As the official car provider of the Championships, otherwise known to everybody as Wimbledon, Jaguar is making its presence felt ahead of this year’s tournament with the launch of the #FeelWimbledon campaign. To give the campaign a public face, the British automaker has even enlisted the services of 2013 Wimbledon champion Andy Murray to serve as brand ambassador for the tournament, which kicks off on June 27, 2016.

Speaking of Murray, Jaguar has also created a promotional video featuring the tennis player and a number of Jag models, specifically the XE, F-Type SVR, and the company’s new Formula E race car. The premise of the ad is pretty straight-forward. One at a time, the three Jaguars take to the line with a target placed at the rear section of the cars. Once the Jaguar speeds up, Murray is tasked to hit a serve into the target. Standard tennis scoring applies so, if he misses, Jaguar gets the score and if he connects, he gets the score. One at a time, the XE and F-Type SVR take in their runs before the Formula E race car comes into the picture. What follows is a pretty funny exchange between Murray and the driver, who is probably one of the last people you’d expect to see behind the wheel of a race car, let alone Jag’s new Formula E contender.

In addition to the Murray ad, Jaguar’s #FeelWimbledon campaign will also touch down in various locations around the country, specifically the Goodwood Festival of Speed where extensive promotional activities are being planned to raise awareness for the campaign. The British automaker also hired a coupe of digital specialist companies - Mindshare and Hammerhead - to create a 360-degree virtual reality tour of Center Court from the perspective of the number one British player in the world.

All of these marketing endeavors are tied into the five-year partnership Jaguar signed with the All-England Club in 2015.

Why it matters

The partnership itself between Jaguar and The All-England Club isn’t really important in the automotive sense, but from a bigger perspective, it ties into the British automaker’s aggressive marketing plans to raise awareness and exposure for the brand. The allure and attraction of a major sporting event like Wimbledon is the perfect venue for a company like Jaguar to show its wares.

And, if you think about it, a lot of the major sports leagues or sporting events in the world have some kind of automotive sponsor behind it. Hyundai and Kia are the official automotive partners of FIFA until 2022, including the 2018 and 2022 World Cups, not to mention the 2014 World Cup. Kia also has the NBA to count as a partner while Hyundai has the NFL. Then there’s Toyota, which counts itself as a top sponsor of the Olympics until 2024, a huge coup for the Japanese automaker considering that the 2020 Olympics will be held in Tokyo, Japan.

In Jaguar’s case, The Championships at Wimbledon is a perfect partner, not only because of its shared British roots, but also because of the global reach of the tournament. It’s arguably the most prestigious of the four Grand Slam tournaments in the tennis calendar. In the US alone, Wimbledon 2015 was the most-watched tennis major ever on WatchESPN with a record 223.9 million minutes viewed and 24.4 million live minutes viewed in the final Sunday of the tournament.

In other words, a lot of people tuned into Wimbledon and, as the tournament’s automotive sponsor, a lot of people saw a lot of Jaguar in those minutes. That’s a big reason why Jaguar is doubling down on its sponsorship efforts with an experiential zone at London’s Waterloo station during the course of the tournament and 20,000 Jaguar-branded Google Cardboard kits that will be handed out to commuters in London.

Jaguar F-Type SVR

Read our full review on the Jaguar F-Type SVR here.