Less than 2 years have passed since I was able to participate in one of the greatest and most important events a Marketer can ever be involved in: The Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games.
Looking back I have mixed feelings. On one hand it was a great and exiting experience, it forced me and the people I worked with to pull quite a number of work hours. On the other hand the amount of bureaucracy and problems the IOC and BOCOG presented us was so immense that I'm glad that I don't have to do that again.
I'm fortunate enough to have first hand insights into how things work, and, trust me, Olympic Marketing is no easy task. In order to associate your brand with the 5 rings and the games you need to comply with a lot of rules that, more often than not, seem a little bit arbitrary.
I can now speak more openly of this issues since my former employer is no longer an Olympic sponsor and I'm no longer employed by Lenovo.
The idea of writing yet another post on the Olympics came after seeing the site AP built for the ocasion. The site bears some resemblance of the gadget aggregator we built in partnership with Google. That page no longer exists, and for those of you who were not fortunate enough to see it I'll make a description: Picture iGoogle filled with Olympic-related gadgets, from maps and photos of the venues to a schedule of activities and the always present medal tally.
I think a web-based gadget platform can be a very powerful means to engage the public, that could lead to a customized experience for every user. If a company could combine that level of customization with the power (and inherent virality) of a social network of the size of facebook that would be a winning combination.
I have to admit, tho that after reading pieces such as this on Mobile Local Social I feel a bit surprised with people finding that Olympians + Social Media can be a killer combo. That has already happened at Beijing. Of course neither was the world what it is now nor was Beijing (or China) as open and as eager to socialize as Vancouver is, but the Athletes have very compelling stories to tell. [shameless plug] And that was what we tried to enable with the "voices of the summer games" blogging aggregator program. Think of it as "long tail meets world-class sporting event". (The site is still up and locked, left as a time vault of what it was).
Yet there is one major issue with Social Media, telling the athlete's story and the Olympic games: the IOC.
The Olympic committee has to be one of the most conservative entities I ever had to work with. Sure, when working for the 2008 games we were concerned about the great firewall and people not being able to:
- Post their stories from within China
- Read posts or watch videos from within the firewall
We had partnered with Google, we were using Flickr and YouTube and Facebook, we had reasons to worry. But we were looking in the wrong direction. The real censor was the Olympic committee. And it still is.
Proof of that is this piece by newsy:
And the tweet (now deleted) by Gold Medalist Lindsey Vonn, which stated:
Hey everyone, because of the olympic rules (blackout period) I will not be able to post any updates...
The rules for Athletes are vague. And Athletes are afraid of the Comitee, and for a good reason, they could be banned for life or stripped of all their medals.
There are two main reasons why the rules imposed by the IOC are very misleading:
- They do not understand Social Media and cannot (or will not) adapt quickly enough and
- they want to keep the upper hand and call some interpretation of the rules and hold them against someone in case of need.
The committee does not like receding any amount of power, and that is exactly what social media would do: it would shift a little bit of power from the IOC to the athletes.
It would seem like the IOC forgets it exists thanks to the very same individuals it puts under an iron fist: the Athletes. The fear is that once the Athletes can start telling their stories by themselves a good chunk of broadcasting rights money could shift from the centralized control to the athletes.
And no one would like that, now, would they?
Today is my last day as a Lenovo employee. It has been one of the toughest decisions of my entire career, but one that I had delayed quite a bit and that had to be done.
For the most part I have nothing but appreciation for all the time I spent at the company. Sure enough, things were not perfect (or I'd still be working for them), but I was allowed to learn and grow, to do amazing stuff and with the experience of trying to build a multi-billion worldwide company almost from scratch.
Amongst the things I've gained I depart with some good and lasting friendships, some of whom left the company before I did, some are still there. I wont name you (because I would certainly forget about someone and hurt some feelings), but you certainly know who you are.
Final tip of the hat goes to David. He was my mentor within the company, the one to deposit quite a bit of confidence in a South American dude he barely knew and the one providing all the opportunities to do fun things. I have nothing but appreciation for you.
So, what's next for me?
I've decided to make the jump and join a startup company called AbilTo. In words of our own website Abilto:
[was started] in 2008 with the mission of providing a better option for millions of people seeking to overcome the difficulties resulting from commonplace behavioral disorders and life transitions.
That means that I'll be hopefully applying my knowledge to connecting people at various life crossroads with a little help to get them past the bumpy road from my humble position of VP of Web Operations.
In practical terms that means that all web development and marketing will ultimately fall under my responsibility.
I'll also devote more time to my Digital Marketing & Social Media consulting gig. I will certainly keep myself busy.
What this all means for the readers of this blog is that I'll keep posting about the same things I have not been writing about plus some more new and interesting stuff.
I can hardly wait.