As I write this we are only three days away from Christmas Day and, in our industry anyway, many thoughts beyond that are inevitably turning to the New Year and London 2012. So it seemed entirely appropriate, for my last post of the year, to write about my belief that the Olympic Games – Summer and Winter – are a lot like Christmas.

That might sound strange to some of you, but having experienced numerous Games first hand, I can tell you that this ‘Christmas feeling’ has always been one of my overriding impressions.

There have been others of course: great sporting moments, inspiring human stories, the sheer scale of the Games, the very different experiences each host nation and city creates (good and not so good), and many more. London will give us all of these – hopefully some of the best ever.

And if you’re lucky enough to be here at Games-time, I hope you’ll get that Christmas feeling too.

A feeling of optimism and celebration; of being part of something precious and intense, very big but at the same time very personal. A feeling that, for a time at least, the world and the people in it are united and at their very best. And, once the moment has passed, the wonderful memories tinged with the sadness of knowing that you can’t get it back.

Sound familiar?

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you and yours from myself and all at Synergy. See you in (London) 2012.

By Tim Crow on December 22nd, 2011

Tags: Default, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Synergy, Winter Olympics

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I was in Auckland with the British and Irish Lions when London was awarded the 2012 Olympic Games. Very excited, my first thought was ‘how can I get involved’?

Roll on two years and my excitement grew when I filled in my volunteer form. After working at Synergy for nearly 30 years and with an employment history of running media offices in a number of different sports, I assumed – wrongly as it turned out – that I would be an ideal volunteer to work in one of the many media centres.

Over the next nine months I continued to receive emails from the LOCOG Games Maker programme saying I hadn’t been forgotten but on the other hand I hadn’t been chosen…

Suddenly, three weeks ago, I received an email saying my application had been reconsidered and could I come in for an interview – not for the media centre but instead the Spectator Entry Team!  Still keen to be involved, I rang up and booked my interview time.

So it was that last Friday I found myself heading towards LOCOG’s offices in Canary Wharf to attend my interview.  A group of us sat waiting – about 12 in total – representing a cross-section of London society.

Escorted to the office, the group was full of questions and we were given an outline of the role for which we were being interviewed – in short, we would be ambassadors outside the venues helping spectators with information and also ‘providing entertainment’ if the security queues got too long.  Not quite sure what he meant by that, but it certainly was a worry when we were told that it might take an hour and half to get through security into the venue…it might need a little bit more than us entertaining them with that wait!

We moved on to have our ID checked and our photo taken – in case we are chosen – and were then taken into a holding area full of information about 2012.

Next stop a cinema to watch a short film on the programme – with sweets provided by a nice man from Cadbury and clear mention of our training was being provided by McDonald’s – which constituted a very funny to camera piece from Eddie Izzard. Then the interview…

The interviewer assured us that this would be very informal, asking us the following questions: what is your favourite Olympic memory (I chose Steve Redgrave winning his fifth Gold medal); why do you think you can do the role (given that we had only been told what it was 10 minutes earlier, there was a need to think quickly); how many days can you commit to, etc.

My favourite Olympic memory

With the interview over, we headed down towards the Tube, and I discovered that I was not the only person that hadn’t been selected when their experience might be best-suited…there was a doctor (who had ticked the ‘Medical’ box) and two other media officers (who had ticked the ‘Media’ box).  Most interestingly there was the guy who had researched Boris Johnson’s background for ‘Who do you think you are?’ – I am not sure which box he’d ticked though!

So I am now waiting to see whether I have been chosen and if so to which venue…perhaps it will be Lord’s which is only five minutes from my house and I know like the back of my hand having worked there for various sponsors over the past 20 years – just please don’t  give me Wembley!

Stay tuned for the next update…

By Fiona Foster on November 18th, 2011

Tags: Default, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Team GB

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What Happened?

On Tuesday September 13, Westfield Stratford City opened its doors to the public. Against the background of a day-long blaze of publicity, Mayor of London Boris Johnson cut the opening ribbon whilst invoking Chaucer, followed by pop diva Nicole Scherzinger strutting her stuff before a (slightly bemused) VIP audience. But by far the most important feature of the day was the 100,000 consumers who visited what is now Europe’s largest urban shopping and leisure destination – all 1.9 million square feet of it, the equivalent of 25 football pitches - spending a combined £4m. Recession – what recession? Good news for Westfield’s retailers, many of whom mounted major marketing campaigns to attempt to grab the lion’s share of the Opening Day buzz and bounty.

Our favourite? The M&S ’On Your Marks’ campaign, with creative shot by fashion photographer John Akehurst, featuring a model wearing heels from the M&S Autograph sub-brand in starting blocks.

Why We Like It

M&S brilliantly leverages Westfield Stratford’s Olympic DNA: Westfield is of course the gateway to the London 2012 Olympic Park.

First, there’s the skilful navigation of the legislation preventing brands from using Olympic IP. You absolutely get the connection, but there isn’t an offending piece of Olympic IP to be seen.

Second, it fulfils one of our litmus tests for great work - anchored around the use of ‘Marks’ – it wouldn’t work for any other brand.

Third, the Olympic connection isn’t forced. It’s entirely natural and drives both the consumer insight and the call to action.

And last but absolutly not least, it’s a stunning image in every way.

Beautifully done.

By Tim Crow on October 13th, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Ambush campaign, Default, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics

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Sponsorship is dead, long live sponsorship

Those of you who are regular readers of Synopsis may have spotted a pattern. The lead articles are not Synergy’s random musings but rather the building blocks of a bigger story about the new rules of sponsorship.

But before we get to the rules, a little bit of context. Like all marketing disciplines, sponsorship has evolved over time…but every now and then, there is a paradigm shift which generates an explosion of innovation and introduces a completely new way of acting. Excitingly, we have entered one of these new eras – the 4th Era of Sponsorship.

Below is a rough timeline of how the Sponsorship Industry has evolved. There is never a clear line in the sand to separate the various eras (and of course there are always sponsorship programmes that are ahead of their time), but to keep things simple, they can be broadly separated into decades.

1970s: The Dark Art

The very beginnings of the sponsorship industry were characterised by informal deals done on a handshake in smoke-filled rooms — often literally smoke-filled, as much of the early days of sponsorship were driven by cigarette brands putting their brand on the side of fast cars to circumvent advertising restrictions.

1980s – 1990s: Off-the-Peg

Patrick Nally is credited as being the founding father of modern sponsorship. His ground-breaking partnership deal with Coca-Cola for the 1978 FIFA World Cup effectively ‘invented’ the concept of a rights package. This has set the template for how sponsorships have been packaged and sold by rightsholders ever since.

2000s: Tailored

Brands started to become much more sophisticated and proactive in terms of how they approached sponsorship. No longer was it thought of as a collection of off-the-shelf rights or as a separate marketing channel, but rather as an asset that could be integrated into the overall marketing mix and used to increase the effectiveness of the brand’s marketing activity.

2010: Social

The 4th Era is the “Social Era” for two reasons. Firstly, it has been enabled by social media which has allowed people (and brands) with shared interests to engage with each other at a scale and depth that has never before been possible. Social also refers to a sense of ‘Higher Purpose’ – the ability of a sponsorship programme to connect with its audience by delivering something that really matters.

The Rules of the Social Era

Moving to the Social Era has changed the game of sponsorship and everyone can benefit from knowing the new rules. We have analysed hundreds of best practice case studies from the world of sponsorship and beyond to identify and codify the keys to success in the Social Era.

We have been examining these new rules one by one over the past 5 months but now it is time to bring them all together.

It’s as easy as ABCDE…

Rule 1: Authenticity

Endorses for Courses by Jon Izzard

The best sponsorship programmes, the ones that really resonate with the audience, feel completely natural. The brand simply feels at home in the space. Think of Red Bull and extreme sports, Cartier and Polo, Robinsons and Wimbledon, Unicef and FC Barcelona, Coca-Cola and the Olympic Games, Moët & Chandon and F1. There are loads of sources of authenticity: products, geography, heritage, brand message and simple longevity.

Some brands have to work hard to establish authenticity in a given space, but it is imperative that they do because the very audience that a sponsor is trying to connect with can see through an imposter straight away. Skoda’s sponsorship of the Tour de France provides a great example of a brand working hard to establish credibility in a space where its source of credibility may not be immediately obvious.  Brilliant:

Rule 2: Beyond your Brand

What Can Sponsorship Learn from Farmville by Liz Brown

Sponsorship is about a brand becoming a natural part of their customers’ lives — but the audience needs a reason to invite a brand into their lives.  Brands that view the relationship with their audience as a one-way value exchange and think only in terms of “what will we get out of it”, have no chance of forming the kind of relationship they want. Again, there are a number of ways that brands can demonstrate “Beyond your Brand” thinking, focusing on delivering benefits to their customers (O2 Priority), the property (Converse and London’s 100 Club) and society as a whole (RBS RugbyForce).

Rule 3: Content

Is Content Really King by Ben Wilkinson

Consumers want to learn, laugh, discover, share, be entertained and be inspired.  And they want to do all these things around topics that are of specific interest to them.  That is what sponsorship allows you to do: create relevant content around your audience’s passion points.  But brands have to be creative to capture attention — posting a video of “talking heads” on YouTube and hoping for the best is not enough.  Great content is about innovation.  It’s about finding something that connects and resonates with your audience and providing it how they want it, when they want it and where they want it.

Our favourite example of this is Converse Domaination — a campaign that not only puts great content at its heart but also shows a perfect understanding of its audience.  Enjoy.

Rule 4: Dialogue

D is for Dialogue by Carsten Thode

Talking to each other, sharing ideas, working together, creating things, discovering  new stuff,  having fun, laughing, crying, flirting, arguing – everything that makes life worth living is built on our ability to actively engage with each other. Why should that be different from the relationships we build with the brands in our lives?

Yet for most of its history, marketing has been pretty much a one-way conversation where brands tell you what they want you to know and the customer has no way of talking back.  However, the digital age, and particularly the social media age, has smashed through the barrier separating brands from their consumers.

Now it is possible to source brilliant ideas from your customers such as Pepsi Refresh and GE Ecomagination, or to tailor your marketing in real-time to reflect input from your customers. The Old Spice Man is a classic case in point of how much more engaging the conversation becomes if you give your customers a voice.

Rule 5: Entertainment

Passion Pointers by Tom Gladstone

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. Harness the emotions correctly, and your consumers will add the catalyst of conversation.

But while simply being visible within a passion point might increase the chances of getting noticed, it doesn’t win a place in consumers’ hearts. There has to be active emotional involvement, not just proximity or presence — engagement not impressions. Whether brands capitalise on moments of high emotion or they tap into the core emotional sensibility of the passion point, anchored in anticipation, pride, patriotism, celebration, or even pain, they all need to exhibit genuine empathy and understanding.

This rule is articulated nicely by 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.’

Using ABCDE

ABCDE is not a menu, where you can choose one or two elements to focus on. Rather, a great sponsorship programme will deliver against all the rules of the 4th Era.

Obviously, this framework isn’t rocket science, but at Synergy, we have found it to be incredibly useful as we advise our clients at every point of the sponsorship process.  We use it not only as a kind of checklist to diagnose where we are strong and where we need to work harder but also to ensure that all elements of the sponsorship programme - from creating the strategy and identifying the right assets right through to the activation – deliver the ABCDE.  So, before signing off, here are a few ways that it can be used to make your sponsorship programmes even more powerful:

1. Articulate specifically how you are using sponsorship to deliver all elements of ABCDE. Sponsorship strategies should use deep audience insight and a clear understanding of the business and brand to ensure that you are using sponsorship as effectively as possible in the 4th Era

2. When making the decision to acquire a new sponsorship asset, make sure that there is a concrete plan in place to deliver the ABCDE. Use it as part of the screening process and answer questions like: “What gives my brand authenticity in this space? How can I build or acquire authenticity?”  “What is the higher purpose of the sponsorship?  How are we adding value?”

3. When creating activation plans, be specific about which elements of ABCDE you need to focus on and how you will be able to deliver them.  For example: “How can we stimulate dialogue amongst our audience?  What role should our brand play in that conversation”

4. Factor ABCDE into your measurement. Create specific targets around each element and evaluate your success at achieving them.  Where do you have to work harder?

© Synergy Sponsorship a trading division of Engine Partners UK LLP 2011.  All rights reserved

By Carsten Thode on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Advertising, Brand marketing, Branded content, Communications, community, Consultancy, Content, Default, Design, Digital marketing, Event management consultants, Event management service, Experiential marketing, Food & Drink, Football Sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Sales promotion, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Sport, Synergy, Synergy Loves, Synopsis, Twitter, Viral Marketing

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We don’t need reminding that the 27^th July 2011 was not just another day in our calendars. With one year to go until the start of the London 2012 Olympic Games, celebrations spread across the UK far and wide.

To celebrate this milestone and engage staff in BMW’s London 2012 Partnership, Synergy were tasked with organising an interactive sports day.  In addition to giving employees the chance to experience an Olympic Sport, BMW used the day to promote the BMW London 2012 Performance Team, launch the Olympic Torch Relay nomination programme and provide inspiration for BMW’s role in the Games.

Starting with an empty car park (a rarity at BMW HQ), astro turf was installed to set the foundation for the main arena hosting basketball, football, high jump and gymnastics.  Just like the preparations for the Games themselves, BMW’s year-to-go celebrations were on time and on budget!

Inside, employees were give the chance to show off their lightning-fast reflexes as the showroom had been transformed into a table tennis hall.  Staff could also get their photo taken with the London 1948 Olympic Torch – truly a once in a lifetime opportunity.

Steve Cram and Mark Lewis-Francis, both part of BMW’s London 2012 Performance Team, were in attendance to celebrate the milestone with BMW, give employees some inside tips and encourage them at the various activities.

As the countdown clock edged closer to 365 days to go, new sports had been mastered and the leaderboards were looking very competitive. All that remained was the Closing Ceremony, where the winners of the prizes were announced and the celebrations were started.

By Olivia on September 1st, 2011

Tags: Athletics, Celebrity, Default, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympics, Sponsorship, Sport

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We all know the Olympic Games is coming to town. It’s getting closer and the clock is ticking, will we cope? Will the London Tube system handle all the extra people? How many medals will Team GB win? Anyone fancy a legacy? Will it make kids thin again? All those words are echoing around the UK media. I don’t have the answers.

But what I can explore is a new view, certainly to me anyway, as I’ve only had it about 5 minutes. London 2012 represents many things and has many hot topics, not least the L-word: Legacy. Defined as anything you want it to be, depending upon who you’re talking to, so I may as well chuck my own legacy-hat in the Olympic Ring…

Welcome to the world of collaboration

In marketing, we often discuss new platforms, will it be Facebook, Twitter, an app or something more traditional? But whilst all these platforms (and many more) have a huge role to play in the future for sponsorship, it’s finding better and more interesting ways to work together that will define the next generation of our industry. How will we combine the creativity and know-how across the marketing industry and beyond, to create truer forms of engagement and understanding?

What does this all mean for the Games?

For me, this is indeed the opportunity that smacks us in the face. I’m privileged to work for Engine, a place designed to create, embrace and accelerate the fast-changing collaboration process, which we leverage across all kinds of brands and all kinds of projects and campaigns. But London 2012 will, and is, enabling all types of cross-functional working, taking down barriers to make the best of British talent. Look at the architectural brilliance of the venues, the undeniably efficient construction projects, or how government and other public bodies are finding ways to work together towards a single goal.

We have the world’s biggest sporting event, in one of the most creative, digitally-savvy and energetic cities on the planet; I’m pretty sure an opportunity like this is rare. True, lots of us realise it’s coming and are grinding away to try and deliver something of marketing genius. Some of us certainly will.

But the opportunity to create truly integrated working — when we merge brains, disciplines or even industries — will have by far and away the biggest impact and lasting legacy on our industry. At least it certainly should do.

I believe we do ‘forced change’ particularly well in the UK. Take the recent and awful riots across London and other UK cities. It was something that no one anticipated or wanted to see, and yet, we’re already seeing huge change programmes implemented, from the top of government to tiny communities projects. Knee-jerk probably, but very much needed too. Change is vital to ensure these challenges are addressed, to give young people the opportunities they deserve to take a grip of their own futures.

In a very different way, the Games provides a similar vehicle to force change, the immovable deadline of London 2012 creates the pressure and dynamic environment to really make things happen. Decisions, teamwork, integration — none of these are optional and they have to happen, and quickly, to make certain the Games can be deserving of its title — the greatest show on earth. I say, embrace change, collaboration, integration — all of it.

Collaboration is a wonderful thing but, much like the old legacy word, it’s a very easy thing to say, much more difficult to put in practice. Our ongoing challenge is to continually challenge ourselves, to work together to make the cleverest, most creative and most integrated campaigns ever. Then afterwards? Keep on doing it, of course.

Not reading anything new? I completely agree, this thinking has been around for a long time. But — and it’s a big but — there’s a massive difference between thinking and doing. In the words of the most famous Olympic ambusher…

By Ben Wilkinson on August 26th, 2011

Tags: London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympics, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy

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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 Branding is 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.’

By Tom Gladstone on July 26th, 2011

Tags: Betfair, Brand marketing, Branded content, Communications, Content, Default, FA Cup, Football, Media, Olympic sponsorship, Rugby, Social Media, Sponsorship, Sport, Synergy, Synopsis, World Cup, YouTube

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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:

So, feeling ready for 2012?

By Tom Gladstone on May 18th, 2011

Tags: London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Synergy, Synopsis

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BMW challenged Synergy to develop a PR stunt that would combine their sponsorship of the BMW PGA Championship at Wentworth and the London 2012 Games.

So we challenged former world number one golfer Martin Kaymer and three time Olympic medallist Steve Backley to go head-to-head in a multisport play-off from Wentworth’s first tee. With wedge and javelin in hand, Kaymer and Backley put their accuracy to the test in an attempt to land their shot nearest the pin at the venue for the BMW PGA Championship from May 26 – 29.

Both athletes were given three attempts to hit the pin which, at 60 metres, was comfortably within their reach. Despite Kaymer’s drives averaging over 260m and Backley having a world record breaking throw of 91.46m to his name, precision rather than distance was the aim for the BMW Nearest the Pin challenge. With all shots taken, Kaymer was announced the overall winner, beating Backley with a comprehensive score of 3-0.

Check out the video of the guys in action, below:

By Caroline Ayling on May 18th, 2011

Tags: BMW, Golf, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympics, PGA Tour, PR, Public relations, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sport, Team GB

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I enjoyed my tube ride in this morning, a rare thing indeed. Maybe it’s all the work TFL is doing to upgrade the service in time for the arrival of the greatest show on earth; London 2012.

Actually, it wasn’t that, but it was the sight of many Londoners excitedly flicking through their Metro in the knowledge that London 2012 Olympic Games tickets are now on sale. Of course a major landmark for any Games.

For sponsors, and of course ambushers, this is also a major moment in the London 2012 time-line. We will now begin to see a major raise in public awareness and excitement for the Games, ever increasing as the days and weeks tick away towards the major momentum shifter; when the Olympic Torch Relay arrives on UK shores on Friday 18 May 2012, taking the experience to an entirely new level.

For me, today marks the beginning, the beginning of the activation opportunity in earnest.  It’s the time to start the real work, to maximum impact in the swell of  national interest,  tapping into what will be an ever increasing public passion for the Games, between now and the end of 2012.  The Games will be a exceptional time in Great Britain’s history, a rare time when the nation will unite as one and brands who create a role as part of this unique experience will, in my view, be the big winners.

Today we’ve seen a host of tactical brand activity to support LOCOG’s major announcement, and rightly so, but I believe the brands who make the biggest impact will be those brave enough to stand alone.  Of course, this will include activation around the major landmarks, but what I mean is creating something that is truly unique to provide something inspiring and jaw droppingly engaging for a public that will be craving rich content that was previously unimaginable.

For now though, we’ll focus on a quick summary of some of the announcements and activity of the last 24 hours:

Omega unveiled a giant countdown clock in Trafalgar Square last night (14 March) to mark the landmark.  The clock – which measures 6.5 metres high by 5.5m wide, weighs nearly five tonnes and features LED lighting strips of varying colour for night time viewing – started ticking over today and will be in place until the end of the Paralympics on September 14th 2012.

Team GB has launched a new website to celebrate the 500 days to go milestone and will focus on the new message Our Greatest Team

LOCOG has announced tickets are on sale: London 2012 Tickets

Brands, including BMW, have run some fantastic tactical advertising to support the milestone.

By Ben Wilkinson on March 15th, 2011

Tags: Advertising, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic Torch Relay, Sponsorship consultancy, Synergy, Team GB

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