Can you feel it?

We all know about it.  We can watch it on television. It’s waged half way around the world and costs billions of dollars. It’s a drain on the economy. We’re defending our country and those who are representing us are who we care about. It’s not the war in Afghanistan. It’s the Olympic Games.

 Can you feel it? Olympic Fever. We’re coming down with it. 

Every two years now, our country faces the competition.  The rest of the world wants to beat us and we want to rack up as many medals as we can. London will be my 10^th Olympiad with some involvement. I’m not counting some minor efforts in three other editions. Over the years,  I’ve worked for sponsors, for athletes, for non-profits, for venues and for organizing committees. Each competition has been in a different locale but the similarities in the activities around the events are pretty amazing.

One thing I’ve learned for certain is that no matter how much advance planning there is, when the opening ceremonies arrive, the operations become free form.  Most of the spectators come from driving distance. Sponsors never use all their benefits and, except for some of the giant multinationals, they are never entirely satisfied.  Locals ALWAYS grumble about the disruption and, during the competition itself, there are always tickets available, usually at a reduced price.  In Beijing, they were giving away thousands of tickets a day just to fill the stands.  The opening ceremonies have the best attendance. Track & Field is always the hot ticket. And the winter games are a crapshoot every time because of the weather and access to the competition, though ice skating draws great crowds, as does hockey…for sure, if you’re in Canada, eh.

For me, it began with 1980 Winter Games in Lake Placid, New York…the year of the “Miracle on Ice” for the US Hockey Team.  I was working with K2 Skis and helped put together their successful bid to be the “Official Ski”.  The original K2 Skis were red, white and blue for a reason.  They were made for the USA Women’s Ski Team.

Customer entertainment is a major factor in any sponsorship and it certainly was in Lake Placid, Calgary and Sarajevo, especially with the Mahre twins, Phil and Steve becoming my clients and winning medals like they were going out of style.  In Atlanta, I worked for Coca-Cola and Helly Hansen (sailing in Savannah). My connections with Coke’s agency McCann Ericson tied me in with them.  The bombing unfortunately put a damper on the enthusiasm at that entire event.  The crisis communications work does trickle down to all the sponsors but especially if you’re in the world headquarters of a company like Coke.

We had just completed organizing and promoting one of our around the world sailing races with a stop in Sydney, when the Olympics showed up there.  Our local corporate contacts, as well as some of the sports organizers there, brought me into the fold to help with international communications and crisis work. Australians certainly have their own way of doing things.  They don’t take advice particularly well but somehow things seem to work out for the best.

Lillehammer and Salt Lake were mostly about long-time client Helly Hansen.  Lillehammer is a cool little  village of about 25,000 people and they did an amazing job of entertaining the world.  Helly is a very Norwegian company with a well-manufactured product. They took great pride in playing a major role in hosting the Olympics.  The organizing committee there was completely engaged and took their job very seriously.  That focus really paid off for them.  In Salt Lake, we also worked with Snowbird Resort, an established client that was one of the host venues.  Friend and owner Dick Bass would not let the Olympics come to town without making a major commitment.  And I did see Mitt Romney, but, no, I didn’t work with him.

The small group of Olympic specialists who travel the world from one Games to next that I have gotten to know over the years, brought me into the Beijing Games.  That event will be very hard to match…ever.  The entire country was behind the effort (or had to be) and no holds were barred.  The commitment was clear and it was a spectacular production. It was a truly enlightening experience to see how the organizers handled it all.

Vancouver was a great host. I saw them through several difficult situations that they managed very carefully and, for the most part, effectively.  The death of a luge competitor in practice before the opening ceremonies and the overzealous celebration after the Canadian win on the ice were both handled with care and compassion.  I was impressed.  And I even got my own cameo on NBC during the Today Show while talking to Jane, who was in Florida visiting her sister and saw me there live on the telly.  Pretty cool.

So now , it’s on to London.  I love the city.  We’ve been travelling there for decades.  It is full of history and the Royals.  We have close friends there and I buy my socks at  Marks & Spencer…wouldn’t feel right without them.  The organizers have the right idea.  They are not trying to compete with previous Games, especially Beijing.  They are going to do things their way, within their budget during these hard times.  It is bound to be fun and exciting on the field.  I mostly want it to be safe.  Jane and I will be there and I’ll let you know how it’s going and what it’s like.  You’ll see the competition on television.  I hope to tell you what’s going on in the concourse, on the river, in the tube and in the neighborhood pub. Cheers for now.