Essay for Sports/Business publication
Some enjoy sports marketing in two flavors. In 2008 the “sport” of Presidential elections was in full swing and worth watching for lessons in marketing and communications for my students at Northwestern University. . The other 2008 major and equally expensive sporting event worth watching and learning from is or are the 2008 World Olympics.
Over many centuries, the ancient and even the modern Olympics have demonstrated the dedication of individuals, governments, organizations, corporations and nations to the serious and valued marketing of the Games. As in political campaigns you will notice that the use of every possible tactic in marketing was employed with most incorporating an integrated strategy to fully gain audience, stakeholder and customer allegiance. The Olympics are a great show of fully developed product, corporate and national branding.
Some of the lessons of Olympic marketing (especially for those of you who cannot afford to be an official sponsor) that I have shared with my students and audiences include low cost but high dedication strategies and tactics (hopefully you can use the ideas for the 2012 Olympics in London and the 2016 Olympics we expect to be in Chicago).
1. Prepare your “Unofficial Olympic Strategy” to work exactly with your existing marketing and corporate strategies. Link the timing, energy and messaging to the Olympic cycle.
2. Do not use ambush marketing or other unethical and illegal uses of the Olympic rings and values, but instead simply link your own sprit of business dedication and to the Olympic spirit and history.
3. Consider your loyal current customers, employees and other stakeholders with opportunities to reach out to new customers.
4. Celebrate the Olympics in your business location, make a contribution to the American effort, donate product to Olympic training or even sporting events for the very young aspirants in your parks and school. Connect to local or regional Olympic contenders and finalists in your market. Consider hosting events to celebrate the Olympics at your business. Offer tickets to the Olympics or offer Olympic linked prizes.
5. In other words, link your business to the values, spirit and activities of the Olympics in a way that celebrates your support for the athletes, the audiences and the concept of the Olympics.
Despite my affinity to the Olympics and to people of China, I did not realize that I would find myself carrying the Olympic Torch in Lijiang China to “live the dream.” As a guest of Olympic and Torch sponsors Samsung Electronics, I was generously invited to the far western province of China and the city of Lijiang to join with over 33,000 global citizens running in hundreds of cities this year to carry the Olympic Torch. When I returned to Chicago and wanted to extend my experience in carrying the Torch, I literally passed that Torch to my students and my business audiences. In June I brought home the Torch to Northwestern (don’t worry; it is the flame that we pass along). The metaphor of the Torch has been one of the longest existing brand representations in civilization.
And with the Torch and symbol of the flame, I brought to my family, students, colleagues and audiences another example of the brilliance of the human mind to create and perpetuate brand symbols of ideas, people and products that can even last centuries.
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olympics. Show all posts
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
"Fat American comes to Lijiang" My favorite headline
I wasn't happy with the title that showed up in China. This was not the title for the original article in the Chicago Tribune. Still it reminds me to stay fit.
Fat American comes to Lijiang
Lijiang, China
Flag of China
Monday, Jun 09, 2008 23:07
Entry 147 of 348 | show all | print this entry
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Good to see the Olympic sponsors getting some leverage with their marketing.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-olympictorchjun10,0,3796738.story
chicagotribune.com
Northwestern professor to carry university name during run with Olympic torch in China
By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune reporter
7:22 PM CDT, June 9, 2008
As a Northwestern University communications professor, Clarke Caywood knows something about effective marketing.
So when he carries the Olympic torch Tuesday in China, he isn't going to miss an opportunity to promote the Northwestern brand. Though Olympic officials rejected his idea to hold a Medill School of Journalism banner, Caywood still plans to carry something with the Northwestern name.
He also plans to use the experience as a marketing opportunity when he returns to the United States, perhaps by starting his classes and corporate lectures with pictures of him running with the torch.
"What professor wouldn't like Olympic background music when they open their lectures?" said Caywood, who teaches in the integrated marketing communications program.
"When I give talks to industry and professional organizations, I will certainly put some of this in there as a metaphor for high achievement," he said from Lijiang, China.
Caywood, who has been a visiting professor at several Chinese universities, was invited to be a torchbearer by Samsung Corp., one of the relay sponsors. There will be more than 2,300 torchbearers during the flame's remaining 41/2-month journey to the August Olympics in Beijing, according to Samsung.
The relay has not been the "Journey of Harmony" that Chinese officials envisioned. In San Francisco, London, Paris and elsewhere, the relay was marked by pro-Tibet demonstrations and protests over China's human rights record. The relay also was suspended to mourn China's earthquake victims.
Caywood views the protests as a shrewd communications technique.
"The people involved with the Tibetan issue have a right to find an ongoing event and try to use it as a way to get their story told," he said. "In marketing, we sometimes recommend that, a co-branding."
Northwestern professor Tom Collinger, chairman of integrated marketing communications, said the school has been developing relationships with Chinese universities and businesses. Twenty students are working at companies there this summer, he said, and about 50 percent of the program's students are international, many from Asian countries.
While in China last week, Caywood lectured for the fifth time at Sun Yat-sen University, speaking to the business school's graduate students about crisis and risk management. He also participated in a seminar on building environmental awareness.
Collinger said Caywood has been instrumental in developing Medill's programs in public and media relations, and crisis communications.
"He has really been very much the leader of that area of our curricula," Collinger said.
On Tuesday, Caywood said he expects to run about 200 meters, or about half the length of a standard high school track. Though not a far distance, he said he has worried about getting winded or falling.
"My students will read this and they'll say, 'Clark is OK, but he is a little overweight,' " he said. "At one point, they were talking about running on cobblestone streets, and I thought, 'Oh great, I'll be the guy who falls.' "
Fat American comes to Lijiang
Lijiang, China
Flag of China
Monday, Jun 09, 2008 23:07
Entry 147 of 348 | show all | print this entry
Enjoying this travel blog? Donate to happysheep's travel fund today!
Good to see the Olympic sponsors getting some leverage with their marketing.
www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-olympictorchjun10,0,3796738.story
chicagotribune.com
Northwestern professor to carry university name during run with Olympic torch in China
By Jodi S. Cohen
Tribune reporter
7:22 PM CDT, June 9, 2008
As a Northwestern University communications professor, Clarke Caywood knows something about effective marketing.
So when he carries the Olympic torch Tuesday in China, he isn't going to miss an opportunity to promote the Northwestern brand. Though Olympic officials rejected his idea to hold a Medill School of Journalism banner, Caywood still plans to carry something with the Northwestern name.
He also plans to use the experience as a marketing opportunity when he returns to the United States, perhaps by starting his classes and corporate lectures with pictures of him running with the torch.
"What professor wouldn't like Olympic background music when they open their lectures?" said Caywood, who teaches in the integrated marketing communications program.
"When I give talks to industry and professional organizations, I will certainly put some of this in there as a metaphor for high achievement," he said from Lijiang, China.
Caywood, who has been a visiting professor at several Chinese universities, was invited to be a torchbearer by Samsung Corp., one of the relay sponsors. There will be more than 2,300 torchbearers during the flame's remaining 41/2-month journey to the August Olympics in Beijing, according to Samsung.
The relay has not been the "Journey of Harmony" that Chinese officials envisioned. In San Francisco, London, Paris and elsewhere, the relay was marked by pro-Tibet demonstrations and protests over China's human rights record. The relay also was suspended to mourn China's earthquake victims.
Caywood views the protests as a shrewd communications technique.
"The people involved with the Tibetan issue have a right to find an ongoing event and try to use it as a way to get their story told," he said. "In marketing, we sometimes recommend that, a co-branding."
Northwestern professor Tom Collinger, chairman of integrated marketing communications, said the school has been developing relationships with Chinese universities and businesses. Twenty students are working at companies there this summer, he said, and about 50 percent of the program's students are international, many from Asian countries.
While in China last week, Caywood lectured for the fifth time at Sun Yat-sen University, speaking to the business school's graduate students about crisis and risk management. He also participated in a seminar on building environmental awareness.
Collinger said Caywood has been instrumental in developing Medill's programs in public and media relations, and crisis communications.
"He has really been very much the leader of that area of our curricula," Collinger said.
On Tuesday, Caywood said he expects to run about 200 meters, or about half the length of a standard high school track. Though not a far distance, he said he has worried about getting winded or falling.
"My students will read this and they'll say, 'Clark is OK, but he is a little overweight,' " he said. "At one point, they were talking about running on cobblestone streets, and I thought, 'Oh great, I'll be the guy who falls.' "
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