Public Relations Campaign of the Olympics - Lab Report Example

Public Relations Campaigns: Olympic Games Executive summary Public relations campaign revolves around managing information flow between an organization or an individual and the public. The process exposes an organization or individual’s products, interests and definite news to the audiences. The organization or the individual intends to persuade investors, the public, employees, partners, and stakeholders to maintain a definite viewpoint concerning the products, leadership, or even the decisions of the organization. The common manifestation of public relations campaign includes engaging the press, delivering speeches at conferences, winning awards and communicating directly with employees of the organization. It is necessary to tackle areas of the public relations campaign that are essential for the success organization of the Olympic Games. The main area of focus will be the 2012 London Olympic Games. Public Relations Campaigns: Olympic Games Research and situational analysis Olympic Games have emerged as a significant international sporting event where several persons take part in diverse competitions. The event is held after every four years. It involves the participation of more than two hundred countries at any given time. Although the events are of international status, only good public relations exercise can ensure the success of the games. The organizers of such events have dedicated immense resources towards the public relations campaigns. A good example was the latest Olympic Games that held in London in the United Kingdom in the year 2012. The Olympic Games held in London majorly achieved its main objectives because many participants received their medals and raised the flag of their nations into the international limelight. However, there are doubts concerning whether the brand sponsors of the Olympics achieved their goals of conducting the public relations campaign for the games. While it is true that the games boosted the recession threatened economy of the United Kingdom, the same cannot be true about all the products available for sale during that period (Matera & Artigue, 2010). A global public relations group called ECCO conducted an international survey on the effects of public relations campaign on the London 2012 Olympic Games and generated several findings. There is a wide held belief that the event changed Britain’s image on the positive note. It helped boost international trade and tourism for Britain. As a result, there have been increased positive perceptions about the products and services from Britain among the world community (Gregory, 2010). The intense public relation campaigns allowed the United Kingdom to convince the world that it is more competitive, culturally complex, has a great sense of humor on top of being friendlier to many nations across the globe. Observers indicate that the games had an overall positive impact on the economy of the United Kingdom due to the intense public relations campaigns. This is evident in the several advertisement agencies conducted across the globe. This came in the wake of terrorism reports across the world that could have held deterred people from attending the event (Gregory, 2010). Definition of the target public The target audiences are people that an advertisement agency aims to capture in its public relations campaign. These population groups form the highest percentage of the organization’s consumers of its products and services. They also include people or organizations with the greatest potential of being great consumers of such products and services. Apparently, different organizations dealing in diverse products and services have different audiences’ sets. As a result, they will have distinct public relations campaigns to capture their audiences concerning their nature. Many multinational organizations pitched camp in London with the sole intention of passing the message of their products across the world (Matera & Artigue, 2010). The beverage and food chain retailers such as the Coke and the McDonalds took the opportunity to advertise and sell their products. Although they encountered oppositions due to the rising concerns of child obesity rates in the whole world, they were able to convince the public through the Olympics governing body that they would address the concerns. The McDonalds outlined the alternative health food choices such as salads, fries, porridge, and smoothies that they claimed to offer as a means of countering the chances of acquiring obesity by their clients. The mega food retail chain targeted school going children and teenagers who form the bulk of their consumers. Apparently, this group of the could be spending most of their time glued on television screens (Stoldt, Dittmore, & Branvold, 2012). Another target group was persons in the social media. Several organizations recognized this concept, and engaged in the internet advertisements in a bid to capture the attention of these people. For instance, the Coca-Cola Olympics engaged its audience in an online advertisement campaign dubbed. ‘Feel the Movement’. Furthermore, the company ran some of the events live on YouTube, brand site, mobile and on face book to consumers especially those in Mexico. The Mexican social media community was a formidable audience to the public relation campaign of the 2012 Olympic Games (Stoldt, Dittmore, & Branvold, 2012). Definition of the goals of the of Olympic Games Relations Public Campaigns The public relations campaign at the 2012 London Olympic Games had seven key goals and objectives. These goals also acted as lessons to many players in the industry of public relations across the world. The first goal was to provide better education to sponsors and the audiences on their roles. In this regard, many advertisement agencies were committed to informing the public on how their money helped the games. Additionally, advertisement agencies were committed to filling the public with information regarding the monetary realities between the sponsors and the athletes who were participating in the event (Matera & Artigue, 2010). The second goal of PR campaigns was to demystify the sponsorship as a vanity exercise during the sporting event. This was in terms of measuring and evaluating the monetary implications. Campaigns on public relations also had a goal of speeding up the events at the Olympics for the benefit of businesses. Running business events quickly has the implication of providing effective product placement for organizations. This will encourage the viewers and product’s clients to react quickly by making fast decisions concerning the choice of products to purchase. In this regard, the most appealing campaign would have its products sold faster. Campaigns on the public relations also intended to manage the expectations as well. For instance, before the commencement of the Olympic Games, there were messages going round that the public transport system would be overcrowded. This message made people stay away from the competition. However, through positive public relations campaign, the public was assured of an organized and quite public transport system. Consequently, the public relations campaign helped to reduce the negative expectations of chaotic transport system. Finally, the public relations campaign had a goal of creating an atmosphere of goodwill. There were increasing cynicism from the public, some politicians, and the media before the games began concerning their success. However, the campaigns on public relations helped clear this concern and consequently gave optimism on the success of the games (Stoldt, Dittmore, & Branvold, 2012). Outline strategy The choice of tactics and strategies for the public relations campaign is based on the goals and objectives of the exercise. A survey on pre campaign awareness is essential to help in allocating resources for the campaign. The public relations campaign aimed at delivering some key messages to the public, sponsors athletes, and the world at large. One key message was to inspire the Olympic sponsors’ generation into conducting more strategic campaigns. In cognizance of the more than 50 sponsors, the campaigns aimed at establishing a clear overlap between the brand values and the event values. It is also important to retain the universal brand of the Olympics as a demonstration of fairness, excellence, and courage besides emerging as champions in relevant fields (Gregory, 2010). The outline strategies should align correspondingly with objectives of the London Olympics. The London 2012 set a broad objective that all payers were supposed to address. Some of the requirements included staging a Paralympics and Olympic Games that inspires the athletes, the public, and all the Olympic families. Another objective was to ensure the deliverance of the Olympic Park together with all other avenues on time. This would ensure specification and the provision of sustained legacy. Therefore, campaigns in the public relations would help to maximize the economic, health, social and environmental benefits associated with the games. This is through replenishing and sustainably developing East London. Besides, the campaigns in public relations aimed at registering improved sports in the United Kingdom in the course of sports and after the end of the games through ensuring participations from the grassroots as well (Stoldt, Dittmore, & Branvold, 2012). Action strategy The attainment of the objectives described above requires carefully planned and formulated strategic actions. The London Olympics Committee work with partners, and stakeholders to deliver each objective. Some of the stakeholders are the government, sponsors, the Olympics Deliver Authority (ODA), the media, religious groups, and the public at large. However, the most crucial point in this collaboration is that the public need efficient and appealing information for the success of the collaboration’s objectives. Apparently, campaigns in public relations can help in achieving this. Additionally, the public could be convinced by the public relations campaign if the objectives are SMART (Matera & Artigue, 2010). The use of SMART strategy helps in the proficient measurement of the effectiveness of the actions and their ensuing achievements. A good example of an action strategy was the use of SMART objective to ensure that all spectators travelling to the venue of the games go either on foot or on bicycles. Alternatively, they could use public transport. This SMART objective action strategy has relations with the transport strategy due to its measurability since it aims at having all spectators participate. Efficient public relations campaigns helped to deliver the objectives required by the infrastructure and transport delivery teams for the public. The advantage of this action strategy is its realistic nature. This ensures that it is achieved within the allocated time. In this regard, public relations campaigns helped the London Olympics to realize overall objective of maximizing the social, health, economic and environmental gains of events for the United Kingdom in its quest to conduct sustainable development (Gregory, 2010). The main message The main message from the 2012 London Olympics Games revolved around four key areas. These included economic, sporting, volunteering, and social regeneration. Economically, the event would regenerate fresh skills and jobs through encouragement of trade, tourism, and inward investments. Sporting would continue the success of the elites through the development of advanced facilities for sporting and encouraging school sporting participations. On its part, volunteering and social would help encourage and help others to volunteer in order to create social change. Finally, through regeneration, there would be reuse of new homes and venues and improved transportation system within East London. For this message to reach the target audiences, it was necessary that there was an intense campaign on public relations. The selection of London as the venue for holding the games was because of the need to develop the marginalized areas of East London, occupied mostly by immigrants (Matera & Artigue, 2010). In some instances, the messages that accompanied the sporting event elicited rage amongst some world communities. For instance, Iran criticized London 2012 logo due to its Hebrew phrase of ‘Zion’. According to Iran, this represented a racist message. The logo was also interpreted to represent a broken Nazi by some quarters like the New York Times. In other instances, the public relations campaign about the logo received equal opposition from the charity Epilepsy Action. This was due to the sparkling colors animation that apparently triggers epileptic seizures (Stoldt, Dittmore, & Branvold, 2012). List tactics There were several tactics used in the public relations campaigns for the London 2012 Olympics Games. Some of the campaign tactics include televisions, radios, print, and the online media. The social media was abuzz with activities in what was billed as the first social Olympics ever. In this regard, Olympians, brands and fans took to the social media networks to share their thoughts, congratulate, and support athletes and comment on the happenings of the day. Additionally, they enjoyed the diverse advisement campaigns across the social network. In this respect, some brands managed to come up with very creative campaigns aimed at the audiences viewing the Olympics. Interestingly, they incorporated elements of the social media in key possible areas (Matera & Artigue, 2010). The success of the campaigns on public relations depends on the ability of the advertising agency to incorporate the traditional advertising channels such as radio, print, and television into the channels of the social media such as You Tube, Face book and twitter. By conducting public relations campaigns across the social media, the organizers of the 2012 London Olympics ensure an approach that is personalized with their clients. Apparently, many customers would feel most engaged and attracted to several goods and services on offer (Gregory, 2010). Campaign Budget According to the report of a parliament’s spending watchdog, expenditure for the London 2012 Olympics amounted to approximately £9.2 billion. This money was broken down into several uses as follows. The public purse received £ 377 million of this amount. Apparently, the G4S Company did all the campaigns on the public relations concerning the public purse. Additionally, the risks program obtained £ 103 million. This amount included those used in the construction of the retrofit of the Olympic Village for use during the games. Conversely, out of the £ 0.2 billion budget, around £ 480 million remained uncommitted contingency within the budget (Matera & Artigue, 2010). The highest proportion of the money went to the transport program and the constructions of the Olympic Delivery Authority (ODA). In total, they consumed an estimated amount of £6.714 billion. Security and infrastructural adjustments for the Olympic Games also received large sums of money. However, campaigns on the public relations consumed equally significant amount of money set in the budget. Most organization seized the Olympic events’ opportunity to reach their existing and potential clients by participating in public relations campaigns aimed at luring customers to the company’s products and services. The expenditure in the public relations campaign involved organization of events, print media, and social media, the mainstream media and merchandise. Different organizations apportioned different amounts to the various segments of advertisements based on their strengths to penetrate through to customers effectively. A food chain retail shop such as the McDonalds allocated 45 per cent of its public relations budget to the mainstream media. Here, they advertised their finger-licking delicacies on television sets where viewers had the opportunity to observe and gain appetite. The social media also received 30 per cent of the advertisement budget. This is because it is more common with the youths who are in turn the main customers of the McDonald’s products (Gregory, 2010). Plan evaluation The evaluation of the campaigns focusing on public relations in the 2012 London Olympics games assumes a pyramid model that is developed before the process begins. The use of this model for evaluation takes care of the three tiers namely the Input, the Output, and the Outcomes. The input involves raising concerns about the quality of the message being passed across regarding a product or service during the public relations. Besides, the message must be appropriate, relevant, and full of content for the targeted audience. The output assesses all the factors that describe the number of messages passed, their understanding, retention in consideration of their receipts. The actions taken and the change in attitude of viewers and other audiences would determine the measure of success of the campaigns on public relations (Matera & Artigue, 2010). Conclusion Public relations campaigns majorly aim at raising the level of public awareness for an organization or an individual’s awareness regarding their products and services. However, the audience dynamics are changing in terms of diversity and complexity. One needs to use relevant tactics while doing public relations campaign that is sensitive to the needs of the audience. The key tactics include radio, print advertisements, and websites for the target audience. For a mega and global event such as the London Olympics, many resources in terms of funds are invested in the hope of raising more. For instance, the 2012 London Olympics games used an approximate of £2 billion in conducting public relations campaign and eventually gained more than £ 15 billion in returns. References Gregory, A. (2010). Planning and Managing Public Relations Campaigns: A Strategic Approach. London ; Philadelphia : Kogan Page Publishers. Matera, F. R., & Artigue, R. J. (2010). Public relations campaigns and techniques: building bridges into the 21st century. Boston : Allyn and Bacon. Stoldt, G. C., Dittmore, S. W., & Branvold, S. E. (2012). Sport Public Relations: Managing Stakeholder Communication. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics 2. Read More