It’s been controversial, but we all knew it would be. It’s been lucrative, but perhaps not for as many as we had hoped. But it’s been something to celebrate – and on that we must all be able to agree. And it’s finally arrived: the Olympics are here in the UK at last, seven years after the International Olympic Committee announced London as the host.
Print is at the heart of everything that is happening for the next month as the athletes of the Olympics and Paralympics compete in the greatest of events. Hence, PrintWeek has given over its features pages to look at how the printing industry has been affected by the Olympic Games – both the good and the bad. On these pages, we look at how some of the main sponsors and London boroughs are using print in their support for the games, as well as having an exclusive chat with the Olympics Publications team. Over the page, we take a look at the Olympics tender process and ask how accessible this – and similar high-profile tenders – were (and are) to smaller businesses. And lastly, our final page gives you a brief overview of the logistical nightmare that may be about to unfold so your business can be as prepared as possible for any disruption.
Sponsors’ print McDonalds UKAlistair Macrow, vice-president for marketing, McDonald’s: "There will be four McDonald’s restaurants at the Olympic Park and we expect to serve hundreds and thousands of customers at the London 2012 Games, as part of a broad range of catering options for Games visitors. We will serve approximately 1.75m meals in four weeks to spectators, a workforce of 200,000 and 17,000 athletes quickly and safely. Our in-store materials are a key use of the print medium.
We are also running a 10-week Olympic advertising campaign – ‘We All Make The Games’ (WAMTG) – which launched on Monday 25 June and has three distinct phases spanning outdoor ads, TV advertising and digital and social media to support our sponsorship. We will be producing a range of printed Olympic marketing and advertising material before, during and after the Games. Our print use includes:
WAMTG Outdoor print ads: created by agency Leo Burnett, some outdoor ads have gone live already and all outdoor sites will be live from 15 July. Mediabuying was led by OMD London who secured high-profile outdoor advertising sites in and around the capital as part of the first ever online auction of outdoor media space that took place last year
WAMTG Press ads: again created by Leo Burnett, press ads will appear in selected national titles during Games time
Olympic Park in-store: all four restaurants will have bespoke printed menu boards and translites – designed and created by The Marketing Store and printed by Linney Print. In total, the four Olympic Park restaurants will display 232ft of menu translite space, with the central flagship restaurant alone displaying 76ft of printed translite material and two walk-through menu boards.
Nationwide in-store: Mosaic is the name of our visual graphic, which was also created by The Marketing Store. Designed to celebrate all the people whose excitement, enthusiasm and contributions help make the Games a success, the crowd image is made entirely from photos of our Champion Crew, British & Irish Farmers and the British public and brings to life the central theme of ‘We all Make the Games’. The Mosaic design is being used across a number of our in-store printed materials, all designed and created by The Marketing Store and produced by Linney Print, for example Window friezes (Standard-sized exterior window friezes), Mobiles (hanging) and trayliners.
With all our marketing communications, we aim to engage our customers in the ways that are most relevant and accessible to them. In recent years, the proliferation of different channels, from online and social through to mobile and digital outdoor, has allowed us to be more creative when creating well-executed integrated campaigns, but there is no doubt that print still has a role to play."
British Airways
Stuart Mayo, brand and communications media manager of the Home Advantage campaign, British Airways: "Print plays an important part of the marketing mix when it comes to the Olympics. We have just undertaken our recent Advertising campaign for ‘Home Advantage’ which you will see has been placed in print publications from The Times to Metro. It is important for us to engage with all communication channels though – so we include digital, outdoor and social media in our mix."
Deloitte
Annabel Pritchard, London 2012 sponsorship director at Deloitte: "Print is one of several channels we have used for our London 2012 sponsorship activation. With the range of audiences we are seeking to reach including our clients, prospective recruits and our own people, it is about getting the mix of channels right, rather than any single format dominating. Print has been a key part of this, not least in our partnership with the Daily Telegraph, which has featured a combination of advertising and advertorials about the work we have delivered to help organise the Games."
CBS Outdoor
Simon Harrington, marketing and business development director at CBS Outdoor UK: "The print format has always played a large role across our inventory nationwide, be it on the Underground, bus, National Rail or in high impact bespoke creative solutions. While there has been a significant growth and investment in digital advertising, the medium is still complimentary to traditional formats. As the Official Outdoor Advertising Services Provider to the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, LOCOG, official sponsors and non-sponsors have used a combination of print and digital formats to target their audience on the underground, buses and at Westfield London and Westfield Stratford City. Despite having the largest digital advertising network in Central London, we cannot underestimate the power of printed posters, which continue to be highly regarded, cost-effective and used by advertisers as part of their multimedia strategy. As we all know, high-impact iconic posters have been known to make brands famous."
EDF
EDF marketing team: "The use of printed materials in direct marketing plays an important role as part of the communications mix, which brings EDF’s role as an official partner of London 2012 to life for our customers. This is primarily in the form of our Thank Yous programme, which rewards our customers by giving them monthly opportunities to win prizes including tickets to London 2012. When launched in autumn of last year, a Thank Yous direct mail campaign saw customers receive a booklet with a ‘winning number’ that can then be used online each month for the chance to win an instant win prize. A small ‘thank you’ is also given in the form of a discount voucher with each customer’s bill. These materials, printed on sustainably sourced paper, feature the London 2012 logo and contain messaging reinforcing our link with the Games.
The majority of our domestic customers are used to receiving communication from us by post, making direct mail an effective channel for engaging with them. By linking the print materials with supporting digital assets, as we have done with Thank Yous, an even deeper level of engagement can be achieved."
The London 2012 Publications Team gave us an insight into their preparations for the games
What sort of print products have been directly commissioned?
LOCOG has produced printed materials for everything from ticketing promotion and information, to instruction manuals to team officials and competition forms for athletes use during the Games.
What role do you see print as having in the games?
Our approach has been to maximise the effectiveness of our print materials; only using print when it will have the strongest impact. For example, we made maps for spectators to navigate the venues or to guide athletes through the anti-doping process.
What were the key attributes the committee was looking for in print suppliers?
All our materials must be printed by an ISO 14001 printer on 75% recycled paper. We undertook a procurement process through OJEU to find a panel of printers – digital and litho – to meet our requirements. This allowed us to build fantastic working relationships with our printers, which really paid off when we got very busy in the final weeks.
How involved were the committee in the print processes – were their press passes? Was it an extensive approval process?
This depended on the job. For high-profile work, we would do the work ourselves. In other cases, one of our design agencies might do the check.
Did the printers take on an active role in helping to produce the print products or were you looking for them to simply print what you prescribed?
LOCOG supplied artwork for our printers to produce, although we did involve them in creative discussions around formats.
Were you happy with the print performance for the games?
Yes, very happy – great suppliers and an amazing final suite of materials.
LONDON PRINT SPENDS
The London boroughs were each offered a £50,000 grant by the Greater London Authority to decorate their boroughs for the Olympics. Here is how some of them spent the money
- Hammersmith and Fulham spent £32,000 on print items, namely lamppost banners and bunting
- Hillingdon spent £200 on national flags, £46,500 on lamppost banners, £370 on feather flags, £737 on bunting, £1,300 on fencing scrim and £758 on barrier jackets
- Brent spent £40,000 on dressing at public places (banners, etc), which is all printed with logos and images
- Croydon spent around £36,000 on banners, some floor graphics and bunting
- Harrow spent its cash on flags flying outside the civic centre, sport-themed decorations at Harrow Leisure Centre and lamppost banners and streams of bunting in town centres
- Kingston spent its money on banners, bunting and flags in the borough’s public spaces
- Hackney spent its money on lamppost banners and four sets of feather flags
