Anyone who knows me will be aware that I like things that pop up in city locations seemingly out of nowhere. The more random and unexpected, the better – elephants, pianos, lions, designer deckchairs… So the recent landing of 100 ping pong tables scattered across the capital is especially pleasing to the old Branston eye.

In an attempt to trend-ify (is that a real word? Am not sure) table tennis, ping pong is set to become the urban craze of London for the next month with the kick-off last Thursday of the Ping! London festival. Pop up sport for impromptu games all over the city has a neat appeal. And interestingly, Yahoo branding aside, this particular initiative doesn’t feel to be over-endorsed by brands. Almost refreshing; ironic I know given the industry in which we operate.

Great timing too; getting in there ahead of this week’s somewhat brand-cluttered London 2012 two years to go landmark. The Ping! London initiative, supported by the English Table Tennis Association (ETTA) hopes to raise the profile of the sport and get more British people to play ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games. An Olympic sport since 1988, apparently table tennis is the world’s second most popular sport after football, with over 300 million registered players.

Are you serious?

Last week’s Ping! launch party witnessed the GB Team showing off their moves and despite having lived and breathed sport all my life, I wouldn’t be able to name any of our national team. Sad but true. Not one. A different matter in Asia and for the Chinese in particular where it is considered the country’s national sport. Hence why they excel at spending lots of time on the old ping pong Olympic podium. And we don’t. Two years to go mind, all that could change.

Having given the re-positioning of ping pong some thought, it strikes me that table tennis has rather a lot going for it. The sport has universal appeal, is accessible, cheap, not too time consuming, easy to learn, can be played by all ages/genders (all 2 of them) and appeals to the child in us all. And if we needed any further convincing, and here’s the PR talk, it is played by celebrities too – Blur’s Damon Albarn & Hollywood legend Susan Sarandon (co-owner of New York’s successful ping pong club SpiN) – the names freely touted around as ping pong lovers.

It seems especially apt that the table tennis tables are currently residing in London given the sport was invented in Victorian-era England. Ping! follows closely behind Luke Jarram’s highly successful ‘Play Me, I’m Yours’ artwork, a project that has been touring globally since 2008. Last month in London, over 20 pianos were placed throughout the city for anyone to play. A creative blank canvas and one that left behind a rather touching legacy with the pianos being donated to local schools and community groups. Loved it. Hopefully the tables will follow in the pianos footsteps and be given to local youth clubs and charities to enjoy once Ping! waves farewell to the city on 22nd August.

If you’ve not already bumped into a table (bats & balls all provided too. Over 4,000 bats, fear not), keep your eyes peeled in Soho Square, Tate Britain, the British Library, Heathrow Airport…all over the shop.  A geek-chic Olympic sport that we will not only see played in our own backyard come July 2012 but one that is enjoying an uplifting revival as ideal for hip city dwellers – count me in.

Game, set and match.

By Stephanie Branston on July 29th, 2010

Tags: London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, PR, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sport, grass roots sport

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The newly-appointed head of Olympic legacy, Margaret Ford, interviewed in yesterday’s Evening Standard, signalled a potential u-turn in the proposed use of some of the London 2012 facilities post-Games.

This may not be a bad thing…

At the 117th International Olympic Committee Session in Singapore in 2005, as part of our winning bid to host the Games, Lord Coe stated that it was London’s intention ‘To stage an inspirational Games that capture the imagination of young people around the world and leave a lasting legacy’ and indeed this has been carried through to become one of the 10 strategic pillars of London 2012.

The question is, will we as a host nation succeed where so many before us have struggled?

One only has to visit former Olympic sites to see how hard it is to leave something that really makes a difference to the live of those around us. But it is not impossible…

We have the best opportunity we have ever had to permanently regenerate an area of London, place sport at its heart and inspire people for generations to come.

It’s an opportunity that we should wholeheartedly embrace and not shy away from, and as one of the masterminds behind the regeneration of the former Millennium Dome through its sale to the entertainment empire AEG, Lady Ford is the ideal person to lead the charge.

She has already stated that the 80,000-seat Olympic Stadium may now not be reduced in size to 25,000 seats, but left as an iconic structure that could be used to host games, given a successful World Cup 2018 bid. And isn’t it good to be so positive about the future for a change?

When it comes to regeneration and legacy, visionary confidence is what we need – in abundance.

By Tom Gladstone on June 26th, 2009

Tags: London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, grass roots sport

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Imagine the prospect of a rugby training session with a coach who is feared by players for his army style drills and envied by other coaches for the results he yields from his team. Guinness Club Together, a grassroots rugby initiative, gave one lucky club the chance to be put through their paces in a unique training session, tailored specifically for the club, by the Wales Defence Coach Shaun Edwards.

Shaun gave up his only day off this year, in his busy schedule training the Welsh National Squad and the Wasps Guinness Premiership team, to head to Nottingham Casuals RFC, currently 5^th in Midlands 4 (East – North), for a once in a lifetime training session.

Oli Mott, winner of the Guinness Club Together competition, claimed he’d never seen so many players turn up for mid-week training and with such excitement and enthusiasm – they were even all on time! Shaun lived up to his trade-mark terrifying approach and took no pity on the Nottingham Casuals Team, undertaking a series of training drills and practices, which would have put a professional player through their paces. Shaun showed his true passion for the development of rugby by spending time with the club coaches as well as with the players. Judging by all the exhausted faces at the end I think it’s safe to say they had never experienced anything like it.

Despite Shaun’s gruelling schedule, he found time to share a pint of ‘the black stuff’ with the team after the training session, along with sharing some amusing anecdotes of life off the pitch in the professional game. The hard work and sweat truly paid off as the Nottingham Casuals won their next match 81-0! Shaun Edwards obviously left a lasting impression and turned out to be not so intimidating as originally thought.

To round up the 2008-9 rugby season Guinness Club Together is offering one member club the chance to play on the hallowed turf at Twickenham on the day of the Guinness Premiership Final. To enter visit www.guinness-clubtogether.com.

By Georgina Taylor on March 25th, 2009

Tags: Alcohol, Event management service, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Rugby, community, grass roots sport

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Last week we helped launch British Airways’ Great Britons campaign at Heathrow by naming a plane after Olympic Gold medallist Chris Hoy. We’ve been working closely with the team at British Airways to create a campaign to demonstrate a clear role for British Airways in the London 2012 Olympic Games.

As the national flag carrier, helping British talent succeed has always important to BA and the 2012 Games has given the airline a great goal to aim for. The BA Great Britons programme is offering hundreds of free flights in the run up to 2012, to enable budding talent from sport, fashion, community, art & design, innovation and performing arts to realise their dreams.

Whilst much Olympic marketing can feel remote to consumers, this campaign has active participation at is core. Alongside encouraging applicants to show how flights could help them, BA is encouraging the public to vote on who deserves to fly across the world in search of their dream.

The initial response has been positive with good media pick up and lots of discussion on a variety of blogs from http://www.gaj-it.com/7639/british-airways-holds-its-very-own-britains-got-talent-show to http://styleclone.com/128/fancy-a-flight-to-milan-fashion-show-with-british-airways. The hope is to not only receive hundreds of applicants but create a forum for discussion and support for Britain’s up and coming talent.

By Roberto Colandangelo on February 27th, 2009

Tags: Fashion, Film, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Music, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Team GB, The Arts, grass roots sport

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At the FT Sport Industry Summit on Tuesday a very interesting topic was raised but never fully explored.

Roger Draper, Chief Executive at the Lawn Tennis Association and famous for his hunger for change, said that when he left Sport England he had presented a document to Government which recommended that the UK should have just one sports body – instead of the proliferation of bodies which now exist.

A number of us in the industry have always been baffled as to why so many different bodies exist within sport in the UK but, with the realisation that turkeys don’t vote for Christmas, we have long accepted that the current scenario is unlikely to change.

However, and slightly ironically, it may be that a change is just over the horizon.  I say ironically because it is the very fact that Team GB was so successful in Beijing that sport really is now at the top of the Government agenda.  There is a genuine belief that sport is good for the country, for morale and health reasons and more, and ministers are keen to associate themselves with success.  Let’s face it, there’s pretty little else in the way of success to which they can nail their colours at the moment.

So, we might be witness in the next four to five years to a move to streamline the administration of sport in this country.  It’ll probably take that long for Government to address the issues and there will be a feeling that there is so much else to do prior to London 2012 that rocking the boat now would be detrimental.

But, picture the scene after 2012 and after (we hope) more medal success for Team GB.  We could find ourselves with one UK Sports Association (or other appropriate title) responsible for all things ‘sport’ across the UK – and that includes Scotland, Ireland and Wales.  Governing bodies through to local clubs would know where to apply for financial and all other assistance instead of the myriad of different institutions currently in existence.  The system would be straightforward, which it’s not now.

Roger Draper said his report had identified £80 million of administrative savings if the plan was embraced.  Imagine what sport could do with that sort of money – from medals at the top to community sport at the grassroots.

You never know, one of the political parties might put the notion in their manifesto for the next general election – it could make them very popular.

By Karen Earl on November 7th, 2008

Tags: DCMS, London 2012, Olympics, Team GB, community, grass roots sport

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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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20 men in a room hugging was the scene last Wednesday night at Harlequins at the Guinness Club Together, ‘Rugby Essentials’, event. Guinness Club Together is a grassroots initiative developed to work with rugby clubs. It is free to join and in exchange for collecting and sending in Guinness keg caps, clubs are able to redeem a host of prizes, merchandise and other sought after items from the online catalogue.

The events are being hosted by Guinness Premiership referees, players and coaches demonstrating training techniques, warm-up drills as well as offering advice on the new and controversial Experimental Law Variations (ELVs) . Wayne Barnes, a Guinness Premiership referee, provided an interactive session on the ELVs. Clubs have now been playing the new laws for a few months and this gave them a chance to discuss how they are being interpreted by both the players and referees. It was the coaching portion of the evening that prompted a group of fully grown men to get up and hug each other as Colin Osborne, the Quins coach, demonstrated the wrestling techniques that the squad use to warm up.  The events have been kept small and intimate to ensure that the attendees get an opportunity to interact and really get what they want out of the session.

I am a rugby fan but last week some of the jargon really took it to the next level and I did wonder at times had it been in a foreign language I might have had more chance of interpreting it! It was really great to see the audience so fully engaged and, at times, mesmerised.

The purpose of the ‘Rugby Essentials’ events is for Guinness to target the core rugby audience and club opinion formers and to engage them in their passion giving them a valuable rugby insight that they can take back to their respective clubs. This is a really great way for Guinness to offer a unique brand experience whilst spreading the wealth of its Premiership sponsorship assets.

The Guinness Club Together Rugby Essential events are travelling around the UK in the next month:

Newcastle Falcons – 29^th October (18.00 – 21.00)
Sale Sharks – 5^th November (18.00 – 21.00)
Northampton Saints – 12^th November (18.00 – 21.00)
Saracens – 19^th November (18.00 – 21.00) 

I would love to be a fly on the flood lights when the guests from last week go back to their clubs and attempt to cajole the players into a bit of a wrestle!

By Lisa Woodward on October 29th, 2008

Tags: Brand marketing, Experiential marketing, Guinness, Guinness Premiership, Rugby, grass roots sport

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“It is the moving story of one glamour model’s struggle to be accepted in the equestrian Establishment, leaping all the barriers that the British class system could place in her way.

Now the tale of Katie Price, the model otherwise known as Jordan, is to be used to inspire inner-city children to take up riding in time for the 2012 Olympics.

At the Burghley horse trials, [Katie] Price [was] be unveiled as the face of Hoof, a campaign run by the British Equestrian Federation.

It aims to challenge the widely held perception that London is a difficult place in which to pursue a career in three-day eventing. It hopes to deliver a generation of young city horse riders as a legacy of London 2012.”

British equestrianism has rightly or wrongly long been dogged by an image of elitism and general poshness. The basic facts can’t be denied; to ride you need a horse and maintaining a horse or pony is expensive (also very time-consuming and requires the owner/keeper to have a high degree of training). Plus the eventing elite do have a tendency to double-barrelled names and nasal accents.  Katie Price (aka Jordan) might seem an anathema to equestrianism but the very fact that she is involved in this scheme, and has obviously been embraced by the horsey community, I think shows that they are not as backward as appearances first indicate. 

The other sport that suffers in the same way is the British Olympic success story of 2008, sailing. I was interested to hear on the BBC one of the organisers of the club from which the ‘3 blondes in a boat’ hailed saying that their elitist image was mis-founded.  This might be true to a degree, but as with riding, a boat is required for sailing and boats are expensive to maintain.

What is interesting is that both of these sports are ones Britain is highly successful at. Whilst equestrianism didn’t do as well as expected at this year’s Olympics, they have over the past 20 years managed to be a medal-guaranteed sport.  The eventers bought home a bronze from Beijing which was a huge disappointment for the sport, (whereas in the world of gymnastics one bronze was deemed a massive success). 

So if these sports are expensive and have a poor image why do we do so well at them? The answer could lie in the fact that both sports have strong grassroots.  For example, the Pony Club, the global youth organisation promoting horse-riding has been active since 1928 and has over 110,000 members.  It is supported by an active and energetic force of volunteers – unlike many sports that struggle for volunteers and young coaches.  The focus is not all about competition either, it is about teaching children how to care for their animals properly and enjoy riding – perhaps a more rounded view of life than just being about winning. 

Efforts are also being made to make the sport more accessible. In 1998 the Pony Club launched its centre membership scheme for children who do not own their own pony but want to get involved in Pony Club activities through their local riding school. This summer the scheme celebrated its 15,000th member. 

The difficulty both these sports have is that they are not best-suited to an urban environment. Whilst children in cities may get the chance to learn to ride in a riding school if they wish to take the sport to the next level they will probably need to re-locate and find financial backing. 

So whilst image may be an issue for grassroots equestrianism I don’t believe it is the overriding one.  Young girls (and boys but perhaps not as much) have long adored ponies and will pester their parents to take them riding (just as Katie Price did). I don’t think they need Jordan to persuade them.  What they do need is assistance with access and finances to continuing the sport to a higher level.  This is why the elite riders tend to be ‘posh’ as they are the ones who have parents who can fund their careers. 

To reach the top-level you need quality horses and these are not cheap to buy or maintain, so those not born with a silver spoon in their mouth will need to find a rich benefactor or a sponsor.  Even Zara Phillips relies on the support of her sponsors to allow her to compete internationally. At the moment few sponsors wish to be associated with the ‘posh’ image of equestrianism.  This is where Jordan can help, her involvement can potentially broaden the appeal and image of the sport and increase its attractiveness to sponsors by bringing it to a more mainstream audience.  Katie Price knows a thing or two about marketing herself to the public – and I think there is lot that equestrianism can learn from her and in this way her association can certainly benefit the sport and its young riders.

By Georgina Spring on September 5th, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, Equestrianism, Jordan (Katie Price), London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Sponsorship, grass roots sport

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There’s been a lot of press over the last few years about the nation’s decreasing sporting ability being matched only by the increasing waist size of its kids. Yesterday, I found myself at a primary school in south London on a visit with British tennis number 1, Andy Murray, as part of an RBS Dream Playgrounds scheme.The tangible excitement caused by Andy’s appearance at the school showed that kids regardless of age, background and interests all loved the chance to just run around with someone they’ve seen on TV.  

Gasps and a spontaneous round of applause greeted his revelation to the school assembly that he started playing tennis at just four years old, but as Andy himself said, getting started is the easy bit – it’s keeping kids interested in staying active beyond twelve that is problematic.

The substantial investment from RBS to improve the school’s playground area will go some way towards improving the chances of these kids to stay active, but while governing bodies battle to corral Britain’s young into their particular sport, the primary challenge for the government is simply to keep kids active – regardless of sporting denomination.

Governing bodies, Sport England and the Department of Health need to work together to build a combined voice with combined facilities that can build on the interest that a three hour visit from a world class athlete can bring.

Incidentally, toughest examination of the day for Andy didn’t come from the gathered press pack but rather from a six-year-old in assembly who looked slightly crestfallen when silence greeted his question, ‘How many Wimbledon’s have you won?’.

By Dominic Curran on June 17th, 2008

Tags: Andy Murray, Tennis, grass roots sport

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