Olympic Special: Round Up

Visa

The Olympics, Usain Bolt and super-speedy contactless Visa cards – it’s a combination that was just meant to happen. Saatchi & Saatchi’s ‘Flow Faster’ campaign centred around a a Traktor-directed TV spot that saw Bolt engage in a race across London with an unassuming member of the public who turns out to be the man with the starter pistol. Other elements of the campaign include ‘Training Day’, a spot that features a selection of UK athletes training in scenic – and not-so-scenic – spots around Britain.

 

P&G

Über-umbrella-brand P&G teamed up with Wieden + Kennedy for their global campaign, which included general work for P&G as well as various P&G brands. The ‘Proud Sponsors of Mums/Moms’ (depending where you stand on that, geographically) tagline was the basis of the campaign, which kicked off with an online film and TV spot that celebrated the mothers who have supported the Olympians competing at this year’s games. The most recent phase included Daniel Kleinman-directed spot ‘Kids’, which cast small children in place of the athletes. Olympic campaigns for P&G products included an inevitably humorous turn for Old Spice  , some aspiringly athletic babbies clambering around in a Pampers spot and the return of interfering Mother Nature for Tampax. P&G – together with Leo Burnett - also supported Mayor Boris Johnson’s campaign‘Helping London Look Its Best’ with an exhibition of illustrations around the theme of cleaning up London ahead of the games.

 

LOCOG

For the past four years, McCann Worldgroup has been busying itself with one of the biggest jobs going – overseeing the design, advertising and marketing work on behalf of LOCOG as the Official Marketing Services Provider.  FutureBrand,, part of the McCann Worldgroup was responsible for the ‘look’ of the Olympic and Paralympic games, working on everything from ticket design to signage.  In other words, McCann Worldgroup will be everywhere over the next few weeks.

 

Coca Cola

Bringing together sport and music, ‘Move to the Beat’ was the central slogan for Mother’s Coca Cola work. The campaign culminated in ‘Anywhere in the World’, a track from Mark Ronson and singer Katy B. The track was created by Ronson, who travelled the world to capture the sounds of five Olympic hopefuls as they trained, before mixing them together in signature Ronson style. The track, which will be released as a single, featured in both the a razzmatazz spot at the beginning of the year, as well as the more recent Olympic Torch Relay TV ad. Bringing a physical dimension to the campaign, architects Pernilla & Asif created an interactive Olympics pavilion that allows visitors to remix the track themselves.

 

BBC

Passion Pictures’ director Pete Candeland lends his inimitable animated stylings to the trailer and idents for the BBC’s Olympic coverage, created in conjunction with Red Bee Media. Devised by executive creative director Damon Collins and a team of creatives at Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R, the work marks a beautiful progression from the 2008 Beijing Olympics BBC spots, which came from the same team.

 

EDF

The energy giant has released a plethora of TV spots in the run up to the games. AMV BBDO created Modern Olympics, a spot featuring vintage sports footage collated and edited together by Framestore. There was a stylised spot Thank Yous’ featuring mascot ‘Zingy’ that owed more than a nod to Michel Gondry’s ‘Let Forever Be’ video, and most recently CLM BBDO has released Heroes, a spot that sees EDF engineers test out the Olympic facilities. There’s also a sizeable interactive offering from the brand. ‘Energy of the Nation’ sees the brand lighting up the London Eye in a colourful display designed to reflect the mood of the nation by reacting to Twitter feeds.   

 

AT&T

Telecomms company AT&T is official sponsor of Team USA and their recent TVC from BBDO New York featured swimmer Ryan Lochte crossing the Atlantic in an epic journey from the States to the Big Smoke. While we don’t fancy his chances braving the waters of the Thames, the spot from directors Marie Hyon and Marco Spier, and production companies Psyop and Smuggler has some beautiful art direction. The brand has also presented a series of online behind-the-scenes documentaries, charting the progress of Team USA’s athletes.