EI Productions® - Case Studies - The Last Lap' London 2012 Olympics

Introduction:

The announcement that London would be hosting the Olympics in 2012 was met with a combination of excitement and dread. Many central London businesses saw it either as an amazing marketing opportunity or as a threat to sales caused by a shift in existing customer behavior and the sport specific interests of the incoming visitors. Both scenarios were envisaged at Chinawhite and therefore an opportunity was identified on behalf of the client.

Challenges:

With planning starting mid-2011, it was perceived that whilst many competitors assumed that their venues would be full during the Games the reality could in fact prove very different. The wider hospitality and entertainment markets were starting to warn that through a shift in central London visitor profiles theatres would be empty, hotel room price inflation exorbitant and the bread-and-butter customer base put off by transport and congestion concerns.
The key would be to attract a new, Olympics based audience to the club but without alienating the existing clientele or falling foul of LOCOG regulations, whilst aligning the Chinawhite brand to the Olympics, tapping into corporate sponsorship budgets and leaving a positive legacy for Chinawhite as well as East London!

Solution:

Discussions with past Olympians and global market research identified "The Last Lap" concept, trademarked and operated by an Australian sports marketing and management group.
"The Last Lap" offers athletes, Olympic sponsor corporate guests and vip's a late night party destination where can they enjoy an exclusive environment with premiere entertainment and has been run at various Olympics, Winter Olympics and Commonwealth Games since Sydney 2000.
A joint venture contract was entered into with the Australian group to stage "The Last Lap" at Chinawhite for 17 nights from 27th July – 12th August in a tailored format to suit the requirements of Chinawhite, the Australian brand owners and wider activation requirements resulting from substantial international media rights and sponsorship deals.

Results:

Chinawhite became the place to be seen during the London 2012 Olympics with over 1,500 athletes attending including Zara Phillips, Sir Chris Hoy, Ryan Lochte, Rebecca Adlington and Victoria Pendleton and with performances from world renowned DJ's including Paul Oakenfold, Pete Tong and US gold medal winner, swimmer Tyler Clary.

Collectively the guests consumed over 1,100 bottles of champagne, 800 bottles of vodka and more beer than the club sells in a year.
Over 50 gold medalists attended and were offered a free Golden Cocktail, a £2,012 drink made of cognac and champagne flecked with gold and 3 golden rings sunk in the glass – a PR exercise that hit the news wires globally, resulting in TV news features from the USA to across Asia and multi-million pound rate card publicity for the Chinawhite brand globally.
Double digit profit ratios were achieved, zero capital investment was required and Chinawhite left a strong stamp on the global Olympics media coverage, substantially increasing the legacy of the brand.