Sponsors salute “powerful” Olympic property

SPEAKING AT Sports Marketing 360, brand marketers associated with The London 2012 Olympic and Paralympics Games were universally positive about the Games experience, both commercially and personally.

During a panel session called “How was it for you?” Nikki Crumpton, strategy director at McCann Worldgroup, explained that coming off the “powerful Olympic drug” was a job in itself.

But as the testimonies below highlight, the rewards and learnings for those involved in the Games were tangible.

Nathan Homer, P&G Sports Marketing and Olympics Project Director:

"The choice to play through the entire period and believe that the Paralympics would be credible was a fantastic choice – it wasn't a two to three week period of activation, it genuinely was six to seven weeks. For all of us, that choice to play for longer was great. Games time was almost the cherry on the cake… and the last part of the programme. The property we bought is a fantastic global property that does reach all 180 markets we operate in. By far the most important insight was to make a great global property locally relevant using athletes from your country and partnerships with NOCs. All in all, a big success, both from a retail point of view and in terms of PR and equity value."

Mark Osikoya, Coca-Cola Head of Olympic Sponsorship Assets (London 2012):

"Our experience was extremely positive in the UK market and our global colleagues also thought that the London experience was very positive and unique. Coca-Cola was very complimentary about London 2012 as a Games. When you undertake a major project like this, you can't be stand-alone – you have to be integrated [between Coca-Cola and Coca-Cola Distribution], top to bottom. And in order to get the best out of the Games, you have to work together. And the biggest learning we are taking is that in future we will be working with all our partners closer."

Mike Sharrock BP Partnership Director, London 2012:

"It felt a real privilege to be part of it …and was such a positive experience for everybody. London 2012 was new for us – we were a domestic partner and had never done an Olympics and Paralympics before so it was big learning experience. Our aim from the beginning was to make sure that whatever we did was real and grounded in the things we are part of… and our ability to help support LOCOG. We found that we were also able to leverage in nine countries where we negotiated partnerships with NOCs, including the USA, Angola, Azerbaijan, Trinidad, Egypt and UAE."

Nikki Crumpton McCann Worldgroup, EMEA Co-Regional Strategy Director

At McCann [as marketing services partner], it has changed the way we approach integration. We worked across the whole gamut of communications, whether that was design, advertising or a digital platform. For us, we got an enormous learning from it and our clients are benefiting hugely from that. The most important thing about the Games is what it does in terms of innovation as a company. We learned that complexity demands simplicity… the importance of keeping the core brand narrative for the Olympics and Paralympics which was “pushing past your personal best”.

 

By Matthew Glendinning

Follow Matthew on Twitter: @mattglen