Following on from October's Brand Watch feature in Event, Brand Life's Richard Zucker extends his report on sponsor activation at the Beijing Olympics.
To complement the content and creative gold medals awarded in part one this article looks at other important aspects of sponsor experiential programmes. With Vancouver 2010 and London 2012 in mind, the article also provides some insights and pointers for the future.
In part one global brands such as Coca Cola, GE and Johnson & Johnson all faired well. Below are my next seven sponsor golds:
Perceived level of spend and investment
Clearly some showcase structures were bigger and more expensive to build than others. As usual, sponsors were reluctant to declare exactly how much they spent. However, it was clear that GE's investment in presentation and show software, display hardware and technology, and interactive elements outweighed the amounts spent by all others in Beijing. That said, it also appears that GE's return on Olympic sponsorship may also have outweighed all others too, with a quoted $191 million of revenues being generated from marketing activation programmes. This is aside from the quoted $1.7 billion being generated from GE-owned NBC TV advertising revenues and from major GE Olympic Games infrastructure projects undertaken in Beijing. It all means this gold was well and truly bought and paid for and a great investment for GE.
Best showcase pavilion on a budget
Lenovo and China Mobile aside, the other Chinese sponsors spent a great deal less on the content for their showcase pavilions than the global brands. Nevertheless, for a predominantly Chinese audience, what the Chinese sponsors produced appeared to connect and appeal to visitors without the high-tech and high-definition interactive bells and whistles deployed by others. So team-China takes the gold here.
Turning showcase experiences into sales opportunities
For sponsors, keen to promote and sell their products, like say Adidas and Lenovo, one could buy their products within retail outlets on the Olympic Green and in the rest of the city. However, Omega used their showcase directly to sell their products, with approximately 40% of its floor area given over to an Omega store. For this reason, and whether or not this was the right or a profitable thing to do Omega take the gold.
Best build quality, fit and finish
Seeing sponsor pavilions prior to the Games and again after, it was clear that the usual last minute finishing-off was necessary within the pavilion structures and designs - all of which had to be built as permanent buildings. In terms of content, displays and exhibits, the general level of quality and finish was not quite up to the usual high standards one might find in other parts of the world. However VW delivered a high quality, precision fit and finish to its pavilion that you would expect, and deserve gold in this category.
Post-Games legacy and follow through
China is a key market for Adidas, as it generates its most sales outside of the United States. It is also a vital production location for the sportswear giant. Alongside the showcase pavilion Adidas opened a new four-storey Brand Centre in downtown Beijing. It means that long after the Games are over, Adidas will continue to place experiential marketing at the heart of its brand-building programme in China, it takes gold. "The new Adidas Brand Centre will showcase and highlight the breadth and depth of the Adidas brand to the Chinese consumers, and to all visitors of the Olympic Games," says Adidas managing director Wolfgang Bentheimer.
On-use and re-use of assets
These days most sponsors will ensure that re-use is an integral part of project planning, development and financing. Coca Cola will be reusing showcase elements as part of their presence at the 2010 Shanghai World Expo. VW plan to re-use their giant LED projection wall and other elements at the Paris auto show and other events. However, not only does GE plan to use its showcase elements for its new headquarters in Shanghai many of its concepts are being used as a creative template for future trade and consumer shows around the world. Therefore, GE takes gold here.
Measurement and evaluation criteria
Most sponsors keenly measured footfall and visitor numbers passing through their pavilions. However, none of the sponsors spoken to said they planned to directly measure the effectiveness and impact of their showcase pavilions. It would appear that sponsors claim to see this activity as just one element of a global or Chinese market brand-building programme. As a result and perhaps surprisingly, no gold has been awarded in this category.
Conclusion
It's worth mentioning the sponsors not mentioned so far. McDonald's is a longstanding TOP sponsor and it created four huge showcases, which were fast food restaurants, in the Olympic Green.
After a long association with the Olympics, Kodak decided to end its Olympic sponsorship in Beijing and created a modest mini-showcase, which was a digital download and print-out area.
Other IOC TOP sponsors Atos Origin, Manulife and Panasonic all chose not to create showcase pavilions, while Visa made the same decision, but did create a presence via the ATM booths around the site. The finance house also branded millions of shopping bags given out at the on-site merchandising superstore.
Looking to the future, particularly London 2012 there are a number of key points that should be considered by the sponsors and organisers responsible for planning and implementing Olympic sponsorship experiential activation campaigns.
One lesson learnt in Beijing by a selection of sponsors was that they felt that closer working relationships between relatively inexperienced ‘first time' local organisers and experienced sponsors would have helped in the planning of all aspects of showcase pavilions. In particular, sponsors talked about the need to lock-down showcase site plans and specifications and to clearly identify organiser's constraints on sponsors much earlier in the planning process.
The second important area to consider is where best to locate sponsor showcase pavilions and how best to create on-site signage and promotional activity to let visitors know what is where, and why they should visit.
This was a real weakness and missed opportunity in Beijing. Linked to location is the need to consider accessibility to showcase pavilions. In Beijing it was expected that up to four million visitors in total, or up to 160,000 per day would visit the Olympic Green.
In reality the actual numbers visiting the showcases appeared to be a fraction of this forecast.
Organisers might therefore want to consider ways in which, through extended opening periods or perhaps more open public access, sponsor showcase utilisation and visitor through-puts could be improved.
The third area all sponsors will need to consider is what story it is they want to tell and how they want to tell it. How much about Olympic association, involvement or analogies - and how much about sponsor brands and products? How much about green issues and sustainability, a big feature in Beijing - and likely to be just as big or bigger for London 2012? How much about Olympic/sponsor ideals, philosophies and values - and how much about products and services? How much of a global and generic feel and flavour - and how much about London and UK-specific issues and content? How and in what way should the story be presented? Should it be displayed and consumed, or explored and discovered?
Picking up on best practice from Beijing, sponsors might also want to think carefully and creatively about how best to utilise anything produced specifically for the London Games, in pre and post-Games experiential programmes, to achieve the very best return on the huge investments likely to be made. Sally Hancock, responsible for London 2012 sponsorship at Lloyds TSB says: "Sponsors need to take an objective view around the costs and benefits of showcasing - it was very difficult to see how this would have paid back in Beijing".
So, fundamentally, sponsors should quite rightly be assessing whether and on what terms to create a showcase at the Games at all. With the considerable investment required to create and operate a world class showcase pavilion, Games sponsors will need to consider and explore how best to use showcasing to deliver valuable and measurable business returns. Perhaps simply enhancing sponsor awareness for visitors to the Games may be enough, though ideally the showcase should... also act as a focal point for VIP audience hospitality programmes, help to create a centrepiece for internal brand building activities, act as a catalyst for other pre and post-Games communications programmes, reuse showcase assets or create new assets for future use - or ideally a combination of all these, bringing to life and delivering a genuinely unique and memorable experience and pure gold for all involved.
Richard Zucker runs independent brand experience consultancy Brand Life richard@brandlife.net