The international branding and marketing world is keen to see what’s next for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics committee after its unprecedented decision to abandon the Games’ official emblem amid plagiarism complaints.
In the days since artist Kenjiro Sano’s designs were scrapped Sept. 1, sponsors, Japanese government agencies and the Tokyo 2020 organizing committee itself canceled orders, tore down signs and edited websites to eliminate the graphic. In the meantime, organizers are starting at square one to develop a new logo.
The good news for sponsors: It’s early. Active use of the logo, chosen in late July, hadn’t really spread beyond Japanese borders, and most sponsors will withhold the bulk of their activation spending for the 2020 Summer Games until after the Rio Games conclude next year.
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Tokyo’s bid campaign logo has been pushed back into service.
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Nevertheless, domestic sponsors are left without any fresh marketing assets to use in the meantime, and most of them had at least started to roll out 2020 campaigns. For instance, banking sponsor Mizuho Financial Group scrambled to remove signs from 400 branches throughout Japan.
“If I’m a sponsor, what have I got? What can I even put on my collateral?” said Nick Sykes, CEO of FutureBrand London, a brand consultancy that advised the London 2012 Games. “I’ve paid my money. They can use the candidate bid city logo, but that’s not what you want. They’ve got little to play with.”
For now, sponsors are using either the bid campaign logo or the standard Japanese Olympic Committee mark. Finding a new emblem is likely to take many months, pushing the creative process for sponsors into 2016. Traditionally, Sykes said, sponsors start to activate about four years out, after the prior equivalent Olympics is finished.
It’s not simply a matter of replacing the image on existing work, said Erin Weinberg, group head and executive vice president of sports and entertainment communications for United Entertainment Group. Anything that’s been in production or advanced creative stages must be reconsidered, and organizers will have to meet anew with sponsors to update them on changes and go over style guidelines. There’s still time to correct the error without major problems, she said, but Olympics preparation depends on continual progress.
“There’s definitely a domino effect,” said Weinberg, who has advised corporate clients on Olympic marketing since 1992.
The Tokyo metropolitan government itself canceled a $380,000 order last week, and Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. yanked a TV commercial featuring the design, local media reported. Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp., NEC Corp., Mitsui Fudosan Co. and Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. have all removed the logo from their websites.
Meanwhile, the organizing committee itself must discard 5,000 business cards, 20 posters, two signboards and back panels for press conferences, spokeswoman Nao Miyawaki said.
A manufacturer for licensed merchandise, one of the most popular uses of the logo, hasn’t been selected yet, Miyawaki said.
Sykes suggested the Japanese Olympics organizers abandon the competition model for a new design for a faster process.
“They should go to a proper company that does this for a living, and knows and understands the issues around plagiarism, and has a process to prevent it, and have a pitch instead of a competition,” Sykes said.
The last remaining vestiges of the now-disavowed logo can be found in the friendly skies. All Nippon Airways has the logo in its September in-flight magazine, which won’t be replaced, Japan Times reported.
