An Olympics I am Looking Forward To
by John Bell
Category: Best Practices, Digital Influence, Research & Insights, Word of Mouth Marketing
I am reading the initial tweets out of Beijing about the opening ceremonies - calligraphy writing dancers - and for the first time in many years, I am actually excited to watch the Olympics. Part of it is that we have a team there helping the athletes blog and vlog about their experience, part of it is the myriad of ways we can now follow the stories and the action, part of it is that I am a fan of China.
I am a fan of the country, not the government, so, don’t get started down that path. I had the good fortune of visiting to work with our global 360 ° Digital Influence team in China last year. I was in Beijing and Hong Kong. The energy amongst the people was terrific. Lots of optimism, energy and lots of conversations. The innovation in social media is terrific and China Web 2.0 Review remains one of my favorite blogs.
As you all tune in to the TV coverage this weekend, check out our aggregation of athletes who are blogging their experience. Their stories are what drives this experience for me. Government policies may be damned but the passion, drive and effort of these athletes is the story I must see.
Also check out the blogs of some of our team and Lenovo, you will hear some interesting behind the scenes observations:
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August 8th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
When I was younger, I used to love to read this book called 100 Greatest Moments in Olympic History by Bud Greenspan. As a young athlete, it allowed me to vicariously experience the glory of Olympic competition through the eyes of the athletes that lived it. The only problem was that these stories were, frankly, history.
I think that the Voices of the Olympic Games campaign you are running with Lenovo offers non-participant, non-attendee people the real-time experiences of athletes in a tangible and accessible way. No longer do I have to read about how Abebe Bikila won two marathons (the first barefoot) - instead I can hear the modern-day Abebe talk about what his feet felt like during the race, how in mile 19 he got a bad cramp, and how it felt to have a gold medal placed around his neck.
I know that the campaign is being executed for Lenovo (and their ultimate benefit), but I think that your team will achieve great success for them because you are delivering quality content and value to the consumer. If content is king, you are well within his dominion.
August 12th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
Lenovo’s approach to create a personal connection between consumers, athletes the Olympics (and of course their brand) is a smart way to really make sponsorship count in an age of athlete celebrities meeting social media. Interestingly in this regard, Nike’s sponsorship focus for the Olympics has always been the opposite of Adidas’. While Adidas sponsors the “official event and ceremony”, Nike sponsors the individual athletes - and their ultimate moment of performance- and feelings that drive them (”Courage”). In a way, this is representative of a larger shift away from traditional event sponsorship to a sponsorhip of connections at the individual level- both athletes and consumers.
You can follow this thought and many other brand-driven expert observations from the Beijing Brand Battle at http://www.landor.com/olympics
May 11th, 2011 at 6:02 am
Hi there! Someone in my Myspace group shared this website with us so I came to look it over. I’m definitely loving the information. I’m book-marking and will be tweeting this to my followers! Wonderful blog and wonderful design and style.