London 2012 Olympic Games - Effects of Sport Mega-events on City Brand Awareness and Image - Case Study Example

Effects of Sport Mega-events Name Institution Course Date Effects of Sport Mega-events Nothing is more important than cities expressing their values and beliefs that represent their personality in the current global competition (Acheson, 2003. Image creation and brand awareness are fundamental objectives of politicians and thus, one of the concepts that is allocated more time and resources (Kotler and Gertner, 2004). Image creation and brand awareness rely largely on enhancement of local features and characteristics that makes a particular city stand out, and marketing its cultural, economic and technological attributes (Raj, 2004). The same way as a product, marketing of cities attract and retain “place customers” and build a brand image that is associated with the city, every time a person refers to it. An example of how cities create awareness and image is hosting of mega-events (Home and Manzenreiter, 2006). Sport mega events like Olympic Games, UEFA championship and FIFA world cup are items of top priority for cities around the world. Such mega events are catalysts for positive change, creating global image and enhance economic and social growth in host cities (Mathesonand Baade, 2004). This paper will focus on how London 2012 Olympic Games have affected city brand awareness and image. London 2012 Olympic Games was a mega international multi-sport event that was governed by International Olympic Committee as a tradition of Olympic Games (Horne and Whannel, 2012). The sporting event took place in 2012 in London, United Kingdom. The event lasted for almost one month as it started from 25th July to 12th august. The events started with the group stage in women football in Cardiff, and then an official opening ceremony followed. In the London 2012 Olympics, over 10,000 athletes participated who were members of National Olympic Committee (Horne and Whannel, 2012). The selection of London as the host country was based on a bid between Sebastian Coe and Ken Livingstone the country’s mayor. The selection took place in July 2005 in Singapore where 117th IOC session took place. Mayor Ken Livingstone defeated bids from Paris, New York and Moscow (Chappelet and Mabbott, 2008). London was on the mission of creating long-term legacy for the country. Preparation of the event involved redevelopment and sustainability of the city. The creation of a body known as London Organising Committee of Olympic Games (LOCOG) took place to oversee mega game events and organised meeting on October 2005. The body was responsible for implementing and staging of games while another body called Olympic Delivery Authority was responsible for building and redeveloping the venues and infrastructure. In addition, Government Olympic Executive (GOE) also took part in coordinating the event (Horne and Whannel, 2012). It also was in charge of cross-programme management and supervision of the entire public sector funding. There were a number of targets and goals that the stakeholders wanted to achieve in terms of delivery of the Olympic 2012 games (Horne and Whannel, 2012). The Olympic Board committed itself to achieving its objectives-to host a safe, inclusive and exceptional Olympic games and create sustainable legacy for London. The lead stakeholder, LOCOG aimed at staging an inspirational event for the athletes. Another objective of the lead stakeholder was to maximise the available economic, social and environmental benefits from the host country through sustainable development. The body also wanted to achieve a sustained regeneration and improvement in United Kingdom sport in both elite performance and grassroots participation (Horne and Whannel, 2012). Other stakeholders like the British Olympic Association, London Development Agency, and Government Olympic Executive aimed to finish with redevelopment of all venues at specified time within the speculated budget and specifications (Horne and Whannel, 2012). The government also was committed to making the country the leading sporting in the world, transforming the root of East London, inspiring young people to participate in volunteering and cultural activities, making the Olympic park source for sustainable living and showing the world that the country was a creative and welcoming place to invest in, visit or live in. The mayor of London also had some objectives to achieve such as increasing opportunities for citizens to be involved in sports, ensuring citizens benefit from created jobs and volunteering opportunities, showcasing the country as adverse, creative and welcoming city and delivering a sustainable Olympic game (Horne and Whannel, 2012). City brand awareness and image is a common practice that is used by many cities to enhance urban competition for markets, attention and opportunities (Bloch, 2004). Due to globalisation, shift of resources and people has occurred that has led to competition among cities. A city should adopt right strategies to brand itself successfully (Prentice and Andersen, 2003). This mostly depends on identification of defining and unique feature of the city in question. This feature can either be functional or non-factional and may include appearance, culture, governance, demographics, economy, and history to name a few (Yeoman, 2004). London city tried to make use of the Olympic Games for city branding. London drew its city branding strategies from product marketing and branding (Kavaratzis, 2004). Product consists of physical and socio-psychological attributes that consumers recognize and appreciate. Manufactures use these attributes for brand awareness. The same way, London described a set of values that “customers” like the investors, local citizens and visitors can experience through investments and other related activities. The country first created city’s identity from its contextual variables like history, economy, culture and values (Horne and Whannel, 2012). London 2012 Olympic Games led to many changes in the city that attributed to its brand awareness and image (Horne and Whannel, 2012). These changes included: producing new landmarks and architectures for hosting the mega-event, introduction of new markets and resources through scholarships and partnership, redefinition of international relations and upgrading economic and social well-being and publicizing the city’s identity using the media, tourist visits and community support (Anholt, 2007). For London, 2012 Olympic Games led to brand awareness through tourism. Tourism activities are paramount components of city marketing and identity building (Colbert, 2000). In tourism, destinations are largely associated with events in question (O’Sullivan et al., 2009). Therefore, the 2012 Olympic Games had an impact on brand awareness and image in terms of creation of experiences for visitors. For instance, the 2012 Olympic Games created emotions and memorable experiences associated with the city (Horne and Whannel, 2012). London did this by incorporating Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations to the Olympic Games. Also, 2012 London Olympic Games acted as a fortification strategy for the creation of brand awareness in the city (Keller, 2008). Fortification strategy is aimed at connecting a city’s brand image to image of an event. For instance, linking the Olympic Games to London created a fortification strategy. This means that, multiple tourism product brands can reinforce each other in order to benefit from each other. Such brand fortification have a number of benefits for the destination city: events promoted by a particular destination’s advertising contribute to creating brand awareness of the destination. Also, destinations have a chance to capitalize on visitor’s knowledge about its brand by including missing features to it. In addition, consistent images assist in creating a perception that complementary products are consumed together (e.g. event + pleasure). Various complementary products (events and others) help convey the image of the destination. This was witnessed in London after hosting 2012 Olympic Game event (Horne and Whannel, 2012). To add to this, a city brand awareness and image are created by mega-event through media coverage. For instance, during the 2012 Olympic Games, London experienced a lot of media coverage that was featured worldwide. This led to exclusive global and local publicity of the city in the media due to the Olympic event (Horne and Whannel, 2012). Thus, the advertising strategy of the Olympic Games contributed to creation and maintenance of brand awareness. Olympic Games in London not only created first time visitor, it made the new visitors loyal. The event was the reason for the first time visitation of tourism and it also lured them into visiting again. Major events contribute also to destination positioning. Positioning is all about identifying visitor’s perception of likable features of a destination, comparing these features to those of the competitors and selecting those features that are unique. These features include culture, history etc. (Bonet, 2003). when an event is identified to be linked to a destination in visitor’s minds, it can itself be fundamental attribute that position a destination. 2012 Olympic Games assisted in positioning London as a “fun”, “welcoming”, and “sustainable” destination. The event reinforced some images and features that visitors held about the city. Brand awareness in London was also created through brand association. Brand association can include destination attributes, brand personality, or imagery. This can result to not only short-term publicity but long lasting reputation for being a place for special events that entertain visitors (Horne and Whannel, 2012). Conclusion It is believed that mega-sporting events can create huge and lasting benefits in terms of destination brand awareness and image. London 2012 Olympic Games was a major tool that led to the city brand awareness and image. This was done through a number of ways such as destination positioning, brand loyalty, fortification strategy, and experience creation. We can therefore conclude that mega events are catalyst for city brand awareness and image. City branding is important in intensifying competition for markets, attention and available resources. 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