…

In previous years Stella have run with a ‘Perfect Serve’ hero campaign, but in 2026 they built it’s centrepiece around Wimbledon's most consumed tradition outside tennis itself, turning strawberries and cream into an actual lager.

Stella tied into the power of a distinctive asset and brought it into their world.

In our full free notion breakdown, linked at the end of this newsletter, you will see how they Strawberries and Cream was leveraged heavily across ltd edition merch, collabs and creators.

Over the last few years, Stella have been using Wimbledon as a flagship moment to launch products on and off-trade.

Last year saw them launch Stella Artois 0.0 on draught at Wimbledon for the first time (You can learn more about this, by checking out our 2025 Stella x Wimbledon breakdown.

Stella brought back the limited-edition Wimbledon White Can for a second consecutive year, and built its second collectible SKU of the campaign directly out of the tournament's own dress code, not a generic seasonal refresh.

I think this was particularly smart for a few reasons.

Firstly, it's building on something that has already worked. They're evolving a proven idea, not starting from scratch.

Secondly, while the strawberries and cream flavour is rooted in Wimbledon tradition, the white can itself also reinforces that connection. It carries Wimbledon's signature colours and aesthetic, meaning the packaging is tapping into every possible association with the tournament.

This all ties back into Wimbledon’s strength as an activation platform for brands, based on the strength of signature assets.

Stella are not only maximising these assets, but executing per my formula for best in class sports marketing.

1) A simple message and action - you don’t need to work hard to get the link
2) It's visual - in this case, certainly instagrammable
3) Leverages a key moment - of course Wimbledon
4) Distinct: Do something only this partnership can do or say - Wimbledon’s iconic dress code can’t be rolled out across any other partnership platform.

Stella's social approach at Wimbledon was deliberately aesthetic. The tone across Instagram, TikTok and Reels stayed consistent, premium, subtle, rooted in the Wimbledon aesthetic, no hashtag overload, no forced engagement mechanics. Access, product and status all play a role.

There is a clear pattern signal of intent here. The S&C product, the creator choices, the IG and TikTok approach, the ambassador choices…

Stella is placing the female audience as a high priority.

And they clearly see Wimbledon as a very important backdrop and moment of summer salience to create maximum impact.

Everything you just read on Stella is one slice of a much bigger breakdown, and we've put the whole thing in a free Notion doc for you to keep and explore.

This is a taste of what we're building: The Activation Vault, in depth playbooks of how partnerships are actually activated, searchable by brand, rights-holder, category and objectives. To give you a head start on building your next activation strategy. It's not live yet but join the waitlist and you'll be first in (with a launch offer).

Happy to help in 3 ways:

1) For brands: Want help creating unignorable partnership activation?

2) For brands: Want your own custom deepdives into competitor/category activations?

3) For rights-holders: Need help with positioning, innovative storytelling and go to market materials?

Reply to this email or dm me on Linkedin if you want to chew the fat.