IOC partner General Electric has launched an innovative new element to its London 2012 activation in the form of an interactive map that tells the story of the company’s role in powering the Games.
The multi-faceted conglomerate – which provides manufacturing, energy and healthcare services (amongst others) to the Olympics – has developed an interactive map, using Microsoft’s Bing platform, with the objective of telling stories around and informing consumers of how it is contributing to London 2012’s essential infrastructure and services.
The map, which can be found here at www.gemaps.com/london2012/, shows all the various different venues and locations, each of which is clickable taking users to information pages that highlight the company’s contribution to the event’s infrastructure.
In addition to showcasing its technical prowess, there is an umbrella sustainability and corporate responsibility element to this mapping initaitive that revolves around the company’s legacy and local community commitments.
GE’s IOC partnership and Olympic involvement began with the 2006 Turin Winter Olympics and the map also includes previous Olympic city locations with GE-relevant information.
It’s not all hard, cold facts though. The site also has a fun element in the form of a game, The GE London 2012 Challenge, which offers users the chance to win prizes (a GE Goody Bag) by answering a set of Olympic questions.
Other Games-led work from the brand to date includes a heavy advertising burst on the DLR (one of the transport options that links to the main Games site).
The brand also used the London 2012 Games as reason to launch its first ever UK advertising campaign earlier in the year
GE continues to use a variety of channels – from YouTube and website work to traditional print executions – to leverage its Olympic sponsorship by launching its first ever British marketing campaign.
But in what some may see as a surprising move, the creative itself, which began rolling out in March, doesn’t directly reference its London 2012 sponsorship programme.
GE provides a wide range of products and services critical to staging the games and works not only with the IOC, but also with host countries, cities and organising committees to provide Olympic infrastructure and services including healthcare, power, lighting, water treatment and transportation.
And its first UK campaign, created by AMV BBDO, certainly focuses on its power, healthcare, transport and manufacturing roles and expertise and Great Britain.
But the online films, such as this GE Heallthcare scanners spot with its team-focused message, do not overtly leverage GE’s Olympic rights or London 2012 work.
The creative, which runs under GE’s global ‘Imagination At Work’ tagline, focuses on UK employees and the company’s contribution to the UK through the Games.
The initiative, which includes press ads running in national UK newspaper titles such as the Financial Times and the Guardian, also sees video clips uploaded onto YouTube and the brand’s own website. Each online films sees GE workers discuss the impact their work has on them as well as those around them.
This follows the creative strategy that brand is using in its advertising across other countries – including its home US market.
In Great Britain is not a consumer-facing brand like it is in the USA, so the objective of the work is to build awareness across the UK of the significant and deep human impact that GE’s 18,000 our employees have on the country and to promote the pride and passion in which they go about their work.
The marketing push is designed to demonstrate the importance of GE’s contribution to the British workplace in specific key areas.
Despite the lack of direct mentions, it is the London Olympics and GE’s IOC partnership is used as the catalyst behind this global giant’s first UK campaign.
‘We want to start to tell the story behind what we do,’ says GE UK brand and communications director Mark Maguire. ‘We work in areas such as energy and finance, which are all important parts of the UK infrastructure. It’s going to be a great opportunity for us. We want to showcase the way we help in the performance of athletes.’
GE, which is also an elite team partner of the British Triathlon, will continue to roll out additional London 2012 promotions in the coming weeks.
Comment:
This July informative and original (if not overly emotionally engaging) mapping initiative follows GE June digital roll outs of its London 2012 activation after completing new deals with YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest and Viddy.
While GE activity is unfolding across several channels, this summer it is ramping up its online activity through digital and social channels to augment more traditional media work.
GE digital and advertising director Linda Boff believes that London 2012 will be different to previous Games because digital platforms have truly come of age since the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics and is committed to a heightened digital focus’.
Links:
http://www.britishtriathlon.org/about/sponsors/ge
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