Event planners at Glasgow’s Commonwealth Games were careful that other brands did not interfere with the rights of main sponsors, such as Irn Bru
Andy’s colleague James McMor-
row is a partner at Harper Macleod, where he is part of the business law and contracts team. He also advised on the Games. Te two lawyers talk about their experiences - and offer some valuable advice to those working in the open air events industry. From a brand perspective, Andy
said the key to success is all about maintaining good relationships with sponsors and advertisers. He said: “For the Games we had
to ensure that the event zones were brand neutral so we had to take away references to brands which were not sponsors. For example, Irn Bru, being a sponsor of the Games, would not have taken kindly to Coca-Cola branding being every- where. We needed a clean environ- ment to work in and that involved working alongside both sponsors and trading standards in Glasgow. “We provided advice on trade-
marks such as the Games’ logos and wider association rights the Games enjoyed, which included limiting commercial activity to the Games’ sponsors and advertisers. “Take steps to protect your own brand. If you have sponsors they
will be expecting a whole range of sponsorship rights, including nam- ing rights, association rights and prominent display of logos.”
WHEN ORGANIZING any event, no matter the size, insurances are essential, as James explains. “Insurances are important and you need a whole range of insurances, from public and employers’ liability insurance to product liability insur- ance and specific insurance for event cancellation.” According to James, security,
transport and ticketing often create major issues. He said: “I attended a few events
at the Games and this made me think about the whole customer ex- perience, from going online to order tickets, getting them delivered by courier, being able to use event tick- ets as travel tickets on trains. Ten, once there: being directed to events by stewards; being searched by security guards and going through the X-ray machines and metal detectors; getting a programme and getting to our seats to see the event; watching the medals being awarded. To most attendees, this is quite a straightforward experience,
but behind the scenes there were hundreds of contracts underpin- ning that customer journey - and it’s important not to lose sight of that.” But what if something goes
wrong? For example, one weekend during the Games saw a huge de- mand placed on transport, resulting in additional trains and buses being
“YOU COULD PUT ON THE BIGGEST, MOST SPECTACULAR, FANTASTIC EVENT IN THE WORLD, BUT IF YOU ONLY HAVE ONE PORTALOO, WITH ABOUT 500 PEOPLE QUEUING IT’S GOING TO RUIN THE EXPERIENCE.”
deployed at very short notice. James said: “In cases like that
you want contractual arrangements based on a fix first, argue later principle. Events are dynamic and there’s no time to get the contract out and start reading out clauses of x, y and z. You need to fix it first, then work out whose fault it is and what the contractual remedies are for that afterwards. You can’t have a transport provider saying, ‘I’m sorry we don’t have enough buses so people are not going to get to the event today. Te reputational consequences for any event would be massive and would have spin-off implications for sponsorship and value of brand.” James added: “Andy and I
worked with a lot of people who had worked on multiple interna- tional events, such as the Olympics and football world cups, and they all remarked on how things always go wrong. But the trick is to make sure that the key stakeholders’ experience is not affected, and that you have a contractual framework in place for things to be fixed quickly. In short, you need to be adequately protected as an event provider.”
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