London 2012 – “Back the bid” case study

Challenge
Despite a whole variety of positive messages to communicate (such as the legacy the games would leave, the boost it would give to sport particularly amongst the young and the regeneration it would bring to East London), early PR for the London Olympic bid wasn’t working.

i to i research was commissioned to help London 2012 understand what the problems were and to assist them in redirecting communication.

Insight
We discovered that the positive rational messages were not working because they were being drowned out by the more ‘sticky’ negative messages about the games (much to do with the costs involved), which was then compounded by word of mouth.

This learning led to a more emotional approach to communication, using celebrities with whom people could identify (such as David Beckham and Kelly Holmes) who urged people to “back the bid”. This allowed the rational messages to get through and was successful both in uniting the UK behind the bid and winning over the IOC.

“i to i‘s research played an important role in helping us hone our messaging in the final stages of our publicity campaign. We were able to rally public support behind the Bid, something which proved to be an important factor in winning on July 6th.”

Mike Lee, MBE - Director of Communications, London 2012