All England Lawn Tennis Club Celebrates Wimbledon Icons For The Championship 2024

Created by McCann London, this year's instalment of the 'Always Like Never Before' campaign takes viewers through The Championships’ most iconic moments

By Emma Vernon

11 June 2024

The All England Lawn Tennis Club has released its annual trailer in anticipation of The Championships, Wimbledon, which will be staged from 1-14 July. Created by and McCann London, the film 'Always Like Never Before' features a series of historic frozen-in-time moments from SW19 that are simply unforgettable.

The second instalment in the annual campaign continues to highlight how The Championships’ time-honoured traditions and unique setting inspire incredible tennis action, fosters new stars, and delivers unexpected moments that cannot be witnessed anywhere else.

Usama Al-Qassab, marketing and commercial director for the All England Club, commented: “Year after year, The Championships surprise and captivate us and the creative platform from McCann allows us to celebrate the next generation of players and also pay homage to the giants of yesteryear. The creativity of frozen-in-time moments to unexpected twists, this Always Like Never Before campaign has become synonymous with our spirit at Wimbledon where we balance innovation and heritage.

"Each instalment unveils a fresh perspective, reimagining our storied traditions and showcasing the magic of SW19, and we are excited for another unforgettable Championships to be added to the history books this July," added Al-Qassab.

Directed by the ground-breaking filmmaker Carl Addy at The Mayda Creative Co., the trailer re-imagines archive material, built by creative VFX studio, Daydreamer. It uses a mixture of archive footage, advanced 3D animation, CGI and photography to revisit historic Wimbledon moments from angles that have never been seen before in broadcast, to capture the sport in a unique way, and to place every great moment side-by-side on court.

The creative takes viewers on a journey into the future, as the stars of today prepare to battle at The Championships in 2024. The immersive spot opens with last year’s epic gentlemen’s singles final, where at just 20 years old Spaniard Carlos Alcaraz did the unthinkable, defeating the seven-time Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic. Following this unforgettable moment, time freezes, and we see all that came before, from Serena Williams’ power, Djokovic’s dexterity and famous grass-eating tradition, Alfie Hewett and Gordon Reid’s five successive Wimbledon wins in the wheelchair doubles, Roger Federer’s brilliance across the years, to Tokito Oda and Andy Murray’s triumphant moments and the unseeded success of last year’s ladies’ singles champion, Marketa Vondrousova.

Matt Searle and Olly Wood, creative directors at McCann London, commented: “From the living grass court surface to the All England Club’s fastidious attention to detail, to the majestic tennis action it inspires – every unique facet of Wimbledon delivers the unexpected, the surprising and the simply unforgettable moments which are woven beautifully together in our latest instalment of our Always Like Never Before series. The Championships – and our bold client, the All England Club – continue to combine tradition with a thirst for innovation, by once again embracing game-changing production partners, industry-defining composers, and with the bar for craft set to ‘like never before’ – the future of Wimbledon is bright indeed.”

To highlight the historic poignance of the sporting feats that have taken place at Wimbledon, McCann London enlisted the help of music composer, Tom Player, at Wake The Town. An award-winning composer, Tom has worked on Game of Thrones and Tenet, as well as having assisted Hans Zimmer and Ramin Djawadi on motion pictures such as Iron Man, The Dark Knight and more. In a jam-packed summer of sport, with Euro 2024 and the Paris Olympic Games on the horizon, Tom’s ability to fuse orchestral forces with contemporary production techniques was used to elevate the brand amongst these sporting contemporaries and cement the event’s sporting prestige in the eyes of global broadcasters and fans alike.

Carl Addy, co-founder and executive creative director at The Mayda Creative Co., commented: “Always Like Never Before was a fantastic brief, a wonderfully complex task that deserves an elegant solution. How can we reimagine iconic Wimbledon moments that are so familiar to the fans? It’s a delicate balance of presenting these moments with a more intimate access. Closer than being there, more connected than watching it on a screen. All the while balancing the power of the game in frozen timeless scenes. It’s these kinds of sophisticated nuanced executions that we love.”

Launching 11 June, the trailer is now live globally across TV, digital and social. The campaign’s OOH has been designed by Space agency.