Grayling Blog

The factors behind London’s Successful bid.

Posted on 9.09.2010 by Unknown User

Two years from today London will be reaching the conclusion of what we all hope will be a tremendously successful Olympic games. If we cast our minds back to 2005 London was chosen as the host city following an IOC session in Singapore, the culmination of a process that had really started eight or nine years before that when it first announced its intention to become an ‘Applicant City’.

The race is now on to decide which city will win the right to host the 2020 Olympics. A number of cities are currently considering whether to apply and from these 'Applicant Cities' the IOC Executive Board then selects a number of applicants to be considered 'Candidate Cities' from which one is chosen by a vote of the IOC session.

The process is complex and an outstanding technical submission - essentially demonstrating operational competence - is really the starting point. But what can these cities learn from the successful London bid, particularly in terms of communications strategy and are there other ‘softer’ factors that they should consider?

As someone who worked with the London team in Singapore at the time of the bid these are some of my observations.

Employ a blend of talents – the winning city will almost certainly need a blend of skills. For the London bid Lord Coe was well complemented by Sir Keith Mills. A leading athlete and a commercial mastermind was an effective combination. In the closing stages, prior to the decision being made in Singapore, there was strong political support, particularly from UK prime minister Tony Blair and the London Mayor, Ken Livingstone. The winning city will need a large group of ambassadors to advocate a range of different reasons as to why it should be picked.

Enlist international community support. The decision is clearly made by the IOC but it must have the support of the international community. London was clever in enlisting supporters from outside the UK, for instance Nelson Mandela was a strong supporter citing the diversity of London's communities as providing the ideal setting for the Olympic Games. London also enlisted Cathy Freeman as a supporter. Her victory in the 400 m in Sydney had been such an iconic moment in Games history and she was in Singapore to support London’s bid in the closing stages.

Build the campaign around a theme. It is hard to summarize what made London successful as the decision is clearly made by a panel, each of whom have different priorities. You also have to remember that London only got four more votes than Paris in the final round of voting so it was very close indeed! However, one of the strongest themes was the idea of ‘legacy’ and how London would use the Games to inspire young people all over the world to take up sport. The bid team was also very persuasive in demonstrating how the infrastructure and development needed for the games would kick start the regeneration of much of the East End of London.

Enlist global stars. It sounds rather simplistic but I would say that David Beckham definitely did play a role in the closing days for London. There are strict rules prohibiting overt promotion by the cities, however Beckham’s presence in Singapore in the days prior to the announcement ensured that the London bid was on the front pages of all the newspapers in Singapore and this would have been noticed by the decision makers.

Avoid becoming an early favourite – curiously favourites rarely win but it is difficult to know how this can be avoided!

Finally, if you have read this far you are clearly interested and I would strongly suggest you go a stage further and read the report that we are publishing today in conjunction with the Centre for Future Studies. This considers other factors that are likely to influence the IOC decision for the 2020 Olympics.