Posts from ‘General’
Olympic Park Tour
Blessed with clear skies and sunshine, I took up the ODA’s offer of a complimentary guided bus tour around the London 2012 Olympic Park on Saturday. With the games still over 900 days away things aren’t quite complete just yet, but progress, our knowledgeable tour guide informed us, is currently ahead of schedule.
After passing the vast media centre, our first main port of call was the Velodrome or ‘The Pringle’ as our guide referred to it (rumours of a covert naming rights deal between P&G and LOCOG remain unfounded). Following a drive past the Athletes’ Village, it was then onto perhaps the most impressive looking of emerging structures, the Aquatics Centre, with its achitecturally stunning 2,800 tonne wave-shaped roof already in place.
Branding is thus far fairly minimal, although the sponsors’ logos do appear at the entrance and exit to the park and alongside signage near the main Olympic stadium itself (flanked by information about the 2012 Olympics and the wider Olympic movement). Our guide also pointed us in the direction of the sponsors’ area (click here for pic) where there is evidently still some work to be done.
The tour was thoroughly enjoyable and if you’d like to see a little bit of history in the making, booking details can be found here - http://golondon.about.com/od/london2012olympics/a/Olympic-Park-Tour.htm
To see more pics from the tour, click here.
…and to celebrate the season of goodwill, we’re giving a little present of our own – our OlympicWatch Beijing to London report.
Featuring interviews with key marketing personnel and campaign analysis from leading sponsors and guerilla brands, this fully interactive report examines the marketing activity at last year’s Olympics to provide insight and inspiration for brands and agencies that will be activating Olympic campaigns in the run up to 2012.
To receive your complimentary copy simply email matthew.carlton@xtremeinsight.net and we’ll send one over to you
While this blog’s focus is on the marketing activity surrounding London 2012, we’ll also be offering more than a sideways glance at the other sporting events between now and the Olympics. And this week we visited the ATP Masters at London’s O2 Arena where sponsors hit the crowd (and the global TV millions) with a marketing assault as fierce as a Federer return.
With 11 official sponsors and partners all jostling for attention, branding was understandably pushy and a far cry from the serenity and subtle marketing the British public are used to at Wimbledon. Headline sponsor Barclays utilised its extensive activation rights to simultaneously create branded experiences and heighten awareness of its commendable Spaces for Sport CSR drive. Those mooching around the practice courts had the chance to have their image superimposed into a shot with some of the world’s leading players including Federer, Nadal and British No. 1 Andy Murray while the brand’s Bluecasting service offered exclusive tennis content sent directly to mobiles and laptops. Barclays also gave spectators the opportunity to take on a former Wimbledon champion…albeit on the Wii as Goran Ivanisevic had a go at digital tennis in the concourses prior to Monday’s Nadal v Soderling clash.
Gold sponsor Lacoste erected in-venue pop-up shops and kitted out the courtside ball girls. However the girls evident lack of training – which caused Robin Soderling to complain – perhaps gave the brand some unwanted attention. Far more succesful was its Challenge Booth where visitors had a chance to win final tickets by returning a virtual Roddick serve.
The event’s ‘American-razzmatazz’ feel and the venue’s extensive courtside LCD facilities provided sponsors the chance to stand out, particularly when the lights were dimmed as players paused for a break. And broadcast partner Sky Sports capitalised on this, significantly pushing its tennis coverage and achieving ample exposure with some games also being screened live on the BBC.
While tennis purists might not have approved, London 2012 sponsors will have been interested spectators as they consider how they can utilise their activation rights at the O2* which will stage Gymnastics, Trampoline, and Basketball at the Olympics and Wheelchair Basketball at the Paralympics.
See more photos from this event here
* Please note, the venue the will be referred to as The North Greenwich Arena 1 by the IOC and LOCOG as O2 aren’t an official sponsor. Rolls off the tongue doesn’t it?
BMW is the latest LOCOG partner, ticking the box for the automotive sector in London’s sponsorship line-up.
How will BMW inject ‘Joy’ in to London 2012 with its creative strategy?
The deal, announced on Wednesday allows the BMW Group to leverage its sponsorship through the BMW, Mini and BMW Motorcycle brands. As was seen in China with BOCOG partners Volkswagen, the deal will see BMW hand over a fleet of over 4,000 vehicles to help athletes, officials and media get around the city.
Volkswagen supported its activity with phased rollouts of the cars, stealing PR opportunities along the way. These included a special ‘green fleet‘ for the media centre that aimed to help support the Beijing edition’s positioning as the ‘Green Games’. Also popular was a fleet of specially design Beetles, that sported colourful bodies embracing Chinese culture and tradition. There was also a special fleet rolled out for the Olympic Torch Relay.
So BMW won’t be short of opportunities to create touchpoints throughout the build up to the Games. However, it’s not all plain sailing as an official sponsor. In 2012, BMW will have to be prepared to take some of its own medicine from competitor brands – in 2008 it was responsible from one of the most eye catching guerilla campaigns when it created a fleet of popular Mini Clubman rickshaws to ferry tourists around the city.
In the run-up to Beijing, partnering brands and the Chinese public embraced the numerous milestones signalling how far away the Games were. And if the recent 1,000 days to London 2012 countdown was anything to go by, a similar precedent has been set as the 2012 Olympics edge ever closer.
A number of sponsors chose this countdown to highlight their associations; none more so than BT which took to the skies in a hot air balloon over Trafalgar Square, launched a photographic exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, and hosted a spectacular firework display from the landmark BT Tower. Insight 2012 attended the opening of the ‘Road to 2012′ exhibition which saw Lord Coe, Dame Kelly Holmes (BT’s Olympic ambassador) and photographer Brian Griffin discuss the collection with the audience before unveiling the first set of images.
British Airways raised awareness of its Great Britons initiative with a press advertising campaign which included the sponsorship of an 8 page Olympics special in The London Evening Standard and the airline’s pilots flying into London welcomed passengers with a message about the landmark. adidas released a limited-edition line of T-shirts and Visa launched a press, poster, online and radio campaign, promoting a daily competition to win £2012, to coincide with the countdown. While some sponsors preferred to keep a low profile, we fully expect the next notable milestone – two years out on July 27, 2010 – to bring even more activation, especially as next year’s World Cup will be done and dusted and brands will turn their attention firmly to 2012.
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