What should our partnership story prove?

Connect your capabilities to something the audience can experience, rather than stopping at the fact of the association. For IBM's 2013 Wimbledon campaign, The Frameworks created the short-form film Just four seconds to show how IBM helped people around the world follow every serve, fault and break point almost instantly. The story linked a recognisable fan experience to IBM's integrated cloud, analytics, mobile and social media solutions, which captured and communicated match details.

The Frameworks argues that sports sponsorship gives B2B brands an opportunity to demonstrate what they can do and the impact they could have on prospective clients' businesses. A 2025 study by ONSIDE with Sport for Business found that 89% of sponsorship industry professionals in Ireland agreed that sponsors play an important role in improving fan experiences at sporting events. Make the audience benefit explicit, then explain the capabilities behind it so the partnership demonstrates more than visibility.

Show what the partners did when circumstances demanded a different response. When Wimbledon could not go ahead in 2020, the All England Lawn Tennis & Croquet Club and IBM developed The Greatest Championships: two weeks of classic matches remastered and reimagined for modern fans. The Wimbledon team drew on IBM's AI, analytics and cloud capabilities to create the fully digital championships in eight weeks.

The Frameworks had two weeks to create supporting campaign content explaining the partnership's role in making the change possible. To connect Wimbledon's history with digital transformation and the new tournament format, The Frameworks chose a documentary-style video featuring people closest to the work at IBM and the AELTC.

Use a specific challenge to give the partnership story substance: explain what changed, what the partners made possible and which capabilities they applied. Accounts from the people responsible can connect the audience-facing result to the work behind it.