In the run-up to London 2012, UK consumers are going to hear more and more about Olympic pins, and the trading thereof. This cranked up another notch this week with the launch by LOCOG of ‘Landmark London’ pin badges, featuring iconic locations in each London borough, such as the Lambeth London 2012 pin featuring the London Eye below. They go on sale later this month and you can see them all here.

With London 2012 in mind, this led me to consider what else captured the unique geography and zeitgeist of London, and what immediately sprang to mind was Ian Dury’s brilliant rendition of ‘The Bus Driver’s Prayer’. Being of a certain vintage, I was lucky enough to see Dury perform it several times live, but as I expect most of you will be unfamiliar with it, it’s the Lord’s Prayer as - perhaps – recited by a London Bus Driver, and it goes like this:

Our Father, who art in Hendon, Harrow Road be thy name. Thy Kingston come, thy Wimbledon, in Erith as it is in Hendon. Give us this day, our Berkhamsted, and forgive us our Westminsters, as we forgive those that Westminster against us. Lead us not into Temple Station, and deliver us from Ealing, for thine is the Kingston, the Purley and Crawley, for Iver and Iver, Crouch End.

It would be nice to think that it could be worked into London 2012 in some way: as part of an ‘Essential London’ album perhaps – or maybe in the Opening Ceremony? After all, a London bus famously featured in London 2012’s section of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games Closing Ceremony…

By Tim Crow on March 11th, 2010

Tags: Beijing 2008, Default, London 2012, Music, Olympics

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Having won the MCCA ‘Best Campaign Featuring Sponsorship’ last year for its Team GB campaign around the Beijing Olympics, it’s great to be able to say that the Powerade 2009 InnerGear campaign has again been shortlisted in this year’s MCCA BEST Awards. Building on the insights and imagery of the Team GB campaign, Powerade brought the same InnerGear core creative idea to two of its international rugby assets – the English and Welsh rugby teams.

The 2009 edition featured England captain Steve Borthwick, Paul Sackey and IRB World Player of the Year, Shane Williams, in some equally impactful creative, and was supported through the line by Powerade’s cross agency team.

By Jonathan Izzard on January 20th, 2010

Tags: Beijing 2008, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Rugby, Sponsorship, Synergy, Team GB

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The stand-out performer on the track at this week’s World Athletics Championships in Berlin has of course been the astonishing Usain Bolt. Off the track, his sponsors Puma have also demolished the opposition in the marketing contest (albeit that Puma had little to beat, given the complete lack of activation by the various event sponsors) with a funny, savvy, multi-platform campaign which is right up there with anything produced by the category titans, adidas and Nike.

The inspiration for the campaign was gifted to Puma:  the fact that fans and the media incessantly request that Bolt reprise his trademark ’arms pointing skyward’ pose from the Beijing Olympics wherever he goes. Puma’s inspired twist? A ’solution’ to the problem, developed after ‘a year of research and development’, in the shape of strap-on foam ‘Bolt Arms’.

“From now on, they do the pose”, says Bolt, at a fake but cleverly-rendered press conference included in a number of virals released as part of the Puma campaign, which is notable for its integrated use of social media platforms.

Cue from there a blitz of experiential activity in Berlin, including mass distribution of the Arms to fans, leading to an inevitable decision by the IAAF (sports equipment sponsor: adidas) to ban fans from wearing ‘Bolt Arms’ in the stadium – prompting Puma to ask fans via Twitter if anyone managed to sneak them inside, which they clearly did judging by numerous TV crowd shots.

All in all an exemplary case study, and to my mind a contender for campaign of the year.

By Tim Crow on August 21st, 2009

Tags: Ambush campaign, Athletics, Beijing 2008, Default, Digital marketing, Viral Marketing

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Since Ciaran spotted that Olympic sponsors weren’t using search effectively around Beijing 2008, we’ve been keeping an eye on the digital space around major events to see if sponsors were beginning to exploit the opportunity. They aren’t.      

The latest example is The Masters. A unique tournament for many sporting reasons, but in marketing terms two features are key: the unbranded aesthetic of the tournament (other than the famous Masters mark and three very discreet sponsor logos on The Masters website, the only branding you’ll see is on the players) and the fact that, being the first Major of the season, it’s of massive interest for golf fans worldwide – huge numbers of whom will, naturally, be looking for information on The Masters online, as Google Trends reveals.

All of which would lead you to expect that brands with golf marketing motives, chiefly the equipment manufacturers and leading sponsors of the game, would be using search to ensure that they were entwined with The Masters online.

But they aren’t.

A search for The Masters right now shows that only three companies appear to be bidding for it online, none of which are the brands you’d expect to be activating around The Masters.

And when it comes to SEO, as the search returns show, it’s the same story: the big golf brands are nowhere to be seen. After looking through 10 pages of returns – none of which featured a golf sponsor – I quit. And a consumer of course wouldn’t dream of looking that far… 

By Tim Crow on April 10th, 2009

Tags: Beijing 2008, Default, Digital marketing, Golf, Olympic sponsorship, Sponsorship

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The team behind Powerade’s InnerGear campaign is celebrating today after picking up the ’Best Communication Campaign featuring Sponsorship’ at the highly regarded MCCA Best Awards last night.

Entered by Synergy, Coca-Cola GB’s sponsorship consultancy, the campaign’s striking photography, of Team GB athletes doing their individual sports naked, caught the judges eyes.  The win is the second in a row for Synergy campaigns.  In 2008, Guinness, with its title sponsorship of the English Rugby Premiership, was the victor.

Fingers are now crossed for both the Hollis and Sport Industry Awards 2009 for which the Powerade InnerGear campaign has also been short-listed.

By Sara Wilson on March 6th, 2009

Tags: Beijing 2008, Default, Guinness Premiership, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Rugby, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy, Team GB

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With the UK snowbound, it seems entirely appropriate to (b)log that the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics announced its first domestic sponsorship yesterday, a recession-busting $460m (£316m) deal in the telecommunications category with state-controlled long-distance telephone company Rostelecom and Russia’s number three mobile carrier, MegaFon.

In a departure from usual Olympic practice, the Sochi organising committee revealed the financials behind the deal – the two companies have pledged $260m (£179m) in sponsorship, plus a further $200m (£137m) to develop infrastructure in the region – thus enabling Sochi to claim early Olympic bragging rights over Beijing 2008 and London 2012 by stating that their telco sponsorship is ‘a record in Olympic history’.

Given that in its bid for the 2014 Games Sochi projected a total domestic revenue target of $350m, one can only conclude from this first deal that – perhaps deliberately? – Sochi underestimated the marketing appeal of the Games to domestic sponsors. After all, the two most recent Winter Olympics, Salt Lake 2002 and Torino 2006, raised $494m and $348m respectively from the domestic market, and Vancouver 2010 is aiming to raise $620m.

It’s also interesting to note how fast Sochi 2014 has moved by modern Olympic standards of sponsorship acquisition.  London 2012 – which set new standards for the Olympic Movement in acquiring domestic sponsors rapidly – announced its first domestic sponsorship, with Lloyds TSB, 591 days after winning the 2012 Bid. Sochi’s announcement yesterday shaves 14 days off that mark.

Recession, what recession?

By Tim Crow on February 2nd, 2009

Tags: Beijing 2008, Default, London 2012, Olympic sponsorship, Sochi 2014, Winter Olympics

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Synergy has been shortlisted in the ‘Best Campaign featuring Sponsorship’ category at the MCCA Best Awards 2009, for Powerade’s sponsorship of Team GB and the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.

The sponsorship, managed by Synergy on behalf of Powerade, was the focus of a fully-integrated campaign which was based around the concept of InnerGear - the brand’s core creative idea.  Synergy worked with Powerade and it’s other agencies to activate the campaign through-the-line, resulting in the brand enjoying it’s highest-ever levels of market share.

Winners will be announced at the MCCA Best Awards dinner which is being held at The Brewery on Chiswell Street on Thursday 5 March, so fingers crossed!

By Sara Wilson on January 19th, 2009

Tags: Beijing 2008, Brand marketing, Cycling, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Synergy, Team GB

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Listening to the unassuming Dave Brailsford, the man in charge of British Cycling, at this week’s FT Sport Industry Summit, was electrifying.

No wonder the cyclists won so many medals in Beijing.

He told his story quietly but with such underlying passion and determination that the effect was mesmerising.

It underlined the vital role played by excellent coaches and back-up teams and how badly our athletes need them if they are to continue to succeed at the elite level in general and the Olympics in particular.

I think it was the word ‘determination’ that came across so emphatically.  He and his team were utterly determined to succeed and the strategy they embraced to achieve that goal was cold, ruthless and deadly.  If you didn’t make the grade you were out.  No hard feelings, no bitterness; that was the deal.

We need more Dave Brailsfords in all walks of life.  But, in the meantime, let’s just hope we can replicate him in all the other Olympic and Paralympic sports because that certainly would lead to more success at London 2012.

By Karen Earl on November 7th, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, Cycling, London 2012, Olympics, Team GB

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With the £79m shortfall now apparently down to £59m, and (not coincidentally) Medal Hopes still merely a soundbite, it was nonetheless surprising to see Beijing golden girl Rebecca Adlington, interviewed in The Times the other day, declaring that her success had not led to any endorsements. 

“Nobody has called to help with any funding…nobody has come forward to help. People mistakenly think, ‘She must be well-off now’, but it’s not quite how it works.”

So not surprising then, in an ever-crunchier world, to see many of our London 2012 medal hopefuls doing the fundraising for themselves, in the shape of the Be Number 1 online campaign, which uses the pixel marketing model pioneeed by Alex Tew’s now-famous Million Dollar Homepage to give donors the opportunity to sponsor individual athletes, including including the ‘Yngling girls’ Sarah Payton, Sarah Webb and Pippa Wilson, BMX ace Shanaze Reade and gymnast Beth Tweddle, by buying pixels on their Be Number 1 pages for as little as £20.

Clever – good luck to them.

By Tim Crow on October 29th, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, DCMS, Default, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Sponsorship, Team GB, grass roots sport

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One Games ends: the road to another begins. Since the curtain came down on Beijing 2008, VANOC has launched an array of Vancouver 2010 initiatives, including a new Vancouver 2010 brand identity, a new motto (‘With Glowing Hearts’), and the release of the first tranche of Vancouver 2010 tickets.

Another recently-launched initiative is ‘The Vancouver 2010 Club – A Patron’s Programme’, a limited-edition high-rollers’ Olympic experience, which includes premium tickets, a car and driver, a concierge service and a place in the Olympic Torch Relay. VANOC is marketing 100 of these packages at C$285,000 (£140,500) each, and is reporting strong demand.

VANOC has rebuffed inevitable criticism of the concept by pointing out that the tickets involved do not come from the public allocation, and that the scheme is underpinned by philanthropy, as each package automatically donates 100 event tickets to the Vancouver 2010 Charitable Ticketing Fund, which is distributing 50,000 tickets to underprivileged children.

I applaud VANOC’s initiative. It’s a win-win for all concerned, and is simply a logical extension of a major NPD trend of recent times – products and services created specifically for the super-rich.

And what all commentators on the scheme have missed is that without this type of philanthropy, the Olympics would not have been re-born.

Two-thirds of the funding for the Athens 1896 Games, the first of the modern era, came from private donations, and the largest expense of the Games, the refurbishment of the Panathanaiko Stadium, was financed by a single benefactor, George Averoff.

By Tim Crow on October 24th, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, Brand marketing, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, New Product Development, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Vancouver 2010

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