Betfair is constantly pushing the envelope to find innovative ways of using their sponsorship assets. Whether that is quirky player challenges to capitalise on the sporting agenda, a ten pin bowling viral showcasing Betfair’s mobile offering (see video below), or a pioneering deal to place QR codes on GB’s beach volleyball players’ bottoms at the London 2012 Test Event, the emphasis is on doing things differently.
Bringing a fresh approach to sponsorship activation comes naturally for a company founded and driven by innovation. Another pillar of Betfair’s marketing philosophy is to ‘live and breathe social’ – as outlined by Betfair’s Head of Online Marketing, Ben Carter (@bensaint). Social is not treated as an add-on to marketing activity, but is put at the heart of campaigns. As a sponsor of Manchester United, with their 21m+ Facebook likes, it makes sense for Betfair to engage the club’s fanbase through social channels.
So what did Synergy suggest when given a couple of hours’ access to some Manchester United players on an (inevitably) wet January afternoon in Manchester? Stage a live Q&A with United players on Betfair’s Facebook page, giving fans the chance to interact with their idols by submitting questions or posting comments during the live broadcast via Facebook and Twitter.
Working alongside Betfair’s in-house production team, real-time broadcast experts Livestream, and MUTV, we helped deliver Betfair presents Man Utd live - an exclusive 30 minute programme hosted by TV presenter Rachel Brookes and featuring Michael Carrick, Ashley Young and Nani. Supporters were able to watch the action by simply ‘liking’ the Betfair Facebook page, and could submit questions or comments by tweeting @BetfairSports with the #MUlive hashtag.
Once again, doing things differently paid off. Over 40,000 people tuned in to watch, close to 1,000 questions were received during the broadcast, and tweets of the #MULive hashtag reached over 3.8 million people (source: Tweetreach). Synergy’s PR team managed the external pre-promotion through football blogs and forums, and the post-event syndication of content and quotes to key media targets, resulting in over 100 pieces of online coverage. Quotes featured in three national print newspapers, and branded footage was included in ITV Granada Reports in the build up to the weekend’s game against Arsenal.
What else did we learn from our inaugural live interactive Facebook broadcast? For a start that Nani regularly gets the hairdryer treatment from Sir Alex. For more insights, you’ll have to watch the webcast for yourself….
Over a month on from the Rugby World Cup Final and the post mortems are just about complete. Global TV audiences of 4 billion have been reported, social media round-ups published, teams of the tournament have been selected by all and sundry, and the New Zealand Herald has discovered some other sports to write about. Only England seems relentlessly stuck in review and recrimination mode, with new personnel and processes being announced on a weekly basis. While the RFU sifts through the carnage of dwarf-throwing, ferry jumping, ball-swapping and under-performing, here’s a slightly lighter examination of the brand marketing activity that surrounded the world’s third biggest sporting event.
In the previous Synopsis, Synergy’s new head of content, Colin Burgess, outlined the key ingredients for successful content that will illicit the deepest audience engagement: authority, authenticity – and the holy grail of all marketing – making it memorable. Applying those criteria to sponsor content during the Rugby World Cup goes a long way to explaining why activity might or might not have resonated with rugby fans.
Authority first. This is largely determined by the content’s provenance – it needs to be produced and delivered by a trusted and credible source. Some brands activating around the Rugby World Cup have a natural advantage in the authority stakes for various reasons:
1) Their inherent role in the game and on the pitch (the likes of adidas, Nike and Gilbert)
2) Through their long-standing presence as a rugby sponsor (see O2, Guinness and Heineken)
3) By their connection with the host nation (for example Air New Zealand and Tourism New Zealand)
Throwing in a few brand ambassadors is another well-trodden path to creating or supplementing a brand’s natural authority and giving the content a credibility boost. A great example of this, and fantastic use of owned media, came from Air New Zealand, who painted their fleet black and produced a safety video featuring members of the All Blacks team. Nearly 1m online views for a 4 minute safety video. Job well done.
On to authenticity and content that connects through personal or social relevance. To get the kitemark of rugby authenticity, sponsors adopted a variety of techniques:
1) Showing an understanding and empathy for the particular humour, culture and spirit of rugby fans
2) Playing on the history and heritage of the game and previous tournaments
3) Tapping into events as they happen in the tournament to become part of the narrative of the Rugby World Cup
Below are Synergy’s nominations for the brands that most successfully delivered authentic content during the World Cup, embodying those three techniques. But in keeping with rugby’s community spirit, please add your own nominations for the best brand content around the 2011 Rugby World Cup in the comments section below:
O2, with a tradition of giving free pies and pints to customers at Twickenham, adapted their customer proposition to fit early morning rugby viewing. Ashton donning an apron, Jonny making tea (after numerous practice sessions, no doubt), and Jonno with the control (no comment…). Relevant content from a long-standing rugby sponsor. If only it had been Guinness not Greene King in the breakfast packs…
Steinlager proved that an ambush marketer can still exhibit authority (what is more relevant to All Blacks supporters than beer, and a Kiwi brand at that?), authenticity (connecting through the collective anguish of New Zealand’s Rugby World Cup chokes) and a brilliant creative idea (reviving the Steinlager white can)…
Wilkinson Sword showed their quick thinking and wit by creating a pre-Final advert encouraging Lievremont to shave his ridiculous moustache.
It was precisely the fact that these campaigns came from a place of authority and authenticity that made them the most memorable.
But, all in all, the Rugby World Cup will not go down in the Sponsorship Hall of Fame as a high-water mark of sponsorship activity. So what was missing from sports marketing activity and particularly content around Rugby World Cup 2011? The answer is ‘just about everything’ from the 4th Era of Sponsorship: interactivity, genuine collaboration and contribution from fans within brand campaigns (beyond the standard encouragement to tweet a hashtag…), exciting use of mobile, and memorable, game-changing innovation.
Let’s hope brands were keeping their powder dry for 2012, and the unprecedented marketing spend we are going to see around the Olympic Games. And let’s also hope that by Rugby World Cup 2015, we’ll be seeing more innovative, truly engaging and memorable content than this:
It is not all glamorous PR launches, trips to film festivals, attending world-class sporting events or managing photo shoots of beach volleyball players with QR codes on their derrieres. Alongside the visible perks of the job there is a whole host of unseen administrative rigour that goes into ‘what we do’ for our clients.
Take the Powerade account team. A fundamental part of our role is meeting the hydration needs of every Powerade sponsorship asset, be that all 72 Football League clubs, Jessica Ennis, or the England, Ireland and Wales Rugby Union teams.
For the Football League alone, each season we manage the supply of enough Powerade and Powerade Pro (powder sachets) to fill over 600 baths. But it is not just Powerade product we deal in; over the course of the year, we oversee the delivery of about 4,000 Powerade sippers bottles – which if stacked from end to end, would tower over the of the world’s tallest building – amongst other Powerade branded hydration equipment.
Just last month, 2,000 sachets of Powerade Pro (which is only available in the UK) safely made it through customs, to help ensure that throughout the Rugby World Cup, on the pitch at least, our rugby boys didn’t go thirsty.
With London 2012 on the horizon, plans are taking shape to supply Powerade product to every single Olympic and Paralympic participant.
Like the vast majority of sports fans watching the events unfold at Royal St George’s, I found myself willing a Darren Clarke victory – this despite a fairly uneducated £5 pre-tournament punt on Phil Mickelson. The emotional pull of seeing a people’s champion claim the Claret Jug was stronger than the rational tug of reversing my losing streak on Betfair. Sport has a particular ability to evoke strong emotions through its personal stories of courage, inspiration and determination, through its inherent unpredictability, excitement and drama.
Those emotions are an essential component of successful sponsorship – and are as relevant across other sponsorship platforms (music, film, fashion, art) as they are in sport. How often do we hear rights holders, brands and sponsorship agencies (guilty as charged) talk of ‘engaging consumers through their passion points’ to justify sponsorship investments? It has become the de facto rationale. But what substantiates that principle, and are sponsors embracing it to make a genuine connection with consumers?
Shared Passions
The stated ambition of many sponsors is to create that emotional connection with their target audience through a shared passion. The theory goes that an emotionally engaged audience – whether they are football fanatics, art lovers, bog snorkelling aficionados, or Gaga’s ‘little monsters’ – is an audience that will be more receptive to brand messages, and more likely to think positively about a brand associated with their passion.
Sound thinking or codswallop? Well, there is plenty of research supporting the notion that the higher a consumer’s emotional engagement with an event, the more effective their recall of sponsors. If you want proof, just read Bal, Pascale and Plewa’s research study in the Sept 2009 Journal of Sponsorship (Volume 2, Number 4). Or take my word for it. Their analysis of the emotional response elicited by a sponsorship event confirmed what we would probably all take as read – that ‘positive sport-related emotions contribute to sponsorship efficiency, favouring the recognition of sponsors’. Which makes sense – an emotional experience is more likely to crystallise into memory than an experience without emotion. I remember where I was when Wilkinson dropped THAT goal in 2003 with patriotic emotions riding high, but have no recollection where I watched the 2010 World Cup Final as an impartial observer.
Sponsor Engagement
But how do sponsors get in on the act, and stake a claim to those memories? Being visible within a passion point might increase the chances of being in a consumer’s mind, but it doesn’t win a place in their hearts. There has to be active emotional involvement, not just proximity or visibility. Engagement not impressions. Too many sponsors assume that an increased awareness of their sponsorship, and that magical associative power alone, will alter consumer perceptions. Perimeter boards, media backdrops, shirt sponsorships and the like certainly have a reinforcing role to play, but I’m yet to hear a sponsor say “that perimeter board really helped me emotionally connect with my target audience”. The abundance of advertising we are seeing in the run up to 2012 that says ‘I’m an Olympic sponsor’ is failing to tap into the rich emotional tapestry of the Olympics.
So what should sponsors do to capitalise on their consumers’ emotions beyond just ‘being at the party’? To start with there needs to be some sense of brand relevance to the passion point. How else can a brand claim to ‘share’ that passion? Authenticity could be driven by brand characteristics, product relevance, company heritage, or geography. Lack relevance, and brands risk looking as incongruous as Budweiser’s relationship with that king of soccer competitions, the FA Cup. The central thought in Neill Duffy’s book Passion Brandingis another worthwhile principle: leverage the relationship between a brand and its consumers around a consumer passion to create value for all involved in the relationship. Sponsors need to think beyond their brand to deliver a benefit for consumers – be that entertaining content, a unique experience or simply a memorable emotional pay-off.
Many brands are successfully engaging consumers on an emotional level, in a relevant passion point, and contributing to their enjoyment of that passion. Some capitalise on a moment of high emotion, some tap into the core emotional sensibility of the passion point. Whether anchored in anticipation, pride, patriotism or celebration, they all exhibit genuine empathy and understanding. A few examples below…
In the build up to the 2006 FIFA World Cup, Carlsberg’s Old Lions campaign tapped into England fans’ anticipation of the tournament through a nostalgic lens and a pitch perfect creation of pub football camaraderie.
Fast forward four years to the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and Coca-Cola’s activation single-mindedly focused on football’s moment of greatest emotion – celebrating a goal. From reliving the greatest celebrations in World Cup history, recording a World Cup celebration song, to touring the FIFA World Cup around the globe, they fuelled fan emotion with the ‘What’s your Celebration’ campaign.
Talking of celebration, O2’s Rugby World Cup victory parade in 2003 gave rugby fans the opportunity to express their support, their joy and their pride to the returning heroes. Not only that, O2 armed all England players with mobile cameras to record the experience and share it with consumers, and gave some lucky fans the chance to win a place on the parade bus.
But not all emotional engagement is grounded in joy and positivity. Bupa’s activation of their Great North Run focuses on the participants’ moments of greatest physical and emotional need. The Bupa Boost Zone at the typical ‘low’ point for runners 80% through the race, and at the finish, provides massages, sustenance and music to inspire and re-energise runners.
What next?
Social media is making the emotional engagement opportunities around sponsorship that much more immediate, and much more of a dialogue opportunity. The response to celebratory moments in particular is now fairly instantaneous, and can propel brands to the heart of the emotional moment. Harness the emotions correctly, and your consumers will add the catalyst of conversation. After all, people are more likely to talk about things that illicit an emotional response. As a final plea to sponsors, I defer to Mark Harrison, Chair of the Canadian Sponsorship Forum:
‘You can’t manufacture emotion. It’s already there. When you find it – just find a way to trigger it; tap into it; fuel it; and watch it grow into something remarkable.’
May 10th 2011. As the rest of the nation settled down to the new series of The Apprentice, switched on SKY Sports to watch Manchester City destroy Tottenham’s season, or celebrated the anniversary of Nelson Mandela’s inauguration as President of South Africa, over fourty of INSEAD’s finest alumni gathered at Engine to discuss another momentous moment in our lifetime – the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games. Hosted by our very own INSEAD graduate and Direct of Consulting – Carsten Thode – the Synergy ‘Get Ready for 2012’ seminar garnered insight from a selection London 2012 partners.
The premise of the event was simple – the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games in London are going to be transformative for many UK businesses, with unprecedented impact on their industries, sectors, customers and staff. With just over a year to go before the Games, what can we learn from the people who have been planning and preparing for that moment for as long as Boris?
Representing the sponsors – Richard Hudson, Marketing Director, BMW UK, a Tier 1 sponsor of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, and Jat Sahota, Head of Sponsorship at Sainsburys, which negotiated a ground-breaking deal to become the first ever Paralympics-only sponsor. For the broadcasting community – Edouard Benroubi Business Manager at the BBC and the man responsible for the technical implementation of BBC’s London 2012 Olympic Games coverage, and tasked with delivering this aspiration – to broadcast every minute of every sport live via every platform. No pressure there then.
So what did we learn? Well, Chatham House rules applied but in case anyone was wondering about the enormity of the opportunity, and challenge, that hosting the Olympics presents, consider the following:
What happened? On 21st February 2011, Glacéau vitaminwater‘s sponsorship of London Fashion Week reached new heights. The brand teamed up with fashion label Burberry and outdoor media owner CBS to treat thousands of Londoners to live streams of the Burberry catwalk show. The Burberry Prorsum autumn/winter catwalk show was screened exclusively live on Coca-Cola’s iconic 32 metre high Piccadilly Circus sign.
Why we like it: Innovation is the holy grail for many brands, not least a trendsetter like vitaminwater. The Burberry show was the first time the Piccadilly Sign had broadcast a live stream in its 57 year existence, made possible by a new “Code of Conduct” allowing advertisers wider scope to utilise their displays in more dynamic, interactive ways. But there is more to this idea than the pioneering approach, the integrated social media activity through Youtube, Twitter and Facebook, and the cute activation tactics, such as vitaminwater deck chairs and plentiful product to refresh the hoards crowded around Eros.
What a brilliant way to leverage an existing media asset – Coca-Cola’s iconic sign – taking the normally exclusive world of the catwalk to the high street. A great example of a brand appreciating the reciprocal value they can bring to the table in negotiation with rights holders and potential brand partners. With social media creating ever more valuable brand-owned channels – be that Facebook pages, Youtube channels, or Twitter followings – expect to see more examples of brands as proxy media partners. Although not many can boast a parent company with a 32 metre high digital billboard passed by 1.2 million people per week.
What the partner says: Caroline Rush, Chief Executive of the British Fashion Council, highlighted the consumer benefit of this ground-breaking initiative: “This is an amazing opportunity to get Londoners involved in London Fashion Week and give them a front row seat – a sneak preview of the key trends and insight into what they will be wearing come autumn.” And vitaminwater’s ever-so-hip target audience like nothing more than a finger on the pulse sneak preview.
How could Powerade support the launch of the new Powerade ION4 master brand in February 2011, using existing sponsorship platforms to help bring the new product’s key attributes to life?
Synergy took Powerade’s tried and tested ‘sweat session’ concept (pitting ‘average Joes’ against professional sports stars), and applied it to rugby. Four rugby players, one from each of the four home Unions (spotted the ION4 link yet?) were recruited to participate in a punishing 60 minute training session at Twickenham under the direction of England’s National Fitness Coach, Paul ‘Bobby’ Stridgeon.
The session was filmed and edited to create engaging digital content that could be seeded during the RBS 6 Nations. Watch and enjoy…
‘Bobby’ (named by the London Wasps squad for his ‘Waterboy’ matchday duties when at the club) devised the training schedule to maximise sweat loss, not an easy feat on a freezing evening in early January. The lucky ‘average Joe’ was in fact amateur rugby player and carpenter Matt Taylor, who had the unenviable task of going head to head with international rugby stars Simon Shaw, Kelly Brown, Luke Fitzgerald and Alun-Wyn Jones in a continuous series of aerobic and anaerobic exercises – including sprint shuttles, tyre flips, spinning, wrestling and a highly competitive tug of war - to demonstrate how much sweat is lost during a high intensity training session.
All participants were weighed before and after their exertions to calculate how much weight they had lost through sweat. The big guys led the way in fluid loss, with Simon and Alun-Wyn both shedding a staggering 1.4kgs.
Now for the science bit (and the reason Powerade is now Powerade ION4): when you sweat, you also lose four essential minerals - sodium, magnesium, potassium and calcium. Without trying to sound like an advertising voiceover, Powerade ION4 has an advanced mineral system that is scientifically proven to hydrate better than water by replacing both fluids and these minerals.
For the key target audience of ‘Born Sportsmen’, we knew that in terms of insights that float their boat, statistics and data that substantiate product functionality are right up there alongside ‘behind the scenes’ footage, and seeing how normal people fare against elite athletes. Which meant that the Powerade ION4 sweat session content provides the ideal platform to communicate the brand’s key hydration messaging, delivering against all target audience insights – at the time of year when Born Sportsmen are most highly engaged in rugby.
Although rugby adheres to the maxim ‘what goes on tour, stays on tour’, a day’s filming at Twickenham doesn’t count. So here’s a few behind the scenes highlights for any Born Sportsmen out there:
- Luke Fitzgerald ripped his shirt flexing his muscles before the warm-up started
- Alun-Wyn Jones was top performer on the shuttle sprints
- ‘Average’ Matt Taylor (also a part time oarsman), won the ergo challenge hands down
- All players bottled the ice bath option post-session
Next up for the participants (Matt apart): blood, sweat and tears in the RBS 6 Nations. Bring it on.
The decision on the future of London’s Olympic Stadium is imminent, with uproar at Tottenham Hotspur’s proposal to demonlish the stadium and build a new one. But London is not the only cosmopolitan metropolis, hungry to host major international events and build a lasting legacy for sport in the community, with a purpose built stadium that might get knocked down after one event. Take Abu Dhabi, and the 5,000-seater stadium in the grounds of the Emirates Palace Hotel, constructed for the sole purpose of staging the first UK domestic rugby fixture ever played overseas. OK, so Wasps v Harlequins in the LV= Cup isn’t quite the Olympics, but the two are linked by club growth ambitions.
While Spurs seek their equivalent of Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium to bring in more matchday revenue, Wasps’ trip to the U.A.E. was apparently all about building the brand. According to former skipper and now Wasps Director Lawrence Dallagio, the idea was to ‘strengthen the club and develop a global brand…while engaging with local schools and rugby clubs in the region’. Hats off Lawrence, and Wasps owner Steve Hayes, for persuading tournament organisers, the Rugby Football Union, Premiership Rugby, Sky Sports, and the IRB to support the iniative. Tournament title sponsors LV= presumably took little persuasion. Anything that brings a bit of attention to an overlooked Carling Cup-esque ‘development tournament’ is a good thing for the title sponsor. For opponents Harlequins – sponsored by Abu Dhabi airline Etihad – agreeing to play ball would have been a no brainer.
So, can the idea be deemed a brand building success? All pre-match billing insisted that the game was far from a mid-season jolly for sun, sea and a seven star hotel, but a serious competitive fixture. The 38-13 scoreline suggested otherwise. Despite a bowling green standard pitch (imported from Panama), both teams badly missed their internationals on RBS 6 Nations duty, meaning the standard was, well, LV= Cup standard. Unsurprising without the likes of Flutey, Worsley, Shaw, or Simpson. Not the ‘Manchester United of Rugby’ image that Lol would have wanted Wasps to project en route to developing a global brand.
What about engaging a new rugby audience? Abu Dhabi isn’t the most obvious target for a Wasps outreach programme, especially with Quins making moves in the region through the Abu Dhabi Harlequins Rugby Club. Based on the stated brand and development criteria, a victory for Quins on and off the pitch. Only a cynic would suggest Hayes and Dallaglio staged the match to bring Wasps to the attention of potential investors and sponsors, but you can imagine their envious glances in the direction of Quin’s Etihad sponsorship.
And amid all this commercialism, what about the fans who missed out on a trip to Adams Park? Wasps season ticket holders were provided with a match ticket and subsidised travel packages. Those that decided Abu Dhabi was a tad too far to travel were offered a match refund AND an invitation to an exclusive open day with the squad at Adams Park later in the season. Given that the match was live on SKY, and of dubious quality, that sounds like a result for the armchair army.
English club rugby has proved adept at borrowing good ideas. Following Stade Francais’s lead of staging key matches at bigger venues – for Stade de France read Twickenham or Wembley – Wasps have now aped American sports in hosting competitve matches overseas. With the NFL staging regular-season games at Wembley Stadium for the last three years and the NBA following suit at The O2 this March, the definition of a ‘home’ fixture is stretching. Where football failed with their proposals for a 39th game in overseas markets, rugby has delivered the goods. But if the intention really is building a the brand and encouraging grassroots rugby, let’s see an Aviva Premiership match, with full strength squads, in a truly developing rugby nation like Russia or Portugal. Oh, and make sure the stadium has a clock and scoreboard.
As for the future prosperity of Wasps, the performance of 18 year old Billy Vunipola, a 20 stone Harrow schoolboy wearing the No. 8 shirt made famous by Dallaglio, suggests that their prospecting closer to home has hit a rich vein.
As the “Golden Generation” of England footballers bid for the umpteenth (and probably last) time to realise their potential at a major international tournament, fans across the country will be reaching for their Three Lions replica shirts, keeping their fingers crossed, and praying that “Wazza” really can Write The Future.
Back to the present. Before a fly-away Jabulani ball has been struck in earnest, the contest between “official sponsors” and those pesky ambushers has truly kicked off. The FA and Mars, an official partner of the England Team, are reportedly considering legal action against Nestlé, for “passing off” an association with the England team through Kit Kat’s “Fingers Crossed” campaign. Yes, this is the same Mars who undertook the infamous “Believe” ambush marketing campaign around the 2006 World Cup. For 2010, and the first football World Cup on African soil, a classic case of poacher turned gamekeeper.
Three questions, one for each lion on John Barnes’s Mars Bar :
1. Is Nestlé actually passing off an association with the England team?
This should probably be left to the lawyers, but from a layman’s / sport industry professional’s perspective, using Sol Campbell and Mansfield Town manager David Holdsworth as your “talent” is not the best way to infer an association with the England team. And despite the well observed allusions to England’s World Cup heritage – “cross your fingers for no penalties…no broken metatarsals…no tears” -and liberal use of the ambusher’s best friend (the St George’s flag), nothing suggests that Kit Kat sponsors Capello’s boys.
2. Should Mars be trying to protect their hard bought status as the England Team’s confectionary brand of choice?
A lesson for all official sponsors. Complain about the ambushers and you are giving their campaigns the oxygen of publicity. Mars clearly had good reason to turn gamekeeper and pay for the privilege of England partner status. They should be confident that their association, leveraged properly, will pay off. Otherwise, why not remain a poacher?
3. Whose current World Cup campaign is better?
No contest. Kit Kat have tapped into the very essence of the English sporting psyche, and the pervading sense of hope over expectation that grips every England football fan during international football tournaments. Their TV ad brings that insight to life in a down to earth, domestic football environment. Compare that with John Barnes re-hashing a song from 1990 in a sparsely populated park, with production values that suggest too much money in the FA’s coffers and not enough in the activation pot.
Reports suggest that Mars may have won the battle of the lawyers, and that Nestlé have agreed to curtail the campaign. Is that the final whistle on this contest? Probably not if Kit Kat’s PR team are on the ball. What price England players crossing their fingers during a crucial penalty shoot, or being caught on camera tucking into one of the 200 Kit Kat’s that have been delivered to the England training camp by the FA’s official supermarket …?
Whatever happens, fingers crossed that 2010 marks the end of John Barnes’s singing career.
With the theme of ‘Live your passion’, Rio will introduce a very different type of dialogue between the Games and youth (integrating music, entertainment and ambience), an important factor for the IOC who are acutely conscious that the global Olympic audience is ageing.
With due respect to Chicago, Madrid and Tokyo, Rio clearly offered the most spectacular backdrop for the Olympic Games of the four competing cities, as well as the unique emotion, passion and creativity of the Brazilian nation.
In addition, Rio offers world-class facilities, an early legacy use for the venues of the 2014 FIFA World Cup and a model where only 26% of the venues need to be new builds.
Looking at the four bids, it’s also interesting to see that at $313m, Rio’s forecast sponsorship revenue is a only quarter of the target planned by Chicago. An unfair comparison? Over-optimism by Chicago? Or a case of ‘under promise, over deliver’ on Rio’s part? Only time will tell, but we shouldn’t underestimate the economic power – and lure – of one of the world’s biggest economies.
All in all, one can only applaud the IOC’s decision: it’s the right time for Rio, for Brazil, and for South America.
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