INTERVIEW: The Wimbledon tennis championship is seeing its Instagram popularity grow faster than any other social media platform, the event’s head of digital Alexandra Willis (pictured) told Mobile World Live, adding “it provides a great opportunity to tell the story of Wimbledon in a different way”.

She explained that in a year like 2018 when Wimbledon will be on at same time as the FIFA World Cup, it is more important than ever to “proactively engage our fan base across all platforms” and said “the one that’s growing more than anything else is Instagram”.

Willis said sticker provider Giphy is also popular with fans, and the service, together with “more traditional” platforms like YouTube and Twitter, makes up part of the event’s digital strategy.

In 2017, Wimbledon tested a chatbot called Fred (named after tennis player Fred Perry), which recieved positive feedback: “People appreciated the ambition we have to improve accesiblity around the site…many come to the event for the first time and don’t always know where to go and what to do – being able to put that searchability and access to information into the hands of the fan is only going to become more important”.

Willis said she is looking to expand the capabilities of the bot for 2018. She also talked about the role of artifical intelligence (AI), immersive media and the democratisation of data for fans.

Click here for the full interview.