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interview


HUGH CHAMBERS


How can the Olympics be used to inspire a nation to be active? The chief commercial officer of the British Olympic Association shares his thoughts with Kate Cracknell


W


hen I meet Hugh Chambers, chief commercial officer of the British Olympic


Association (BOA), at its central London offices in April, there are 98 days to go until the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Games. There’s also been, in the past few days, some fairly scathing commentary in the media about the lack of public engagement with the Olympics so far, as well as the relative lack of progress towards a lasting participation legacy – something that was so key to London winning the bid in the first place. So how does Chambers feel things are


going on that front? “It’s already wall-to- wall in the media – there’s no-one in the country who isn’t aware of what’s about to happen. But I think we’re probably no more than 10 per cent of the way towards national euphoria,” he says. “That’s an unscientific guess of course,


but to me it’s a bit like the Royal Wedding last year. We all knew it was coming and most people were looking forward to it – not least because it was


a public holiday – but I think it was only when it was upon us that the nation really, truly, fully got behind it to a level that probably surprised most of us. I can’t remember the last time there was that degree of unified joy, excitement and collectivism around one event. “So it is, I believe, with the public’s


emotional engagement with the Games. Obviously the central purpose is somewhat different, but I believe you will see the same sort of effect this summer. I expect there to be an earlier build-up, though, thanks to things like the Olympic torch relay, which runs from 18 May right through to the opening ceremony on 27 July, and which will no doubt generate local and regional media coverage of ways in which people are getting involved. “Overlaid across that, you have the


Diamond Jubilee at the beginning of June, followed by the European football championships. We have a surge of public excitement and national focus ahead of us this summer, whether it’s the Queen, the football team or the growing excitement around the Olympics.


32 Read Health Club Management online at healthclubmanagement.co.uk/digital “In terms of engagement with the


Games, we’re anticipating that things will really start to take off at the beginning of May, with an upsurge early/middle of July, peaking during the Games themselves.”


Our Greatest Team He continues: “Probably our biggest challenge as the BOA is that we’re a very small organisation: around 85 people. We’re also privately funded – we don’t get governmental Lottery funding – so for us to build a true campaign of engagement with the nation is tough. We’re not sitting here with a multi-million pound marketing budget, so we’ve had to be very creative in the way we’ve approached it. “We realised a couple of years ago


that we needed to crystallise exactly what our engagement plan should look like in the form of a brand campaign, and we arrived at the notion of ‘Our Greatest Team’. The strapline


– ‘900 athletes, 60 million strong’ – has been the focal point of everything we’ve done, but to communicate that


june 2012 © cybertrek 2012


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