Team GB marked the one year countdown to the start of the rescheduled Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games with a new spot called ‘Dear Tokyo’.
The aim is to reaffirmed Team GB’s support for its friends and partners in Japan who have had to work through a long period of uncertainty, the blow of cancellation, the struggle to re-organise and also deal with a majority of the Japanese public who surveys suggest are now against hosting the Games next year due to fears about the pandemic and the economy.
An open letter style ode to Japan’s capital city, the film focuses on diversity and unity, the film seeks to bring the UK together by marking the one year milestone, acknowledging the huge challenge faced by the Tokyo Organising Committee and which also sends reassurance that when the time comes Team GB will be stronger and more ready than ever to make the nation proud.
Running as part of its ongoing ‘This is What Makes Us’ marketing platform, the spot is narrated by double Olympic Taekwondo medallist Lutalo Muhammad.
The new two-minute spot recalls how the city’s previous Games in 1964 (the first ever to be hosted in Asia) also symbolised peace.
The umbrella ‘Tokyo Is What Makes Us’ initiative acknowledges the many challenges faced by the Organising Committee, links to the city’s sporting heritage and proposes that the 2021 Games will be both ‘a beacon of hope to the world’ and ‘a celebration of unity’.
An outdoor strands of the campaign saw Team GB celebrate Golden Moments of previous Olympics in an OOH Showcase developed across Ocean Outdoor’s premium digital network to mark the period that Tokyo 2020 was originally to have taken place
The OOH phase broke on Saturday 1 August and ran for a week until Sunday 9 August and forms part of Team GB’s ‘One Year To Go’ countdown to the Games in 2021 and draws on archive Olympic footage from 1992 to 2016 to showcase Team GB’s history and highlight outstanding British sports achievements. Each day two additional clips appeared nationwide across nine large format premium screens in eight cities (London, Manchester, Glasgow, Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool, Nottingham, Edinburgh and Newcastle).
The highlights rotated daily alongside clips from the International Olympic Committee’s ‘Stronger Together’ campaign (see case study) and they included:
> Swimmer Becky Allington’s gold winning freestyle at Beijing 2008
> Andy Murray’s tennis victory against Roger Federer at London 2012
> Kelly Holmes’s 800 metre Gold winning race at Athens 2004
> Sally Gunnell’s 400 metre hurdles Gold in Barcelona 1992
> Jessica Ennis’s heptathlon Gold at London 2012)
> Women’s hockey gold and Nicola Adams’s boxing gold at Rio 2016
> Anthony Joshua’s boxing Gold victory at London 2012
Commenting on a year to go, Team GB Chief Executive, Andy Anson, said: “It is against a very different backdrop that we are celebrating another year to go until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. The last four months have been challenging for everyone, but we are immensely proud of the attitude and commitment demonstrated by every Team GB athlete throughout this period and also by everyone involved across Team GB. The athletes have the power to unite the nation and will undoubtedly give everyone something to look forward to again in Tokyo next summer.”
Team GB’s Chef de Mission for Tokyo 2020, Mark England, added: “It’s hard to believe that we are on the eve of what would have been the Opening Ceremony of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Our ambition has always been for Team GB to be the best prepared Olympic team in Tokyo, and that hasn’t changed as a result of postponement. We were in great shape before lockdown and thanks to our valued partners, stakeholders and the team that has worked tirelessly behind the scenes, we can safely say that this remains the case. Most importantly, we want to thank the athletes who have all been ambassadors for Team GB and their sports during this time. We know you will make the entire nation proud next summer.”
Plus, coinciding with a year to go is the launch of Team GB’s campaign to encourage Great Britain to be more physically active, ‘I Am Team GB,’ presented by Toyota.
In the absence of being able to get together to exercise in their communities, Team GB is inviting the nation to keep moving at home, with athletes and influencers setting simple, fun challenges for everyone to do at home with the message – I Am Team GB. Are you?
Cyclist Laura Kenny, sport climber Shauna Coxsey and boxer Cheavon Clarke are all taking part in the campaign alongside Team GB legends like Greg Rutherford and influencer Laura Crane.
The campaign comes to life across Team GB’s social channels including a hashtag challenge on social media platform TikTok.
Challenge number one: don't drop the stick@shaunacoxsey has got a tricky task for you to try as part of the Team GB Games. Think you can complete it?#IAmTeamGB | #TeamGBGames@ToyotaUK pic.twitter.com/ubTCZ8EASn
— Team GB (@TeamGB) July 23, 2020
Comment:
Of course Team GB wasn’t the only Games-related organisation to leverage the One Year To Go mark with a countdown spot.
Other notable examples included the IOC’s own #1YearToGo film
and the NZ Team’s social spot.
The ‘one year to go’ work follows on from the previous Olympic Day marketing milestone ahead of the 2021 Games (see case study) and Team GB’s previous ‘Believe In Extraordinary’ Tokyo 2020 initiative which rolled out in 2019 (see case study).
For British sports fans yearning for Olympic style action, Team GB has also announced it will be hosting the ‘Team GB Games’ across its social channels from 24 July to 9 August. An initiative which each day enables fans to watch history making moments in a schedule that will mirror that of the Tokyo Games had it taken place this year.
Links:
Team GB
https://www.facebook.com/TeamGB
https://www.twitter.com/TeamGB
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