2012 London Olympics and beyond

© 1996, 2000 and 2012 Andrew Priestley www.andrewpreistley.com [email protected]

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How Our Local Business Community

Created and Leveraged Business Opportunities

Connected to the Olympic Games

Andrew Priestley -‐ London, UK 2012

Disclaimer

This is for discussion, education and information purposes only and does not

constitute advice. Be aware that the anecdotes pertain to research conducted for

the 1988 Games; and preparations for the Sydney 2000 Olympics and notes span

1992-‐1996; and 2000-‐2004. Some data and trends may now be outdated. Every

effort has been made to make the comments general and relevant to 2012

circumstances.


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Introduction

In 1994, I lived on the Sunshine Coast Queensland, Australia and I was part of a local

Chamber of Commerce committee to understand and leverage opportunities for the

business community of our local region regarding the Sydney 2000 Olympic games.

The Sunshine Coast is located in the South-‐East sub-‐tropical coastal corner of

Queensland, Australia.

Historically it was associated with the timber industry, farming, cattle and produce

growing. At the time the three biggest industries were tourism, retail and

construction. It is also developing a reputation for innovation and clean tech

industry.

It is still one of Australia’s fastest growing regional centres. At the time the

population was about 150,000 but spread over a wide area extending from the

northern suburbs of Brisbane and Caboolture north to Noosa, Fraser Island and

Gympie and west to the hinterland of Kenilworth and Conondale.

We started thinking about opportunities early -‐ about six years out. Discussions were

initiated by the local authority and local tourist development board. The region had a

number of high profile theme parks but it was felt that the region had more to offer

than fun parks and waterslides. The goal was to distribute the benefits of tourism to

all the community.

I learned a lot because I honestly thought that the only money to be made during the

Olympic season was IN or around Sydney. It was exciting to realise that the reach of

the Games would be felt a lot, lot further than the proximate Olympic arena and

village. I learned that a lot of visitors would be in Sydney for the event and once the

Games part was over they’d be seeing a lot more of Australia.

Again my perception was big cities and major tourist attractions. I am indebted to

the consultants who opened our eyes to the opportunities for the smallest and most


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remotely located businesses. And I was fascinated with the research of just how long

the Olympics continues to draw tourists, what they come to see and do, what they

like and don’t like and what else is tempting for a visitor.

I learned that touristy things comprises a small part of visitor spend. Visitors want to

be entertained and educated. Importantly they want lasting memories that extend

way beyond the sporting attractions.

What happened in our community? It is estimated that the Sydney Olympics

generated an estimated $200M in revenues for our small regional centre. This

included revenues generated in the seven weeks surrounding the event and ongoing

revenues tracked for at least 4-‐6 years after the event. It also created jobs for our

region.

What worked?

We a) got creative (and uncomfortable) and b) we took a planned and unified

approach to marketing our region -‐ all prior to internet and social media; and c) we

took a long term approach and continued to promote the region long after the

Games.

Importantly, the local authority hired several consultants with Olympic experience

and we tapped into some solid research from the 1988 Olympic Games. But I think

we realised that we could benefit from the Games and then took action.

It is important to remember this context.

I will tell you how we did it with a case study. But first …


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Who comes and why?

The goal is to design campaigns specifically to attract a niche market. It is important

therefore to understand exactly who comes and why.

There are several key categories of visitors:

i. The Sports Specialists

This includes:

The Competitors/Athletes

This comprises the athletes, coaches, trainers, medicos and teams. Money-‐wise, this

small group will come and be mainly focused on the Olympic site, the Games and the

immediate environs.

ii. The Affliates

This comprises the power brokers and power seekers and includes political

representatives; and families, spouses and partners; and the entourage.

Associates

This includes investors, sponsors and promoters who want to be associated with

excellence. Historically every Olympic Games are an occasion for business

networking, training events and conferences.

iii. Strategists

These are the lobbyists. Again power brokers and power seekers.

iv. The tourists

These are the games voyeurs looking for a ‘bigger than life’ experience. Specifically

they are looking for life long memories based in and around an international and

cultural experience.


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Technically they are passengers – here for the ride of their life. The key question is:

What will most people do with their time and their money?

At the time the research suggested:

• The Competition 7%

Statistically they attend two events only! Essentially during the Games few sleep,

but most drink and eat in that order.

After drink and food and accommodation what else will they do?

Revenues historically go to:

• Arts and entertainment 20%

• History and culture 33%

• Natural attractions 40%

What else do they do?

They attend any special events, conferences, trainings, courses; and leisure activities.

There is a huge market for organised activities.


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When do they come?

For your reference, the 1988 Olympics served as the model for 1992, 1996, 2000 and

2004 Olympics. What happened in the 1988 Games was:

1979 1988

Strategists Lobbyists

Planners

Media Athletes

Controllers

Spectators

Conference

Arts

Exhibitors

Tours

Events

Conference

Arts

Exhibitors

Tours

Events

1994 1998 2000 2004 2005

Conference

Arts

Exhibitors

Tours

Events

Conference

Arts

Exhibitors

Tours

Events

Athletes

Controllers

Spectators

Conference

Arts

Exhibitors

Tours

Events


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Where else do they go?

Historically, the Games generate interest in the immediate surrounding areas

starting with the host city. For example Westfield is located at the Olympic venue in

London (2012) and they are boasting that 70% of the spectators will pass through

that area. Westfield are no slouches when it comes to research so if they are there I

am fairly confident they have done long term projections.

A typical Westfields development in Australia works on a 25 year plan – so I am

guessing they have done their numbers. But this retail focused.

Visitors then explore the immediate local regions; then nationally, then neighbouring

major regions i.e., Europe.

For example the LA Games was the jump off point for Las Vegas, Alaska, the Rockies,

Chicago, New York; and Asia; and Europe. NB: the European marketing focused on

the seniors market and business conferences. Business conferences are tax

deductible with the Olympics as the backdrop!

The research showed that the lion’s share of revenues will go to whoever is best

organized! (On that basis Westfield will make a lot of money).

The Australian Sunshine Coast as a region did pretty well from the 2000 Games even

though located 1300 miles from Sydney. Why? Because we started early and

promoted our region. We worked with key organisers and promoters to offer

existing established and new experiences. In our case we intensified our promotions

about nine months out.

While ticket purchases and accommodation bookings occur 12 to 24 months out,

broader booking choices for ex-‐Olympic activities can still be effective about 9-‐6

months out.


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(To be clear we worked closely with Tourism Sunshine Coast and Tourism

Queensland and Tourism Australia and the local authorities. I think we had gazetted

a lot of ideas and opportunities as well. Gazetted means documented and registered

with the authority.

In addition, those authorities were connecting to tourism agencies in America,

London, Asia etc. For example, the flower show in Toowoomba was featured heavily

in out-‐bound literature going to overseas agencies. I am pretty sure that the

agencies also connect with tour operators and travel agents.)

We know that a huge turn off for Olympic guests are the crowds and public transport

hassles so they are ultimately looking to get away from the epicentre of the Games

once they have seen their ticketed events. This historically means they travel out of

town. They go to regional areas.

We said the LA Games saw a massive boost in travel to Alaska, Chicago, Canada –

simply because these regions offered a coordinated approach. This is historically

what happens so we can predict that visitors will gravitate to whoever best

promotes their region.

In the seven weeks around the Games visitors will explore the hosting city i.e.,

London BUT then they will then outer regions. They will want to explore what

England seems famous for – charming and quaint English countryside, mountains,

forests, historic attractions, wilderness/deserts, unique urban centres, diverse

cultural experiences, and themed activities i.e., arts community.

If you live in a ‘quaint’ village you might not think much of your local fresh bread

bakery or Fran in the local pub or Raj at the local green grocer … but a visitor finds all

of this novel, romantic and memorable.


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You have to get creative and identify what is valuable, unique and special about

your region … and package that experience. You have to see what you do and your

region as special.

Importantly visitors want a cross cultural trails and unique opportunities. They want

high quality, no hassles and ‘capsule’ memories (packaged experiences).

The key offering is memories.

One way to create a memorable experience is through the creation of trails.

Trails

Visitors will have to travel. So if they have to travel distances they want trails. They

want to know where they are going. Imagine a 12 day bus trip round Europe. We

leave London, go to Brussels, Heidelberg, Zurich, Roma, Venice, Marseille, Paris and

back to London. That’s a trail.

I live in Ealing. When we’ve had friends stay we’ve walked to the park, gone to the

shops, had afternoon tea at the local French themed café, wander through the

gallery, stopped in at the Red Lion for a beer where Alec Guiness and Peter Sellers

used to drink and then dinner at the Rose and Crown where Billy Bunter was written.

That’s a trail! Its just smaller.

In Port Isaac in Cornwall there’s ONE street. There’s a few curio shops, a pub, a rock

wall to the sea and a house. Its hard to get to Port Isaac but it has a thriving tourist

market because ITV’s Doc Martin was filmed there. You can get a map which shows

where ‘stuff’ is – Doc Martin’s practice, Mrs Tishell’s shop, Bert’s restaurant and so

on. Port Isaac must surely be promoting their little village.

The Australia TV show Sea Change was filmed in three sea side locations and you can

do a Sea Change tour of Laura’s house, the Star of the Sea pub and Diver Dan’s boat

shed. That’s a trail.


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But …

Nobody wants to see Port Isaac twice. Not do they want to see another Aboriginal

dance troupe or a recreation of the Knights of the Round Table or a Wild West shoot

out or a Casino experience twice. They want to go to points A, B, C, D and E and see

something different and unique at each point in the trail.

And they don’t want to go to dud places. Ilfracombe is lovely. Barnstaple nearby is

awful. Illfracombe is on the way to Port Isaac. Port Isaac is not far from St Ives. Lands

End is not far from St Ives and it has a great guest experience centre. But the

beaches on the way to Penzance are lovely but empty. And boring … but not if you

are a bird watcher.

The trails can be vast. We already said that the LA Games had trails going to nearby

San Diego but as far north as Alaska and as East as New York.

As an example the LA Games had this trail:

• Sacremento – Old Town, the Railway Museum and the Capitol

• The Shakespeare Festival

• The Tapestry and Talent Festival which pulled between 700000 and 7M

visitors!

• The Garlic Festival which attracted 2M visitors at $100 av spend.

• The Hearst Castle California – still attracting visitors

• Allenstown – 100K visitors av spend $70

• San Diego Town 500000 to 3M visitors av spend $300.

• The San Diego Zoo/Flower Show

In most cases the attractions were 30 minute to 1-‐hour experiences.

The Sydney Games had trails to Queensland, Perth, Adelaide and gateway trails to

Asia (Indonesia, China).


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Again, we had to rethink the idea that the major tourist attractions would absorb

most of the tourist money. To some degree this is true. But history shows that

anyone can create a profitable experience. Such as a coastal bird watching day out.

Again, imagine an Ealing Experience. Ealing is a small shopping centre in West

London. But it has pubs, parks and a theatre and quaint restaurants and galleries and

it is close to Little India. It seems mundane if you live there but it is totally NEW to

visitors.

The Ealing Experience might start with shopping, takes in the parks, a few quaint old

pubs, a gallery, a show.

You might ask: Who would buy that!

Montville is on the Sunshine Coast, Queensland. It is a VERY small town that

capitalised on the Sydney 2000 Olympics. It is ONE street in a town that is hard to get

to. But they produced a user-‐friendly street map of cafes, galleries, craft shops,

music stores and restaurants. The map told them what to watch out for and look

forward to. They included nearby attractions, (the dam, the rainforest). The map

included B & Bs and farms and unique hotels.

They also beautified the parks and tidied the streets – every day. They pruned and

preened. They held little meetings in the church to train people how to be friendly to

visitors.

Importantly they told the world about it. How? They lodged their ideas with the local

tourist authority. They wrote press releases and sent clippings as far afield as the

quilters clubs in the USA. And all BEFORE internet and social media!!

Remember. The punters want variety. You can only look at trees and old churches

for so long.


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You need to build an experience around what is unique … or could be unique. Maybe

its what you take for granted.

For example, a lot of people love the Murder Mystery evenings. Montville has a

thriving amateur theatre society. They created a short 30-‐minute show that included

street performers and a humorous church service (drunken vicars and loads of

innuendo and confusion.) Local shop traders wore old time costumes. If it is unique

and you promote it you end up on a trail.

They promoted their art show.

The three keys are:

• Understanding tourism patterns

• Competitive positioning

• Unique business opportunities

The recurring theme is: don’t just focus on sporty themes. It is a small market. This

trend has persisted since 1992. Money is made at and during the Games but the real

money is made AFTER the Games.

Young people do not have the real money. In 1988 the backpacker market was not

significant. Backpackers wanted a quick experience on a tight budget. International

seniors and investors do have money and time. Not surprising every Games attracts

the seniors markets who have disposable income and want to spend. They almost

always keep showing up after the Games.

The competitors, trainers and associates want products and experiences developed

for during and after the Games.


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The power brokers, entourage, sponsors and conferences goers offer the powerful

market opportunities. Those businesses that focused on the power brokers ran

conferences, exhibitions and training events against the Olympic backdrop and post

Olympics. We knew that training at the xxxxx xxxxxx on the Sunshine Coast was

cheaper than training offered in Sydney. Training in the local art gallery will be a LOT

cheaper than Central London events.

Believe it or not, tours of Silicon Valley were big money spinners. Tours of China’s

industrial parks and factories was a big money spinner. Tours of the local winery

were popular.

The top three experiences we focused on were:

• Unique arts experiences

• Unique community experiences

• Unique international experiences

Our larger businesses also looked for opportunities to host conferences and worked

with organisers to offer unique visitation packages.

For example, the Novatel hotel chain promoted events through their sister hotels

worldwide.

Surveys said that those who benefitted most had offered high quality experiences

with no hassles.

I want to emphasise that ALL of the marketing then was snail mail and mass media.

Only the very biog players could afford a TV ad campaign which is why a lot of

people chipped in money to the tourist ad campaigns.

But with FREE social media tools anyone can make a web site or a video, upload it or

embed it in an email and message the world.


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Positioning

The first key question we asked was: what do we value? Why are we valuable? What

is special about us? How are we positioned. Positioning basically lives on a spectrum

of budget to premium. Businesses were able to position themselves on this

spectrum.

But we looked at the flavour of our region as an ‘out-‐doorsy’ lifestyle region –

swimming, boating, fishing, canoeing, hiking, camping, history etc.

We had pocket of performance and the arts. Gympie created a film festival (like

Sundance).

And science and manufacturing.

A big attraction was hospitality and food. Aussie BBQs were a popular attraction and

stupidly simple.

And natural attractions. The region had mountains and rainforests and lakes and

rivers. And amazing flora and fauna.

You have to start thinking.

Target Markets

We aimed at niche markets NOT the masses. Plus we focused on the long term

visitor, not the entry/exit visitor. And the older visitor. The grey dollar. Some towns

promoted their reputation for pink dollar tourism

The focus was on ‘stay’ tourism traffic. How do we get people to stay longer?

We focused on experiences for 2-‐10 people.


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Partners and Trails

Once we got the idea of trails we looked for market partners locally; and regionally.

Montville teamed up with Noosa and Tewantin to create an art trail. Gympie teamed

up with Sovereign Hill (Victoria) to create a gold trail. I think Australia Zoo teamed up

with Taronga Park and Dubbo Zoos (NSW) to create an animal trail.

We focused on arts – inspiration; stories, history and culture; and bonds.

Locations

Get out a street map and a local map. You need to think: what have we got of value

that we take for granted and what might attract visitors. And who else has value that

we can partner with? For example Bristol could partner with Bath.

Events

Get out your calendar and look at it. For example a lot of trails look at recurring

annual events and then send tourists on to the next event. For example, the Maleny

Folk Festival flows into the Port Fairy Folk Festival which flows onto Womalaide.

Toowoomba has the annual flower show.

The Olympics involves travel which has romantic and sentimental overtones. The

Olympic Spirit is about competition, national pride, gathering of clans, culture etc.

It attracts superstars and the entourage. It requires planning. Reps will come from

many nations. This equals business opportunities and business/project partnerships.


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Cooperate

The research showed that a unified marketing approach works best. Its almost that

you need to view your local and wider region as a giant theme park and compile

everything you can offer in the way of tours, experiential trails, and then link those

experiences i.e., tours to historic places and unique surroundings.

Everyone benefits when you work together.

Gateways

Is your area a gateway to somewhere else? Ealing is a gateway to Perivale, Hanwell

and Chiswick. Believe it or not there is a canal network that is tourist worthy.

West London is a gateway to the west – Cornwall and Devon and Wales.

The UK is the gateway to Europe. You can partner in that gateway or be the unpaid

farewell committee. Do not watch and wave as tourist money flows across the

Channel! Connect and cooperate. Cross promote.

Australia was the gateway to Asia and Pacific Rim and it included Indonesia,

Malaysia, Taiwan, China, Korea, Japan, Alaska, Canada and California.

People who did really well looked at their existing niche market and looked for what

was being offered elsewhere and further afield and then aligned with those

opportunities.

For example, small business exhibitions is now big business. I am sure that Earls

Court is not the only small business expo in London or the UK or Wales or Scotland

or Western Europe.


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Stay Tourism

Don’t waste time moving people around. Spend time on leisure activities not waving

people off to other destinations. Think: Stay tourism. Think: who can come and how

long will they stay?

For example a well-‐received package was business and entertainment packages.

During the Games look for obvious niches. For example, athletes and politicians.

They are a conservative market looking for an excuse to travel. After a quick city

experience they want to escape mass experiences.

They are weary but still want to participate. What has your community got to offer

and share with them? Architecture, history, nature, diversity?

Tip: if you run a coordinated campaign focus on quality control not quick bucks. We

had people who set out to milk the Games. In some cases one trader ruined months

and months of preparation because of one shonky rip off stunt. Be alert for price

manipulators. Tourists talk!

Go for a sense of community.

The London riots of 2011 brought communities together because of strife. Why not

come together to leverage opportunities? We realized that the Australian

government spent millions promoting Australia. So is the UK government. Piggy back

off their efforts.

What have you got that’s special?

One small town in Queensland Australia had a thriving timber industry. They already

had an woodcraft festival, a furniture show, forestry tours and even a pest control

expo! So they offered timber experiences.


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Using timber as their theme they focused on food, fashion, gifts, furniture, forestry,

shipping, safety, coaching, skills and even law and order. They created furniture

store trails. They had a train ride through a forest. A pottery exhibit. Classes in lathes

and wood turning. History trails. Markets. Restoration expos. Multicultural

traditions.

Keil Mountain is a tiny town that focused on its cultural diversity. They already run

an annual food expo. They even tied in with other local festivals and even a festival

in Asia and Europe! It took some planning.

What cultures live in your area?

Ealing has an amazing Indian community just up the road. And a Polish community.

Toowoomba has an annual flower festival.

London is full of historic pubs. There has to be a pub tour somewhere.

Bundaberg is a sugar town with historic pubs and Cobb and Co wagons sugar mills,

sugar trains and tractors and sugar cane farms and a sugar festival. They did a back

to the 50s sugar festival.

Bundaberg did something. Nambour – another famous sugar town – did nothing.

Identify your resources. What do you have of value? You will attract the same people

who value what you value.


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Attract, Hold, Route, Return

We focused on four strategies:

Attract Hold Route/Trails Return

What is of value?

What do you do

annually?

Culture

Eco tourism

Arts

Events

Accomm

Tours

Boardroom

experiences –

events,

conferences

Create experiences

Packages

Family Packages

Broker Specials

What can we do to

get people to refer

or come back?

We tried to broker memorable opportunities locally, regionally, nationally or

internationally. Be the first, middle, exclusive or last experience but make it

memorable.

Focus on people, natural or cultural experiences.

People Natural Cultural/Special

Nationalities

Diversity

Artists

Experts – fishing, hiking,

science, cooking, wine,

markets, medical,

manufacturing, farmers

Languages

Beach

Islands

Forests

Mountains

Hiking

Flora

Fauna

Crops

Cattle country

Hinterland wals

Wetlands

Rivers

Farms

Proximity experiences

Mills, cheese, horse studs

Annual festivals\

Conferences

Technology

Car show

Bike show

Barge show

Craft show

Theme parks


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What do we value? What can we offer that is quality or high end?

Start with family, cleanliness, service, quality, imagination, systems, arts,

environment, safety, simple, old world, new world, modern, low cost, lifestyle, fast

food, slow food, action, relaxing, intimacy, engagement, expertise etc. What

positions you?

Is it stories, myths, legends?


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How to view tourists

See a tourist as

• Potential tourist

• Tourist

• Visitor

• Guest

• Ambassador or advocate

• Investor

Every community has people who hate tourism. And there are some who proactively

try to undermine your efforts. Montville had a local farmer who posted Go Home!

billboards on his property leading in to town. Some shop keepers cynically posted

and boasted ‘local and tourist’ rates.

In 1994 you could get away with that sort of. But you can’t do that now. People film

and upload this sort of thing on their mobile phones and seconds later its global.

Who do you want as a visitor?

For example, if you are Chinese you can track your heritage to Bundaberg because a

lot of Chinese families were engaged to create the sugar industry.

I can track my ancestors to the West Brompton Cemetery where Beatrix Potter is

buried. Cemetery tours are a huge money spinner.

A guest will ask: Is my story here?


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Revision: What happens after the games?

Historically, there is an after burn effect long after the Games finish. This can be

when the real revenues start to kick in. Do not assume that the revenue making

opportunities cease once the games end. Historically that's when they start.

Once they have experienced the games visitors move on to other experiences such

as festivals -‐ both national, recognised and regional. If it is unique and quality and

promoted it tends to work.

Don't just offer touristy things. Offer business opportunities, trainings and special

entertainment.

What we learned

Above all we learned to be creative and use our imagination both as a region and as

individual businesses. Have a vision and envision the positive future. And it has to be

strategic. Strategic planning will trump random and ad hoc attempts to cash in.

1. Recognise arts opportunities

2. Marketing -‐ plan for niche markets and power brokers not mass markets

3. Position for what visitors are seeking -‐ history, business opportunities,

entertainment, positions.

4. Create themed activities.

5. Look for ways to promote business opportunities.

6. Use a unified approach.

I think the Sunshine Coast benefitted because we identified our natural attractions

and existing tourist attractions. (NB: Being an existing tourist attraction is no

guarantee you will dominate visitor spend. Visitors are looking for something unique

-‐ not hackneyed.)

Word of mouth carries during and after the Games.


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What do visitors talk to others about?

Word of mouth is a massive opportunity. You want good PR. You want advocates.

The standards apply: quality, service, value and cleanliness. Add friendliness and

genuine interest too.

1. Believe it or not they talk about how clean a region is.

If your local town has a lax approach to litter and graffiti for example, that WILL

carry. Clean up. If you run a shop keep it clean. Encourage your residents to tidy up

and take pride. The little town of Monteville absolutely benefitted because the

residents made a unified and concerted effort to tidy their village. It had a thriving

arts community and the place had instant appeal. Locals removed rubbish and kept

the village spit spot.

Disneyland gets more comments about its cleanliness than any other aspect.

2. They talk about friendliness. Learn to smile and engage. There is nothing worse

than treating visitors shabbily. If you do not want to see Olympic tourists stay away.

As a region discourage anyone who displays ‘Go Home’ banners. That can ruin

everything you are working towards.

3. They talk about rip-‐offs. Those towns or individuals businesses that decided the

Olympics was a opportunity to rip off visitors did NOT historically benefit. Visitors

sensed they were being ripped off and that news carried. With social media one

tweet or blog can hit up to 8000 people within minutes. Visitors will search on line

for value.

NB: if you are in a village that has a hotel that has hiked its prices visitors will talk

about that problem ... which impacts every other business. Anyone doing a solo

effort and who is ripping off visitors is damaging your regional reputation.


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We had some 'cowboys' too and business close buy WERE hurt by their selfishness.

4. They talk about service. Visitors let others know if the service was good. Be

friendly and accommodating and be of service.

5. They talk about relationships. Tourists want to connect. They remember the old

lady who sold them a ticket for a pony ride who chatted about the history of the

local horses. In fact they talk more about connections than attractions.

Work Together

I can only say that our region worked together. This meant funding etc but it also

meant doing basic things like tidying up, repairing, pruning, beautifying.

Our region did a lot better than regions with a lot more to offer. Other regions with

better amenities and attractions were complacent and assumed visitors would just

naturally go there. We offered a well-‐orchestrated campaign before, during and long

afterwards and the region benefitted for several years after the Games.

Plan

People might say it is too late. This is never true. Planning helps but you can still

leverage the Games at any time. Social media is probably your best tool in 2012. A

simple video or five on Youtube about your local area can work wonders.

Think Long Range

If you missed the Games the research says there is an after effect. You can STILL

leverage Olympic tourism. In fact you have up to seven years after the Games to do

so in most cases. UK is in the world spotlight. A lot of people will not want to go to

London during the Olympics. They will wait till the crowds leave and the prices go

back to normal. But they are intending to come. Keep promoting.


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Special considerations

We coordinated our positioning and marketing, focused on culture, offered

education and training for local businesses, information services, positive media

coverage, technology and political assistance (i.e., relax local ordinances for street

parades).

1. Positioning – this included identifying our self-‐image and positioning. We

discussed how we wanted to be perceived i.e., arts and history.

2. Culture – culture offers a stabilising influence that people want to return to.

This is why so many Aussies travel to the UK. Culture taps into values and we

are attracted to stable values. For example, we agreed to offer genuinely

friendly and interested service. People commented most on how interested

we were in them. We purposely talked about spending time with visitors.

3. Education – We ran education nights for the local businesses. In some cases

we looked at retraining people to actually like visitors. The biggest hurdle was

getting people to cooperate. People don’t compete when they know where

they are going together.

4. Media – the media has a long reaching ability to transmit the right and wrong

messages. We asked the local media to focus on what we were doing well.

We also learned to not add the media and marketing until we knew where

we were going. Media picks up on confusion otherwise and treats that as a

story. Remember, we make the message. The media isn’t establishing the

message they are just speaking for us.

5. Politics – we sought support, funding and cooperation from the local

government and councils. We wanted strong direction and leadership as well

from our elected members. Again the focus was on the politicians speaking

for us not to us. Representing our wishes.


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Who made our job difficult?

Unions

A potential threat to our Olympics campaign was union activity. The unions saw the

Olympics as golden opportunity to push through demands and pay rises. For

example bus drivers, baggage handlers, road workers. We worked with the unions

but they were VERY hard to work with.

Long after the Games the locals remembered how uncooperative the unions were.

Cowboys

There is a huge short-‐term temptation to hike prices because you can. Visitors

expect you to profit from the Games but they are not stupid. We made every effort

to get our local business people to work together – long term. But one or two

strategic businesses ran their own race and hiked their prices and that damaged our

efforts. They did not contribute to the plan but benefitted from our time, money and

effort.

Again the resentment was palpable.

Government officials

We ran into the thinking that says that extra visitors means extra load on the local

amenities. So this lead to introduced permits and controls and restrictions. For

example it was mooted that you needed a permit to have a BBQ at the park on the

beach! It was amended to commercial ventures. Parking fees were introduced to

beaches. I went to a remote beach in Norwich and damn … you had to pay £2 to park

there. I can imagine a parking inspector lurking in the bushes in the hope that

someone might venture down his lonely road!

The locals protected loudly and often it worked and often it didn’t. The local airport

introduced increases to landing tax to cover extra use of amenities during the

Games. It was never rescinded once the Games ended.


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Snapshot of roll out

• I attended a meeting put on by the local authority and local tourism board.

(This assumes your local council has a Games focus and advisory board.

Check! Ask!)

• I attended meetings held by the Chamber of Commerce.

• I participated in a local initiative to promote the region through Tourism

Sunshine Coast and Tourism Queensland.

• I received monthly ‘what’s on’ updates from Council as we moved closer to

the Games.

• I met with clients I knew to see what help they needed – because I ran a

small ad agency.

• I went to several meetings with the local media – TV, radio and press.

• I talked with local magazine editors i.e., arts, lifetsyle.

• I prepared several small seminars.

• I was asked to be a presenter for one of the hotel chains who had an

established conference market.

• I was given an Olympic Supporter sticker for my business. This initiative was

to show visitors who was supportive and who wasn’t.

Get the idea?

In a small way, I was lucky enough to experience several of the closed-‐door

committee sessions. This document is my notes from those sessions and I hope it is

of some value albeit limited.

Next Steps

There is a lot of good info on the net too if you go looking.

Good luck. Happy to talk about my experiences.

Andrew Priestley 2012

2012 London Olympics and beyond

Business

Transcript of 2012 London Olympics and beyond