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

No comments

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

No comments

With approximately 500 days remaining before the Opening Ceremony of the London 2012 Olympic Games, this is a question many are asking.  Since the Olympics were awarded to London, the London Organising Committee (LOCOG) has been moving full tilt, drawing on everything ‘London’, from the one-of-a-kind buildings to leveraging the city’s international flavour.

However, with all of this movement taking place, a certain degree of negativity and skepticism still colours public and media opinion.  Will the country who is expected to host one of the greatest Games in modern times be able to right itself in time?

This is not the first time that the International Olympic Committee has seen a country divided in its support of the Games, as negative public opinion also reigned in the lead-up to the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. This was not simply a price tag issue, but an acute lack of confidence in the country’s overall ability to deliver on a global scale. Emerging from the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression, coupled with the belief that Canada was bound to be outshone by the spectacle put on for the world two years prior in Beijing, the lead up to the Games was anything but a celebration.

Unlike Canada however, the UK is acutely aware, if so desired, that they can deliver a world-class event. Less than a decade ago, in 2002, this country played host to two of the greatest and most widely publicised events in recent UK history: the Queen’s Jubilee and the Commonwealth Games in Manchester. These two globally scrutinized events were both marked by tremendous skepticism by British citizens in the months and years preceding them. There were even predictions in the media that the Queen’s Jubilee would be a ‘non-event’, and that the Commonwealth Games were nothing but a poor financial investment that would indubitably burden the local citizens.

Nonetheless, the 2002 Commonwealth Games turned out to be the largest in history at the time, and has commonly been referred to as the most successful multi-sport event to be held in the UK since the 1948 Olympics. Furthermore, the success of hosting the Commonwealth Games demonstrated to the world that the UK was more than capable of hosting events of such magnitude, and this played a significant part in securing the 2012 Olympic Games for London.

While the success of LOCOG and sponsor planning will only be truly realised when the Opening Ceremony begins on July 27th, 2012, like past Games, the present skepticism will continue to be eroded as the Games become more tangible and imminent to the public.  One key tool in rallying the nation’s support will be the Olympic Torch Relay (OTR), set to commence 70 days before the Opening Ceremonies. The OTR, which will be so far-reaching and all-encompassing that 95% of the UK will be within one hour’s drive from it, is the greatest asset of the Olympic Games to bolster support and ignite fervour and enthusiasm.

The OTR, which acts as the prelude to the Games, has the unique ability to touch people in their hometown, on their doorstep.  Local heroes will pass the Olympic Flame across the country, and overall the OTR will serve as a 70-day celebration of what and who this country is comprised of.  It will allow everyone to experience a little part of the Olympics on their own home turf, and to incite that enthusiasm and patriotism.  Just as in Canada, it was not until the flame began its journey across the country that the wave of excitement was generated and intensified, and Canadians realised the power of what they were hosting.

It may take a while yet before all the UK’s citizens come around and celebrate hosting the Games, but hopefully prior to when the Olympic Torch Relay commences.  However, if the 2010 Torch Relay throughout Canada was able to rally its 33.7 million citizens to support the 2010 Games given an even greater hurdle of public opinion, then I can only assume that the 2012 OTR will have an even greater ability to appeal to its 60+ million UK residents.

I predict that national pride will take hold and that the hearts and minds of the nation will be captured in a frenzy of patriotism. The Olympic flame will ignite a fever that will spread from coast-to-coast with the Torch Relay and we will all be smitten by the Opening Ceremony, at which point the responsibility is passed on to the athletes to show the world what they’re made of.

The eyes of the world will be upon us, as the UK prepares for perhaps the only event that can eclipse a Royal Wedding: the greatest and most successful Olympic Games in history.

By Melissa Oberman on January 27th, 2011

Tags: Beijing 2008, BOA, Commonwealth Games, London 2012, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympics, Winter Olympics

No comments

I’m saddened but not surprised by the IOC decision to limit Torch Relays to host countries. It was both predictable, following the anti-China protests that dogged the 2008 Torch Relay, and pragmatic, given the volatile political climate. But I believe it’s a backward step for the Olympics which could have been avoided.

The problem with the 2008 Torch Relay was that it was an overtly Chinese Torch Relay, not an Olympic Torch Relay. As such it ran counter to the DNA of the Olympics, which is a celebration of humanity – of the many, not the few, and of all countries, not simply the host.

Call me an idealist if you will, but surely it would be both preferable and possible to preserve the international leg by re-designing the Torch Relay experience so that it both reflects this true Olympic DNA, and in so doing eschews nationalism?

I guess I shouldn’t complain, in that we’ll have the Torch all to ourselves in here in the UK in advance of London 2012. But I can’t help feeling that the Torch could and should be used experientially to share the true spirit of the Olympic Games with the world.

By Tim Crow on March 30th, 2009

Tags: Default, Experiential marketing, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic Torch Relay

No comments

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 sponsorship, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympics, Vancouver 2010

No comments

Apart from the competitors’ heroics, what will we remember Beijing 2008 for? And how, with London 2012 in mind, will UK consumers feel about the Olympics after Beijing?

Previous Olympics in the modern era have all strongly impacted the Olympic brand – in general negatively – and left a single-issue legacy. Montreal 1976 invented the Olympics as a debt monster. Moscow 1980 was the Cold War, Soviet Games. LA 1984 showcased the American entrepreneurial Dream – and in Atlanta 1996 the Dream became an over-commercialised Nightmare. Seoul 1988 will forever be remembered for Ben Johnson and doping. Barcelona 1992 was a triumphant spectacle for Spain, as Sydney 2000 was for Australia. Athens 2004 was the Games that could never follow Sydney and only just got built.

Beijing 2008 looks like being another single-issue Games – the issue, of course, being Chinese government policy. With the Torch Relay crisis now firmly imprinted on Beijing’s DNA, and the media even more focused on the issue as we move into Games time, I can’t see this changing.

But what I do see changing is the world’s knowledge of and attitude to China. And in this respect the Olympics is part of the solution, not – as many would have it – part of the problem. Beijing 2008 will offer an unprecedented window into China’s uniquely fascinating society and culture. And the greater knowledge, understanding and – let us hope – human empathy this engenders will perhaps be Beijing 2008’s key legacy. As Simon Barnes of The Times wrote in a characteristically brave and intelligent piece back in April, this is a key strand of what this Olympics is about. It will make few, if any headlines, but it will leave the world, and the Olympics, in a much better place.

And what of the legacies that Beijing 2008 will leave London 2012? Here in the UK of course, as the next hosts of the summer Games, we’ll be looking at Beijing very differently to the rest of the world. “It’s our turn next” will undoubtedly be a theme running throughout the Games coverage, rising to a crescendo when Beijing hand the Olympic flag to London during the Closing Ceremony on Sunday 24 August.

The big question, of course, which we’ll be looking at closely with our clients who are Olympic sponsors, will be the effect of Beijing 2008 on UK consumers’ attitudes to and behaviours around the Olympics. There are bound to be some big shifts – especially in favourability if, as we all hope, Team GB wins medals galore – but only time will tell what they’ll be, and how lasting.

By Tim Crow on August 6th, 2008

Tags: Beijing 2008, Brand marketing, China, London 2012, London 2012 sponsorship, London 2012 sponsorship consultants, Media, Olympic sponsorship, Olympic sponsorship consultants, Olympic Torch Relay, Olympics, Sponsorship, Sponsorship consultancy, Sponsorship consultants, Synergy

No comments