The former vice-president of the Vancouver 2010 Bid Corporation will be in Whistler next week to offer insight into one of the most powerful brands in the world, the Olympics.
Linda Oglov, currently a consultant to the 2010 Transition team, will describe global Olympic marketing and the process leading to the revenue generation for the Vancouver-Whistler Games.
"This will be a really global overview of the marketing needs and plans and commitments that 2010 has to the Olympics and to the (International Olympic Committee)," said Maureen Douglas of the 2010 Transition team.
Oglov is in Turin this week to observe an IOC co-ordination commission visit to the city, which will host the 2006 Winter Olympics.
In Olympic language marketing isn’t so much communications and public relations. It is getting out there and soliciting and managing the funds required to host the Games and managing those relationships.
With that in mind, said Douglas, Oglov will take a look at the TOP (The Olympic Partners) sponsors, other sources of funding and how the branding and the management of the brand of the Games is essential to getting those Games paid for so they really are self-sufficient.
"That will be the big focus," said Douglas of the presentation.
"There is still some confusion about the branding and the proprietorial rights of the logo and the rings.
"So we are also trying to have people get a better understanding of why it is just so critical to manage the brand and what it means to everyone’s success for the Games in terms of the financial management because that affects every tax payer."
The brand is the IOC logo and names, including the rings and the 2010 logo and names.
Oglov will also cover broadcast rights, the National Olympic Committees, and the sales package of the Vancouver Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games.
This will include the rights to Canadian teams in Turin in 2006, Beijing in 2008, Vancouver in 2010 and the 2012 Olympic host.
Part of this marketing will be the developing and unveiling of a new Olympic logo which will likely become public in 2005.
Oglov will be speaking June 21 at a Whistler Chamber of Commerce luncheon. To register for the lecture and the lunch go to www.whistlerchamber.com or call 604-932-5922 ext.12.
Meanwhile, earlier this week Shane Pearsall was named chef de mission of the Canadian Olympic team for the 2006 Games in Turin by the Canadian Olympic Association.
The 45-year-old from Barrie, Ont., was an assistant to chef de mission Sally Rehorick at the 2002 Games in Salt Lake City.
Pearsall, who lives in Calgary, is chief operating officer of Bobsleigh Canada and a member of the COC’s executive committee.
