Advertisers Who Won Digital Gold – Financial Times

Posted on August 23, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Jessica Ennis mimes the guitar riffs from Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now” with a ping pong bat. Victoria Pendleton is dressed as a tiger. Sir Chris Hoy runs down the street in a mask with a Union flag for a cape. The Brownlee brothers shoot each other with water pistols. The Team GB athletes whom the British public took to their hearts during the Olympics clown around endearingly in the YouTube video, which ends with a black screen bearing the discreet message: “Adidas #stagetaken”. Within two days the video, released on the last day of the Olympics, had been viewed more than 1M times and Twitter was buzzing with messages about it – sent and resent by everyone from Sir Chris to Stella McCartney.

“It is an example of using social media very well,” says James Withey, head of brand insight at Precise, the media monitoring company. “It captured people’s imagination and got them talking.” Getting the public talking about their brands was the elusive prize for which most Olympics sponsors were competing during the games. Social media such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube played a larger role than in any previous Olympics, with more than 150m Twitter messages sent over the 16 days of the games.

Full article:
Advertisers Who Won Digital Gold – Financial Times – August 20th, 2012
By Maija Palmer
Link to Financial Times article

Tuning Out Olympic Edict – The New York Times

Posted on August 3, 2012 by pmkbncscience

One by one, the swimmers emerge poolside from behind a wall, making their way to the starting blocks at the Olympic aquatics center in a procession that combines the drama of sport, the staging of prime-time TV and the posturing of a fashion-show catwalk. This conspicuous scene, playing out many times a day at the London Games, has also become an international advertising bonanza for a product not usually associated with water sports: headphones.

Some swimmers dance or showboat as they walk across the pool’s deck. Most acknowledge the crowd with a wave. But many more strut out coolly toward their lanes wearing headphones. These are rather massive headgear that, when twinned with mirrored goggles and the pounding beats of artists like Lil Wayne and Cash Money Millionaires, shut out all outside stimuli in the pursuit of perfect prerace concentration.

The visibility of Beats by Dr. Dre at the London Games was no accident. The makers of the headphones created customized Union Jack headphones that were provided to many of the British Olympic athletes and provided standard models to athletes from many other teams, ensuring that viewers of everything from swimming to tennis to gymnastics would get long, repeated looks at them on television.

Full article:
Tuning Out Olympic Edict – The New York Times – August 1, 2012
By ANDREW DAS and ANDREW MARTIN
Link to New York Times article

Drop that Pimms! Brand patrol on Guard in London – AP News

Posted on August 3, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Perhaps we should have seen this coming… Back in 2007, a butcher at the Fantastic Sausage Factory in the quaint English county of Dorset was told to remove a window sign depicting sausage meat twisted into the shape of the the five Olympic rings. Last year, competitors in a baking contest in bucolic Shropshire were warned by games organizers to drop plans to place Olympic-themed marzipan figurines atop their cakes. But those were merely preliminary skirmishes in a multibillion-dollar sponsorship battle that has drawn charges that London organizers have been heavy-handed, and just plain stupid, in their zealous enforcement of branding restrictions…

Full article:
Drop that Pimms! Brand patrol on Guard in London – AP News – August 2, 2012
By: Paul Haven
Link to AP News article

Olympians Take to Twitter to Protest Endorsement Rule – New York Times

Posted on August 2, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Nike raised eyebrows last week when it commenced a not-so-subtle guerrilla marketing campaign that poked fun not just at the Olympics, where it is not advertising, but also Adidas, its rival that paid tens of millions of dollars to be an official sponsor at the London Games.

Now, some of Nike’s biggest track and field stars are complaining about rules that limit their ability to promote the companies that help them pay their bills. On Sunday, Sanya Richards-Ross, Nick Symmonds and other Olympians sponsored by Nike took to Twitter to criticize Rule 40, an International Olympic Committee regulation that prevents athletes from advertising for non-Olympic sponsors just before and during the Games.

Full article:
Olympians Take to Twitter to Protest Endorsement Rule – New York Times – July 30, 2012
By: Ken Belson
Link to New York Times article

Nike Ambushes Adidas on World Stage…Again – Ad Age

Posted on August 1, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Think Nike’s an Olympics sponsor? You wouldn’t be the only one making that mistake. It’s “Find Your Greatness” campaign manages to capture the Olympic spirit of competition without mentioning the Olympics, or words verboten in the UK like “medal,” “gold” and “games.”

As the Olympic Games began last week, Nike’s “Find Your Greatness” landed at No. 1 on the Viral Chart, with 4.5 million views (about 1.7 million paid). Compare that to Adidias, an Olympics sponsor, whose “Take the Stage” campaign, which arrived at No. 3 on the chart, with 2.9 million views, according to Visible Measures.

Full article:
Nike Ambushes Adidas on World Stage…Again – Ad Age
By Mallory Russell
Link to Ad Age article

Warning on Olympic Brand ‘Insanity’ – Financial Times

Posted on July 27, 2012 by pmkbncscience

London mayor Boris Johnson has warned of the “insanity” of overzealous policing of Olympic brands as organisers step up efforts to banish the unauthorised use of words and images associated with the games.

With less than a week to the opening ceremony, the so-called “Olympics brand police”, made up of a team of lawyers and enforcement officers, are on a high state of alert to clamp down on small businesses using words such as “Olympic”, “2012” “London”, “medals” and “gold”, and the use of the Olympic rings, in promotional material.

Full article:
Warning on Olympic brand ‘insanity’ – Financial Times – July 20, 2012
By: Roger Blitz
Link to Financial Times article

What to Wear All a Matter of Money at Olympics – AP

Posted on July 26, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Olympians should have figured out one thing by now: What they can or cannot wear at the London Games has very little to do with their fashion, marketing sense or patriotism, and a whole lot to do with rules, regulations and, of course, money.

The overseers of the Olympics are protective of their brand and rings – considered one of the most recognizable logos in sports – and what the athletes wear when they’re competing has been tightly regulated, much to the chagrin of some of the games’ stars.

Full article:
What to Wear All a Matter of Money at Olympics – AP – July 21, 2012
By: Eddie Pells
Link to AP Article

Companies Vent Anger at Olympic Gag – Financial Times

Posted on June 14, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Ministers are under growing pressure from companies, frustrated that they are unable to “shout” about their involvement in creating this summer’s Olympics. They want the government to relax strict rules drawn up by the International Olympic Committee to protect the official sponsors.

All businesses that won work on the 2012 games had to sign a “no marketing rights protocol”, banning them from issuing press releases, running advertising or any marketing or public relations campaigns publicising their link to the event. It also prevents them from using Olympic logos.

Full article:
Companies Vent Anger at Olympic Gag – Financial Times – June 13, 2012
By Jim Pickard, Vanessa Kortekaas and Gill Plimmer
Link to Finical Times article

Summer Olympics: Visa Monopolizes ATMs at London Games – Time Magazine

Posted on June 6, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Visitors attending the Olympics in London this summer might be performing athletic feats of their own just trying to find an ATM near the sites where the games are being held. British media reports say Visa is having more than two dozen ATMs at the Games locations switched off during the Olympics and replacing them with only eight of its own. The kicker? The machines will accept only Visa cards.

Rival ATM operator Ron Delnevo blasted the move in an article in The Guardian, saying the games would be “cash-starved by design.” Visa is planning to use the Olympics to promote contactless and mobile payment options. “The vast majority of people attending the Games … have no interest in becoming guinea pigs in product launches,” Delnevo says.

Full article:
Summer Olympics: Visa Monopolizes ATMs at London Games – Time Magazine – June 5, 2012
By: Martha C. White
Link to Time Magazine article

The Story Behind the Olympic Sponsors – The Guardian

Posted on June 6, 2012 by pmkbncscience

People always help bring data to life, and the people carrying the Olympic torch would provide a human angle to the Olympics. Who exactly were the 8,000 torchbearers? What picture did they paint of modern Britain? How did their stories compare to the “inspirational” legend painted by the Olympic PR machine?

As sponsors play such a large role in the Olympics – from geographical “exclusion zones” where no other brands can be displayed to the renaming of stadia and signage – I guessed that they might get some of the allocation of “inspirational” torchbearers as well.

Full article:
The Story Behind the Olympic Sponsors – The Guardian – June 6, 2012
By: Paul Bradshaw
Link to The Guardian article

At Last I See the Genius of London’s Olympics – The Financial Times

Posted on June 6, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Mea culpa. I had thought that the 2012 Olympics were destined to descend into chaos. I now know that the games will be a triumphant celebration of London’s place as an unrivalled global hub. My first error was to underestimate the guile of the organisers; my second to be naive about the proper measure of success.

The scales fell from my eyes the other day when the London Underground suffered another of its catastrophic breakdowns. Thousands were trapped underground in baking heat. The grand design suddenly came into pin-sharp focus. Some might have thought this latest incident was another reason why sane people should flee the capital before the Olympic hordes arrive. Well, yes. But – and here is the brilliance of Lord Coe and his fellow 2012 panjandrums – that’s the plan.

Full article:
At Last I See the Genius of London’s Olympics – The Financial Times – May 28, 2010
By: Phillip Stevens
Link to The Financial Times article

Organizers: Don’t mess with the Olympic brand – Bloomberg BusinessWeek

Posted on May 24, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Protecting the Olympic brand is always a big job, and never more so than this year. Olympic organizers say the increasing sophistication of guerrilla marketers and the rise of social media are putting the five rings under assault in ways barely envisioned a decade ago. That means action against anyone who infringes the Olympic brand or sponsors’ deals — no matter how small.

“There’s no question that the rings are instantly recognizable — it’s what makes it attractive,” said Stephen Greyser, an emeritus professor at Harvard Business School. He compared the efforts by non-sponsors to athletes trying to find loopholes in the rules against performance-enhancing drugs. “It becomes an industry.”

Full article:
Organizers: Don’t mess with the Olympic brand – Bloomberg BusinessWeek – May 22, 2012
By DANICA KIRKA
Link to Bloomberg BusinessWeek article

London 2012 Olympics: Lord Coe Defends Sponsor Protection – The Guardian

Posted on May 21, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Lord Coe, the chairman of the London 2012 organising committee, has said the tough approach to policing branding around the Games and the Olympic rings is aimed at protecting taxpayers. As part of the conditions stipulated by the International Olympic Committee for hosting the Games, the government introduced legislation designed to guard against ambush marketing.

But that has led to accusations of heavy-handedness and the possibility that local businesses, pubs and cafes could be targeted. Any images or wording that imply too close an association with the Games could be considered in breach. Locog’s guidance says that expressions likely to be considered a breach of the rules could include any two of the following list: Games, Two Thousand and Twelve, 2012, Twenty-Twelve. But Coe said the legislation was essential “in protecting the sponsors who come to the table with a lot of money to help us stage these Games”

Full article:
London 2012 Olympics: Lord Coe Defends Sponsor Protection – The Guardian – May 13, 2012
By Owen Gibson
Link to Guardian article

Why You Could Be Prosecuted for Posting Olympics Photos to Facebook – Mashable

Posted on April 18, 2012 by pmkbncscience

For an event being hyped by organizers as the world’s “first social media Olympics,” the summer 2012 games in London have some pretty antisocial policies.

Athletes will not be allowed to tweet photos of themselves with products that aren’t official Olympics sponsors or share photos or videos from inside the athletes’ village…

Full Article:
Why You Could Be Prosecuted for Posting Olympics Photos to Facebook – Mashable – Apr. 17, 2012
By Sam Laird
Link to Mashable article

Olympics 2012: Branding ‘Police’ to Protect Sponsors’ Exclusive Rights – The Guardian

Posted on April 17, 2012 by pmkbncscience

Fears stringent restrictions on use of terms such as London 2012 will limit economic benefits of Games to capital’s economy

Full Article:
Olympics 2012: Branding ‘Police’ to Protect Sponsors’ Exclusive Rights – The Guardian – Apr. 13, 2012
By Esther Addley
Link to Guardian article

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Category Archives: The London Law