Andy Murray dominates Wimbledon and Twitter

It was a historic weekend for British sport in what could be described as a golden era.  With London 2012 having given us fans so many perfect moments we wondered if could ever be repeated.

The British & Irish Lions defeated the Aussie’s down under, providing the team with a first tour win in 14 years.  Then Andy Murray stepped up to take his place in sporting folklore. Could he win the Wimbledon title after having reached his second final in succession?  Oh ye of little faith, of course he could!

We all know how it came about after having watched the match, re-watched the highlights and read the countless reams of coverage in the press.  But it was on Twitter that the conversation was taking place at the time, the rest of the coverage was catch up and reflection.

During one 12 hour period on Twitter, Wimbledon was mentioned an astonishing 3.4 million times.  The peak in mentions of the match happened at 17.25 BST with 120,000 tweets per minute recorded.  This eclipsed the 117,601 recorded when the final whistle blew in May to signal Bayern Munich as the 2013 UEFA Champions League winners.

Murray Mentions

Overall there were more than 5 million tweets and Andy was mentioned almost 1 million times, the majority of which were in the last day (obviously).  The others who made up the top 5 in terms of mentions were; Novak Djokovic, Serena Williams, Laura Robson and Sabine Lisicki.

This shows that the story was not only about the winners but also those favourites who stumbled and fell when everyone thought they would easily triumph.  This was certainly the case for Serena Williams.  The other notables were of course Roger Federer, Rafa Nadal and Maria Sharapova.

ESPN courtcast

(ESPN Courtcast)

Top tweet of the day has to go to the man of the moment.  His first tweet after winning the title has been retweeted 89k times and favourited almost as much, 68k.  It was short and simple, summing up what he, and the rest of the country, was thinking…

His main sponsor, adidas, has been very busy throughout the tournament.  With some great looking graphics and an interesting competition running for the whole 2 weeks the #hitthewinner competition certainly hit the mark.

The sportswear giant gave fans the chance to win a t-shirt every time he hit a winner.  This nice image gives some clear instructions on how fans could take part.

To follow this up, they have announced to Murray fans that they also have the chance to #hitthewinner against the man himself.  It’s great timing with the Wimbledon Champion the hottest property in the country at the moment.  Fans can get down to Kennington (near our Pulse Office – but sadly am in Basingstoke today) with the first there getting to have a crack.

The brand also benefitted with the association with Andy.  Over the last week there been obvious peaks in mentions as they ran the competition during matches and celebrated with images of the great man.  At the peak they received over 3k mentions and 54k mentions over the last week for @adidasUK, even more for the adidas brand as a whole (147k).

adidas andy murray

The most reactive tweet, just after the winning shot had been made received over 3k retweets, showing once again the importance of having a simple bespoke image that is used at exactly the right moment.  People at that point want to share something that they want to say themselves but dont have the means.  adidas provided them with this and it was shared many times.

From all of us here at UKSN – Congratulations Andy Murray.  Wimbledon Champion 2013!!

 

About author

Daniel McLaren
Daniel McLaren 820 posts

Dan is the Founder & CEO of Digital Sport. Can be found at sports industry events and heard every week on the Digital Sport Insider podcast. @DanielMcLaren

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