As the Olympic flame passed directly by our offices last week, the driving rain never looked like deterring those caught up in the excitement and anticipation of this year’s Games. School children waved their flags, the café opposite must have taken a week’s turnover in just a couple of hours and at The IT Marketing Factory, we sipped Prosecco at 10 in the morning with a bird’s eye view of the parade.
Yes, the country has already started celebrating this unique event and, goodness knows, it needed a shot in the arm. But as companies look to tap into the media hype to help secure new business, our advice is to proceed with caution. Those who flirt too closely with the Olympic flame risk getting their fingers burnt.
Protect your marks, set, go
As you would surely expect, many of the marks associated with the Games are protected, preventing non-sponsors and unauthorised businesses from using them and violation of these stipulations could land you in hot water. Of course, hosting the Olympics is a seriously costly undertaking. Just think of a number and then double it (actually, they may already have done that with the budgets for security and the open ceremony!) But the serious point is that the organising committee is understandably reliant on the support of official sponsors, which makes it essential to protect the ‘value of the brand’.
However, critics have accused the organisers of being a little heavy handed in their approach. Whilst the prohibition of the use of logos seems relatively obvious, the outruling extends to use of the name of the event itself which is also considered a trademark.
LOGOC, the committee responsible for the organisation of this years’ Games in our capital, explains that such stringent policies are required to police the use of the brand in order to protect what is essentially its most valuable asset: “To ensure we maintain both the emotional and commercial value of the brand, we need to carefully control its use and prevent its unauthorised exploitation.”
The committee is keen to eradicate ‘ambush marketing’ – the process of a business latching onto its branding without due permission – so as not to undermine the privileges of its sponsors.
LOCOG says that it understands accidental use may well occur and will therefore attempt to deal with many infringements on a personal level. This course of action would see it asking businesses to remove their offending material. In more serious cases, there may need to be a more formal legal approach.
No way to review
The biggest problem for marketers is that the committee is unable to review any advertisements with a view to either authorising or declining. Instead it asks businesses to exercise common sense and consult its website for a full breakdown on the can and can’t dos. We have provided the links below for information but you’ll see that they cast the net fairly wide on what is not permitted. So, whilst many will be keen to get in on the action this summer, our advice is that, if you go with an Olympic-theme, you do so at your peril.
