Howcroft: From Russia with big brands
In his first dispatch from Sochi Russel Howcroft reflects on how familiar brands make you feel at home, even at the top of a Russian mountain.
The objective of the Sochi Winter Olympics was made clear in the speech given by the President of the Sochi organising committee, Dmitry Chernyshenko, at the Opening Ceremony. These games are about brand Russia.
Yes, at the various facilities there is still landscaping going on. Our hotel was still being completed upon arrival, the plumbing is a little dodgy, there are no coat hangers in the cupboard and the lift shakes as you descend, but these little things are bound to happen when you are embarking on the total creation of an Olympic site over the course of a mere seven years.
Howcroft’s Sochi pass
Sochi is beautiful. The views from the top of the peaks are stunning and there’s nothing quite like a little vodka waiting for you at the top of the mountain while you take in the Russian sights and sounds.
Of course there is Olympic energy in the air and that enhances every city. But take that away and Sochi will still be left with an incredible natural asset with its brand new, globally orientated infrastructure.
You can see the locals working hard to match the enthusiasm of the volunteers they would have been briefed about at other host cities. They are smiling, they are welcoming and you can see this is a deliberate strategy to add a smile to the collective world view of what it means to be Russian.
Brands, of course, play a role in the idea of promoting good values. Coke, Samsung, Omega, P&G, McDonald’s and others are all here in force. Their communication is global in nature but anchored to the Sochi Olympics here in Russia. Their communications are aspirational and, given the size of these advertisers, they are everywhere, selling the better place their brands can take you. The power of these advertisers serves to accelerate Russia’s connection to the rest of us.
For us Westerners, these brands make us feel comfortable. The familiarity of the brand typeface, their offer and the expectation of service and product delivery is, frankly, a comfort. The creation of these global brands is a miracle. The confluence of mass production capability, distribution on a grand scale and the awesome demand generation power of advertising via marketing that will never be equalled.
The Olympics is also very much about television – the rights the broadcasters pay and the ability this asset gives them to collect and sell audiences. The global brands at Sochi know marketing is as simple now as it was when the mass media market machine was created. TV builds their power and the Olympics helps them do it on a global scale.
I have just been using Viber to speak to my son who is staying at his surf club in Victoria. He is surfing, while we are about to watch the moguls in Russia. Technology, brands and big ideas are connecting us. The world is awesome.
Russel Howcroft is executive general manager for Network Ten.
Ya gotta love Russel.
Here he is at one of the biggest sporting events in the world and he slips in a bit about global brands and how they connect the Russians to the rest of the world.
I dunno. Call me old fashioned or whatever, but if I was at Sochi, how global brands fit into international relations is the last thing I’d have thought of.
Still…I do enjoy Russel’s enthusiasm.
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‘Brands, of course, play a role in the idea of promoting good values. Coke, Samsung, Omega, P&G, McDonald’s and others are all here in force.’
We’re very different people, Russel.
I’d like a holiday from creepy mass-killers like Coke and McDonalds. I don’t want them stalking me around the world.
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You can take the boy out of Ad Land…
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