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Olympic band-wagon jumping

Sport is big business and growing.  It is an international language all of its own, understood by all cultures, and key events dominate news and entertainment on a global scale.  It has the ability to transcend borders and engage with otherwise impenetrable audiences making it extremely attractive to marketeers.

Big brands like Nike, Coca Cola and Mastercard have been investing in their association with sports for many years but the advent of the Olympics on home turf in 2012 has heightened awareness and interest among the broader business community and many organisations are now considering how best to take advantage of the global spotlight and in-bound traffic.

There are official sponsorship opportunities to be bought.  With these come issues of dealing with sports governing bodies and the expense of sponsorship marketing, advertising, public relations, digital and social media strategies to optimise the spend.

Organisations can align themselves to the Olympics without investing in sponsorship but this throws up many more issues including the legalities associated with use of the Olympic brand.  And don’t even think about adopting an ‘ambush marketing’ strategy – the recent Dutch stunt at the Football World Cup in South Africa put paid to your chances of success.

It is in black and white that our government will not tolerate non-Olympic organisations trying to benefit from association with the Games.  All sky-writing, flyers, posters, billboards and projected advertising within 200 metres of the Olympics venue is banned.  A £20,000 fine will be served to any company daring to breach the ban which, when considering the £millions being spent by sponsoring companies on marketing, seems a tiny price to pay for having your products emblazoned on the venue for the time it would take Usain Bolt to go for gold!

Tough rules will also apply to taking things into the Olympic venues, to ensure that no underhand marketing techniques can be employed.  There are, of course, also serious security considerations involved too, so no mobile phones, brollies, flasks, whistles, Frisbees, vuvuzelas or dangerous branded t-shirts allowed.

But simply jumping on the Olympic band-wagon will not achieve the desired results.

However, with investment in good planning and a liberal splash of creativity, a lot can be achieved.  A great example of this is being played out in the run up to the other major event in the British calendar, the Royal Wedding with Pimm’s inspired decision to purchase and brand all street bunting ahead of the bank holiday.

Britain Marketing and 2012 Games Global Strategy 2010-2013 from VisitBritain gives some fascinating insight into Britain as a brand and the marketing strategy for next year’s Games – a must-read for any budding sponsor.  The report reveals that the UK ranks 4^th in the world for contemporary culture and heritage but only 13^th for its ‘Welcome’.  The Strategy defines Britain’s brand essence as Timeless, Genuine, Dynamic.  It goes on to explain that these define the Place, the Culture and People of Britain and that the British public will be used to ‘amplify our message of welcome to overseas guests’ – a lot of amplification needed to elevate us from our lowly rank 13!