Behind Beijing

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There’s Opening Nights and Opening Nights….!
Fri 8th August, 2008

By Kristina Schaefer



This week has seen a number of high profile media launch events by a number of the sponsor family. It’s a bit of a “bun fight” if I am honest as there doesn’t seem to be a global schedule in place by either BOCOG or the IOC. So its been a lottery and it has meant that there have been a few timing clashes.

In Beijing there are believed to be some 30,000 accredited media. More than any past Games. So the key challenges are going to be – getting the right media; maintaining a high presence throughout the 16 days, keeping things fresh and differentiating from the rest. At the start everyone is hungry but I would imagine its going to get more challenging to keep the global media positive, engaged and motivated. And get their focus off successes on track to brand stories around it.

So when it comes to your unveiling do you go early or hold back? Is it a morning, lunch or evening gala? On Monday 4th August, GE & Omega went first and were rewarded by visits from Jacques Rogge who personally unveiled each of their pavilions in the Olympic Green. It was pretty hot and humid so media were keen to get inside the tranquil air-conditioned venues.

Then followed by the first evening event hosted by Samsung on Tuesday 5th August. This was not any ordinary launch but a “SHOW” which appealed to an eclectic audience that had gathered around a massive Samsung stage. The evening was presented by two well known Chinese TV presenters.



Samsung dignitaries entered to a fanfare from the Samsung band. This was followed by speeches from Samsung, IOC \ BOCOG and a Chinese athlete. After the mandatory brand video we were introduced to a Chinese fable, a kids stage show and the evening was wrapped up with a worldwide variety show for good measure.



Kind of lost the plot to be honest but bags on energy and enthusiasm got us through it.

Last night we were invited to the VW launch and as you can imagine this was something pretty special. Probably the best event so far…It was a highly stylised and choreographed studio production using the very latest presentation technology. It was slick, professional and just oozed German style, design and precision.



The site itself would not be any sponsor’s first choice as it is a long and narrow rectangle. But VW designer’s designed something pretty special. On one side they have their air-conditioned function rooms facing a bank of big TV screens on the other side. The screens sit on top of glass boxes which hold some of VW \ Audi \ Skoda classics.



In the middle is a bank of tiered seating that will allow people to relax in the shade produced by huge sails. A great place to watch some of the action unfold during the Games. And at ground level next sprinkled around the cars are Olympic memorabilia from past games – include 8 torches from past Games.

The only disappointment for us and I would imagine the international media was that the introduction speeches by VW CEO was in German and translated only into Chinese.

The brand video was a bit drawn out but the finale was amazing. A troop of aerial acrobats were attached by wire to a set of moving screens. They ran, jumped and swung as they simulated a number of the Olympic disciplines.



One big learning though… make sure your audience can understand what is being said. There were at least two events where you could see people feeling a little bit dismayed that they could not understand what was being said. Big hand goes to GE though who took time to provide simultaneous translation head sets to make sure that both the Chinese and International media capture the key messages.