London 2012

Capturing the East End spirit

The brief was simple: to devise creative ways of communicating to people in the locality of the Olympic Park the benefits of having the Games on their doorstep. Our success would hinge on being able to make the Olympics feel relevant and accessible to some of the poorest, most socially-marginalised neighbourhoods in the country.

Understanding the audience was crucial, so we immersed ourselves in East London culture. We walked the streets, sat in the cafes, wandered through the markets and chatted to the locals. What did the Games mean to them? Their answers chimed with our instincts: these Londoners didn’t feel they’d get a look in on the Games; that London 2012 would kind of pass them by.

That insight drove our creative. We observed that street markets continued to play a huge part of day to day life in the East End, functioning as a melting pot where people could come together to exchange goods and services, and share opinions and gossip. Our solution was an interactive piece of street theatre dressed up in a market context, bringing the Games to the man and woman in the street.

From winning to building

Our pitch to our client was that if they genuinely wanted to engage people with the opportunities the Games would present to them then the organisation needed to come down from its gleaming offices in the towers at Canary Wharf and enter the local world. To talk to them in their language and thereby earn their attention, interest and respect. It was an approach that won us a place as the lead design and comms agency for London 2012.

When we were appointed the actual Games themselves were still four years away and the London 2012 brand was in its infancy. One of our first jobs was to begin to give it life beyond the pages of guidelines. Alongside two other successful agencies, we led a design panel to ensure the brand was brought to life in as dynamic a way as possible and establish consistency for all future communications. Those early sessions were a chance for us to get under the skin of London 2012, and to sow the seeds of what would become a great relationship with the client comms team.

Testing and training

As Games time approached the venues, volunteers and events all needed putting through their paces. We assumed the key role of helping deliver testing and training programmes across the country, making sure the experience for the public attending the Games could be as slick as possible.

As well as a series of spectator guides for venue test events, our biggest challenge came in creating a great brand experience for the 70,000 Games Maker volunteers. Four London venues were temporarily transformed from corporate premises into Games Maker training zones. Our work ranged from creating the interior branding and wayfinding of the venues, to co-creating the content delivered to the volunteers by way of training sessions. We then designed manuals to house this information and gave them out to every volunteer, making them a bit more personalised and friendly so they could be kept as a memento of their part in the Games.