Olympic Marketing Notes: IOC Focusing On Youth In New Campaign

In N.Y., Tanzina Vega noted the IOC is “focusing the latest iteration of its promotional campaign on the 12- to 19-year-old market.” The campaign, called “Best of Us,” via Cole & Weber United, “continues the theme of previous Olympic campaigns that encouraged viewers to share examples of their ‘personal bests.’” One TV spot, called “Yellow Line,” shows athletes like U.S. swimmer Michael Phelps and Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt breaking records in the ‘08 Beijing Games and “non-Olympians reaching personal bests with a yellow line symbolizing the limits all of them have surpassed.” Viewers are “encouraged to visit a Web site, Olympic.org/showyourbest, to send in videos of themselves achieving a personal best and to vote on other submitted videos.” A second TV spot “will be created using footage from the entries received and will be distributed to Olympic broadcast partners to be shown” during the London Games (NYTIMES.com, 11/27).

TRAVEL INSURANCE: In London, Jacquelin Magnay noted travel company Thomas Cook is “facing financial woes but people who have purchased any of the 300,000 Olympic tickets from the travel agent, which is an official Olympic sponsor, can sleep safe.” LOCOG said that it “will honour the tickets purchased through the packages if the company goes belly-up and the packages are also covered by the travel agency collective ABTA's bond” (TELEGRAPH.co.uk, 11/24).

CASTLE WITHOUT RINGS: A proposal to display the Olympic rings on Edinburgh Castle “has been rejected” by Historic Scotland, the body which runs the visitor attraction. Historic Scotland said that it “will not allow the five aluminum rings to be displayed on ramparts on one side of the castle.” LOCOG “submitted a planning and advertising application to the City of Edinburgh Council on Monday November 7, proposing to display the Olympics logo before and during the event next year” (PA, 11/24).

AD AWARDS: AROUND THE RINGS' Ann Cantrell noted BP is “being honored for its Olympic television and media campaign.” Its ‘12 Olympic Ambassadors campaign “includes short films about disabled athletes who are training for the Paralympics.” BP was awarded with an Ability Media International Award “for this program that was hailed by the judges as inclusive” (AROUNDTHERINGS.com, 11/26).