Linda Collard talks to Nick Griffith about Chinese sports fans’ passion for the Olympic Games and whether sponsors are maximising this potential. Griffith is director of Olympic Consulting with Octagon in Beijing, where he’s been based since 2004. He has been closely involved in the Olympic Games since 2000. 

The Beijing Organising Committee for the Olympic Games and sponsors have been getting people involved in the Games. There hasn’t been this level of participation from the public in any past Olympic Games. Are marketers trying to take advantage of national pride?

There haven’t yet been sponsors tapping into consumers’ passion for the national team. At the moment they are more focused on using the Games’ brandmarks in their communication or on their products, and using Olympic premiums like merchandise or tickets as incentives for lucky draws or for purchasing their products. There’s not been a lot of work done involving the national team or anything related to the team yet. Maybe we’ll see that next year, closer to the Games.

They are, though, using the athletes on an individual basis, but they are using them more for advertising than for public events.

Octagon produced research specifically about fans, but do you see the same kind of attitudes and passion from the general public?

In Beijing, they are starting to get tired of commercial activity related to the Games. I wouldn’t say as tired as in other host cities, but they prefer a non-commercial atmosphere. In some of the second-tier cities they are open to commercial activities because they just don’t see it as much.

We heard a lot about the Olympic fatigue factor in Athens because there was so much negative news, which continued up until the Games started. I don’t think we are going to see that in China. The Games are just too important to the Chinese in general to get that sense of fatigue or annoyance.

What is also interesting is that people outside Beijing tend to think of the Olympics as Beijing’s Games, not China’s Games. They don’t feel that sense of ownership.

Are you in a position to offer any kind of comparison between China and the 2010 Vancouver Games or the 2012 London Games?

The Vancouver Organising Committee (VANOC) has so far been low key compared to BOCOG. VANOC put on public events in February and March, but they didn’t attract huge crowds and protesters tried to interrupt things.

In terms of how they engage fans, the London Organising Committee’s website seems much more interactive. The London 2012 Roadshow visited 50 cities; that’s pretty impressive to have something like that this far out.