Sponsors raise Olympics Green concerns

“One thing you can’t organize is a buzz, and the Olympic Green is a relatively buzz-free zone. This Olympics has had the fun organised out of it,” said a senior marketing executive who represents several key Olympic sponsors (though he paid tribute to the Games from a logistical point of view).

The Olympic Green is off-limits to anyone without an event ticket - “and they’re all at events, so there’s no crowd milling about,” said the executive.

“Airport-level security” and the sheer scale of the Green are also cited as factors why visitor numbers at the sponsors’ stands are so small.

“Business-to-business sponsors have already flown and bussed in all their key customers; but if you are a consumer-facing company such as Coca-Cola or McDonald’s then you must be concerned about the lack of sponsor visibility,” he said, adding that sponsors were keen to let the public to experience the Olympics without having to be a ticket-holder.

“One or two sponsors have raised the matter with BOCOG - it’s now on their agenda and I have heard they may make it possible for more people to just come down onto the Green. This is China and as we’ve seen: if they want to make it happen, they’ll make it work.”

Writing on Media’s dedicated Olympics blog earlier this week, Lenovo global CMO Deepak Advani denied that his company was disappointed with traffic at the Green. “Sure, security requirements mean the visitors need a day pass to get onto the Green, but the place has incredible energy and we’re happy to be in the middle of it.”