The last week in sport has been jam-packed with enough controversy to keep talkSPORT listeners quarrelling until 2018; be it the News of the World’s revelations about the Pakistan Cricket team, Monty’s baffling decision to omit Paul Casey from the European Ryder Cup team (with revelations about his & Tiger’s private lives still hanging uncomfortably in the air), Bloodgate Doctor Wendy Chapman being cleared of deception, the continuing debate over the sex of Caster Semenya, or the world first of Michael Schumacher actually admitting fault following his attempt to make Reubens Barrichello a permanent feature of the Hungaroring.
Despite this, the one thing that really appealed to me (for all the right reasons) was the start of Channel 4’s programming dedicated to the London 2012 Paralympic Games, brought to life with two new shows: Inside Incredible Athletes, and That Paralympic Show. The launch naturally coincided with the landmark of two years to go to the opening of the Paralympic Games, and while I can’t remember a thing that happened for the equivalent mark for the London 2012 Olympic Games, I’m now going to be regularly tuning in to Channel 4’s coverage.
There was surprise when the Beeb didn’t win the rights to the Paralympics but I was personally delighted by LOCOG’s foresight. I think it’s often overlooked that Channel 4 is a public-service broadcaster, and I was confident they would bring a more piercing lens on the Paralympics and Paralympians, in light of their heritage of innovative programming. I still look back with fond memories of their coverage of NFL, Football Italia, Sumo and Kabbadi (OK, not so much Kabbadi), and TransWorldSport was a regular staple for me on Saturday mornings.
The programmes themselves were a great mix of scientific insight, personality and humour. ‘Inside Incredible Athletes’ got under their skin of Paralympians using scientific tests and state-of-the-art scanning technology to create ‘biomechanical portraits’, in other words, the Science behind their disability. ‘That Paralympic Show’, with its magazine format, focused much more on the personalities of the athletes, their stories, their sports, and included humorous features such as ‘Pimp my Chair’ – An idea that wouldn’t have made the Beeb’s cutting room floor.
Employing T4 stalwart Rick Edwards to front programming alongside renowned Paralympian Ade Adepitan was a good choice, and a great way to widen the appeal of the Paralympics to a younger audience, an important job in light of viewing figures for the Games themselves which historically tend to be watched, in the majority, by the over 50’s. It doesn’t end there though, and Channel 4 has commendably launched a £500,000 initiative to identify and train new on-screen talent with disabilities to play a leading role in the coverage of the London 2012 Olympics. The broadcaster is aiming for 50% of its presenting team covering the Games to be disabled.
As for the sponsors of Channel 4’s Paralympics coverage, BT & Sainsbury’s both have an unrivalled opportunity to change the way consumers perceive their organisations. While there is the obvious benefit of a two year broadcast sponsorship to drive awareness of their association (something the BBC could never offer), both brands have the chance to truly integrate the Paralympics into their brand marketing over the next two years and beyond, and steal considerable thunder from the Olympic sponsor family. Taking inspiration from Channel 4’s initiatives would be a good start.
It’s also good to see two brands with strong British heritage sponsoring an event born on these shores as the Stoke Mandeville Games in 1948. BT & Sainsbury’s can speak to the majority of the UK population and if they fulfil commitments to ‘make a lasting difference to attitudes towards disability in the UK and create opportunities for change in disabled people’s lives’, then they will have contributed to a ‘real’ legacy. In my opinion, that’s much more powerful than the legacy claims of LOCOG’s swollen band of Sustainability partners – a prize to anyone who can name them all without Googling.
How they deliver on these promises remains to be seen, but I hope they aren’t afraid to use Paralympians to front their wider brand and product marketing campaigns. Both brands need to be bold and I’d urge them to consider an OFCOM stat I’m firmly attached to: ‘69% of able bodied people said they would not be put off buying a product advertised by a ‘severely’ (visibly) disabled person’. I hope through their combined efforts by 2012 this will increase to at least 80% of the UK population.
BT, whose credentials within Paralympic sport are well established after years of support for the Paralympic World Cup, already have a suite of ambassadors from which to front their efforts. Sainsbury’s made their first step this week, with the signing of Ellie Simmonds to front their Active Kids programme, on the back of a record breaking IPC Swimming Championships for Paralympics GB.
If both brands work in tandem with Channel 4, there’s a real chance that by 2012 the UK public will recognise just as many Paralympic athletes as Olympic ones. When considering Paralympics GB is by far the most successful Team we have in UK sport (102 medals in Beijing), and that this will be the first time they’ve performed on home soil since 1948, I only hope that thousands of us are cheering them on by name and showing our appreciation of their achievements as world-class athletes, as we will with Team GB.
So if you, like me, are tired of getting lost in the barrage of sleaze, politics, and ego that shows no sign of abating in the wider sporting world, definitely make the effort to follow Channel 4’s Paralympic coverage from now until 2012.
By Paul Whitehead on September 1st, 2010
Tags: BBC, Brand marketing, Broadcast sponsorship, London 2012, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Team GB
Find us on Google maps
