Vancouver searches for marketing lessons in Beijing

By Dominic Fitzsimmons

The world’s sporting attention may all be on Beijing, but behind the scenes the next Olympic hosts are quietly making sure that Vancouver 2010 goes off just as smoothly.

“We’re here learning and observing,” says Renée Smith-Valade, Vice-President of Communications for the Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC).

This year they have brought the British Columbia Canada Pavilion to Tiananmen Square but, according to Annette Antoniak, the CEO of the BC Games Secretariat it is less about tourism as the region does not yet have approved destination status for Chinese tourists. “It is bringing the two regions’ businesses together an integral part of leveraging our CN$1,600 million budget that will goon to stimulate our economy.”

Smith-Valade denies that the Beijing event is an opportunity to seduce potential sponsors: “Vancouver has already raised $720 million in sponsorship – 94 per cent of its total target of $768 million.” The Vancouver venues will also be finished in October, 16 months ahead of the Winter Games, allowing for test events this autumn and winter.

One area where Vancouver is sure to better its huge predecessor is that of the sponsors’ village, with tight security being blamed for turning Beijing’s Olympic Green into a desert, devoid of people. “Our Sponsors’ Village will be set up on a very different scale, it will be far more concentrated and located around a harbour and along the waterfront,” says Smith-Valade. “We are learning how to best organise our Sponsors’ Village and have also bought several of our domestic sponsors to Beijing and they are meeting with [their 2008 counterparts] to find out how to maximise the role of Olympic sponsor,” she adds.

Joining worldwide Olympic partners such as Coca-Cola, General Electric, McDonalds and Visa in Vancouver will be national partners that include Bell, PetroCanada HBC and General Motors Canada as well as official supporters Air Canada, Canadian Pacific and Ricoh.

Dominic Fitzsimmons is a Media correspondent based in Beijing.