The next Olympic Games are behind us. Paris welcomed the athletes and us, the fans, with a unique atmosphere and beautiful visual setting of this great sports event. We will certainly remember the spectacular scenes of the opening ceremony, the emotions associated with sports competition and the very original mascot of the games - the "Phrygian", symbolizing the iconic French hat.
Competition
This year, for the first time in my life, I had the unique opportunity to experience the Olympic emotions "live" and I must admit that it was a dream come true for me. The dreams of a sports fan and a follower of the idea of Olympism. How did my dreams come true? I took part in a competition organized by TVN, in which the prize was sponsored by VISA (the sponsor of the games). The competition task was to describe your favorite Olympic discipline in a creative way. I wrote about athletics and, thanks to the "queen of sports", I flew to Paris to admire the struggles of the Olympic athletes from the stands of the sports arenas.
Terrasse des Jeux in the courtyard of the Hôtel de Ville, one of the many fan zones in Paris
Organizational machine
Three days in Paris, enveloped in the Olympic atmosphere, were very intense. I absorbed the mood there with genuine joy and curiosity. I looked at everything not only from the perspective of a sports fan, but also from the perspective of a marketer and a person working on promotional projects and events. The Olympic Games are a huge organizational undertaking. Without a doubt, as in the title of this article, it is the biggest event in the world. It is second to none. It requires many years of preparation, enormous discipline, huge outlays and gigantic involvement of many different environments. It's hard to imagine. Even when organizing a micro-scale event (such as the one- or multi-day promotional events we organize for various brands), the amount of work and the multitude of tasks is difficult to predict. Let alone when working on an event like the Olympic Games! That's why I'm so impressed by what I saw in Paris. Full admiration for the city authorities, public transport, uniformed services and thousands of volunteers working in dozens of sports arenas and numerous fan zones.
Marketing reflection
Of course, the Olympics are a great organizational effort, but on the other hand, they also bring benefits to the organizer (country, city) in various areas and in various ways. The reasons why countries decide to participate in the fight for the right to organize large events are diverse. They concern both socio-economic parameters (e.g. GDP growth, increase in tourist traffic/number of visitors) and issues that are more difficult to measure (e.g. investment attractiveness). In addition, there are also promotional issues, including: brand recognition of the city/country, associations with the brand, etc. Hence, great emphasis is placed on a properly designed logo, visual identification, symbols, colors, mascot and everything that can define the territorial brand (city, country) in a user-friendly way through the prism of sporting event. In my opinion, Paris completed this task with flying colors. Modern visual identification, unique colors and the multi-meaning The Olympic Games logo (I am delighted with it!). I paid special attention to these marketing elements.
Phrygian and Misha
An interesting fact is that (according to Wikipedia), the Olympic mascot first appeared in France, during the Winter Olympics in Grenoble in 1968. And the first mascot to bravely enter the marketing space was Moscow's Misha (the Olympic Games were held in Moscow in 1980). Misha appeared not only during the opening and closing ceremonies of the Games, but also in an animated film and on official commercial products.
Phrygian, mascot of The Olympic Games Paris 2024 (source: https://tvn24.pl)
I will write in the next article how I evaluate the course and organization of the sports events in which I could participate from the perspective of a fan.
