Now that the Olympics have kicked off, I thought it would be worth seeing which brands are leading the way in grabbing the attention and time of the supporters out at Olympic Park and also the neighboring Westfield Stratford. As you’d expect this is where the Official Partners have channeled their significant budgets as they compete against each other for share of voice. There is not even a sniff of any ambush activity, the whole site is swarming with the IOC police although even they can’t stop non sponsor brands from having shops in the Westfield.
As soon as you arrive at Stratford Station (the nearest to the site) the battle begins. It looks like McDonald’s built the station themselves due to the amount of branding they have - every wall, step and outdoor site is fully branded. Rather than promote their products or encourage visitors to head to the largest McDonald’s on the planet that they’ve build down the road, they’re telling the stories of the fans and what the games mean to them. It does however, really just feel like the wallpaper it is and it feels like they’ve missed a trick with a formulaic and traditional approach.
Leaving the station three brands immediately vie for your attention with Visa, Adidas and Coke taking each other on. Visa has created huge outdoor flags that spread between the two rows of shops and feature ambassador Usain Bolt along with the tagline ‘Flow Faster’.
It’s also branded the escalators – can you see what they’ve done there? Visa is fighting quite a lot of negative sentiment over here in the UK as they’ve stipulated that you must use a Visa credit card to buy tickets. I am not sure that this outdoor campaign will win anyone over but it’s certainly impossible to miss it.
Another brand impossible not to miss is Adidas. It’s got a huge decal covering one wall of Westfield with their Take The Stage creative featuring members of the majority of visitors' team of choice – GB.
It’s a nice continuation of the creative throughout the city but done bigger and better than any other site, and from the amount of people wearing their product it appears that backing the host nation is paying off, despite the relative lack of medals ...
Last but certainly not least is Coke who has branded the bridge that leads from the station over to Olympic Park. This for me is the most effective of the three executions, as it's at eye level and is also in a great location with a constant stream of people passing.
The creative is engaging, with images from the torch relay that they also sponsored, but the best thing about it is that they own it – people refer to it as 'Coke Bridge' even though it’s actually called Stratford Walk.
Other partner brands that make their presence felt before you even enter the Olympic Park are Samsung and Heineken. Samsung has taken out one of the Westfield's flagship stores although they may be regretting the athletes they have chosen to feature on the decals – with David Beckham not selected and UK triple jumper Philips Idowu a doubt due to injury.
Heineken has done what it does best and what it rolls out at every event it sponsors – it’s impossible to argue with a deck chair, large screen showing sport and an ice cold beer.
Inside the park itself is where the brands actually want to engage you, rather than just remind you they’ve paid millions of dollars to partner with the event, as they take a much more experiential approach. A couple of them have gone down the giant screen route based on the valuable insight that people would be seeking out a great environment to experience the other events they didn't actually have tickets too.
British Airways has actually extended its sponsorship to own the official big screen and this has paid off. Not having to create a structure itself means the home country’s national carrier has been able to spend money enhancing the experience providing branded mats for people to sit on, as well as giving out sun screen and taking pictures of kids that they then show on the screen between the events.
This is also a great extension of their above the line campaign that’s been running here in the UK where they’ve been encouraging Brits to stay at home and support the team rather than fly.
As well as being the supplier of the BA-sponsored big screen, Panasonic have created a 3D cinema.
This is a great way to showcase its technology but with people keen to soak up the atmosphere (and surprising sunshine) it feels like it's in the wrong location. If it was somewhere in Central London where it would be the best viewing experience on offer, I think it would get a better response.
The most interesting build at the site is undoubtedly the Coke Beat Box which was actually designed as part of a competition to find budding young UK architects.
The building has polarised opinion but it’s impossible to ignore. Inside you get the chance to play around with the different sounds used by Mark Ronson to create his Move to the Beat track. it’s fun, engaging and on-brand. It also stands out from all the other activity, which focuses solely on
sport. This interesting activation coupled with the bridge ownership
sees Coke sitting in gold medal position with ten days of the games
remaining.
Jack Lamacraft
Head of Events
M&C Saatchi Sport and Entertainment