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How a London agency helped Tokyo's Olympic bid strike gold

By Nick Varley

September 13, 2013 | 5 min read

As the lead strategic communications adviser to the successful Japanese Olympic bid, London agency Seven46 has spent the last two years communicating to the world why Tokyo should host the event in 2020. Seven46 CEO Nick Varley tells The Drum how that mission was won...

Nick Varley

One line came to define Tokyo’s campaign for the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games: “We have kept the best and improved the rest.”

It was first spoken by bid CEO Masato Mizuno at the meeting of the Association of National Olympic Committees in Moscow in early 2012, and became a much-anticipated catchphrase at all subsequent bid presentations.

What it captured was that Tokyo’s bid was built upon the strong foundations of its 2016 proposal – a bid considered to be technically excellent, but which suffered notably from a perceived lack of passion and excitement.

It was clear that we needed to adopt a more aggressive, ‘western’ style of campaigning to compete in an environment that has been transformed by London’s bid for the 2012 Games.

When I first visited Tokyo in late 2011, I understood how tough – indeed counter-cultural – it would be for the Japanese team to campaign in a style at odds with their culture of humility, respect and fair-play.

Nevertheless, over the course of two years, we worked closely with the leadership to construct a story that drew heavily on those cultural values, while also providing a clear and compelling vision for the Olympic Movement.

At the time, the shadow of the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami hung heavily over every aspect of Japanese society. We worked with the bid team to focus on the role that the sport community had played in the recovery efforts – and a desire to share that inspiration worldwide.

The first significant campaign activity took place in summer 2012 with the launch of the bid strapline, ‘Discover Tomorrow’. It sought to express the excitement and opportunities of staging the Games in a city renowned for its youth appeal and innovation culture - and a city that could provide a gateway to the important Asian market.

London played an important role in our communications campaign. First, we worked hard to maximise media opportunities around the 2012 Games. Then, in January 2013, Tokyo was the only bid to stage an international launch of its Candidature File.

London was the natural choice for the event, allowing us to tap into the city’s global media hub and to exploit the news value of all things Olympic in a country that had just enjoyed a golden summer. The newly-elected Governor of Tokyo travelled to London to appear at the event, which also allowed us to position Tokyo as a city in the image of London, and the city which would replicate the passion and commercial success of the 2012 Games.

From then on, the focus of campaigning switched to the four official presentation opportunities, with a strategy to build the all-important campaign momentum through the year.

Our target for the first presentation – at the SportAccord Convention in St Petersburg in May – was to ‘win’ the round by switching the focus of the race onto Tokyo’s firm delivery credentials, and its ability to provide a ‘safe pair of hands’ at a challenging time for global sport.

Governor Naoki Inose put it best in his speech to the assembled international sport federations: “I understand that many see Tokyo as the safe option in this campaign. What I don’t understand is why some people seem to think that this could be a bad thing!”

The media in particular were taken aback by the passion, energy and humour of the presentation – in stark contrast to the 2016 campaign – and our objective was achieved.

It allowed us to adopt an even bolder approach in the subsequent presentations, which was seen most clearly in the surprising decision to have a young Paralympian from the tsunami-affected area open our final pitch to the International Olympic Committee at the weekend.

The vision we sold in Buenos Aires was of a city that would guarantee delivery; provide an outstanding Games experience; and offer a powerful platform to promote the Olympic Values around the world.

And if there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that Tokyo is a city you can trust to deliver on its promises.

Nick Varley is founding partner and CEO at Seven46

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