You Know What I Want To Drink On A Bright Summer’s Day? Small Amounts Of Hot Liquid

I don’t really understand why Lavazza decided that it made sense for it to be a sponsor of Wimbledon. Don’t get me wrong; I love a good coffee as much as the next person.

(This is advertising after all. We all need that drip feed of caffeine. Or failing that, hard drugs.)

But it does strike me as a curious play on the part of an Italian premium coffee brand, to sponsor a major sporting event that is a) quintessentially British, and b) already associated with a number of other foods and drinks.

I can imagine that the Lavazza target market and the tennis audience have a lot of overlap. But the characteristic of being generally upper middle class shouldn’t really be justification its own for such a leap.

A good contrast to this is Robinson’s. They make squash. Tennis players drink squash-like drinks. And more to the point, young children of all demographics and wealth levels drink squash, generally after running around too much and collapsing like exhausted bees.

The fact is, on a hot British summer day, people do not go running for the espresso machine. They drink squash. Because it is refreshing.

It’s not rocket science.

That said, perhaps the most interesting element of the Wimbledon sponsorship story is this: according to Adweek, the most successful brand of Wimbledon 2015 in terms of social buzz wasn’t Lavazza, nor was it Robinson’s.

It was Pimm’s. Who are not, in fact, a sponsor at all.

Food (or should that be drink?) for thought.