A partnership needs to show its contribution, not just its name
A partnership gives you an opportunity to demonstrate both what your organisation can do and what it values. The difficulty is connecting the association with a contribution audiences can understand. Public visibility alone does not explain how a partner improves an event or why that capability matters to prospective customers. Start with what the partnership enables, then connect it to the audience's experience. Partnership records, technical capabilities and audience conversations can provide the substance, but the story needs a clear human focus rather than a list of systems or services.
The Frameworks used two different approaches to communicate IBM's contribution to Wimbledon. The short-form film Just four seconds showed how IBM's integrated cloud, analytics, mobile and social media solutions captured and communicated match details to people following around the world. By focusing on the near-instant experience of each serve, fault or break point, it made the technical contribution tangible through something fans recognised.
For the 2017 tournament, The Frameworks built on Wimbledon's "in pursuit of greatness" brand promise, bringing IBM Watson into a debate about "What makes great?" The campaign combined data gathered during the partnership with insights from Watson's live social listening. This gave audiences a question to engage with while demonstrating enterprise-level AI. It generated global engagement and media coverage, with 434 software trials leading to £550,000 in sales in three weeks.
Sources: A game plan for success: how B2B brands can tap into the spirit of sport, IBM and Wimbledon: Ongoing Campaign Involvement