Running the show

Running the show

FEATURE | ATHLETICS

Running the show Moscow 2013 will be the 30th anniversary of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics and the 14th edition of the event. 33 years after the 1980 Olympic Games, the Luzhniki Stadium will play host to the world’s elite athletes again. The IAAF, alongside its various local counterparts, is ushering in a new dawn for the Russian sports industry.

By James Emmett and David Cushnan

The IAAF and the organisers of the 2013 World Championships in Athletics hope to eclipse TV audience records set by the 2009 Berlin edition

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“What needs to take place, and is in fact taking place, is a very solid and ambitious marketing and promotion plan.”

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andwiched between the London Olympics of 2012 and the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil, there can be little argument that the major global sporting event of this year is the IAAF World Championships in Athletics. From 10th to 18th August, Moscow’s Luzhniki Stadium will play host to the biggest athletics event held in Russia since the same venue – albeit under the hammer and sickle of the Soviet Union, rather than the tricolour of the Russian Federation – played host to the 1980 Olympic Games.

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the global governing body for track and field, is keen to capitalise on the opportunity to cement its biennial championships as definitively the third-largest sporting event in the world, behind only the Olympics and the Fifa World Cup. It is a much-disputed position and attaining it would be no mean feat for a sport whose most prestigious gathering is not its world championships, but the Olympics every four years.

Certainly on breadth of participation, the World Athletics Championships is perhaps the biggest of them all, with 1,848 athletes from 204 nations competing at the most recent edition in Daegu, South Korea in 2011. Those figures are set to be broken this summer in Russia. And they’re not the only ones.

The Moscow time zone and the sterling work done by the event’s media rights marketing partners give the IAAF a rare opportunity to eclipse its all-time audience figures. The Berlin world championships in 2009 was a seminal moment in the history of an event that celebrates its 30th anniversary this year. The distinctive blue track at the iconic Olympiastadion was the scene of the defining performance from a man, in Usain Bolt, who has come to define athletics in the modern era, watched by an eye-watering cumulative television audience, according to the IAAF, of eight billion globally.

The sports arm of the Japanese advertising giant Dentsu sells the broadcast

rights to the championships outside of Europe. Meanwhile, the IAAF is in the final year of a contract with IEC in Sports which sees the agency sell world championship TV rights inside Europe.

Those rights will be transferred to the European Broadcasting Union postMoscow, but the Lagardère-owned agency is going out with a bang. Essar Gabriel, the IAAF general secretary and the man who oversees all aspects – commercial, logistical and sporting – of the preparations for the event, is thrilled with the progress made on the media rights front thus far.

“We’re happy to report that we have over 200 rights holders for Moscow, which is a record for us,” he says. “We’ve covered all of the key territories in Europe and we’ve gone far beyond and we’re now looking to take it as far as possible, even to the countries of lesser impact in terms of TV audiences, just to make sure we have the coverage which should bode well for a record audience and beat the five billion cumulative viewers for Daegu, and perhaps even beat the overall record mark set in Berlin in 2009.”

Ultimately, it is the IAAF that will reap the benefits – or suffer the consequences – of whatever the audience figures for the

2013 edition turn out to be, but it is not the Monaco-based governing body that is shouldering the brunt of the organisation.

“We must never forget that the IAAF, the IOC, and other international federations, we are always entering into partnerships with local authorities,” explains Gabriel.

“All of our portfolio is built on these partnerships, whether that’s a world championships or another event. This is all about teamwork.”

While Gabriel is overseeing preparations, and has been visiting Moscow monthly since the turn of the year alongside the IAAF’s Moscow 2013 coordination commission chairman and IOC presidential candidate Sergey Bubka, the bulk of the organising team for this year’s world championships consists of three substantial Russian entities. The first is the Russian federal government. Vitaly Mutko, the Russian minister of sports, is the first deputy chairman of the local organising committee. Under him, and his governmental advisers, are two further organisations: the All-Russia Athletic Federation (ARAF), and the Directorate for Sports and Entertainment Events for the city of Moscow. While a team

Temporary structures were fitted to the Luzhniki soccer stadium for its return as an athletics venue

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FEATURE | ATHLETICS

Three questions for Alexander Zhukov

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ussia’s investment in hosting major sporting events and the attendant infrastructure required is unquestionable.

This summer will see the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Moscow follow the Universiade in Kazan. In February 2014, the winter Olympics will play out in the coastal city of Sochi, while the summer of 2018 will see the whole of Russia welcome the ‘football family’ as the Fifa World Cup comes to town. Alexander Zhukov is playing a key role in the process as president of the Russian Olympic Committtee, chairman of the supervising committee for Sochi 2014, and former deputy prime minister of the country.

What will this decade of sport mean for the way the world perceives Russia?

Actually, the most important thing is Russian sport and the health of Russian people. That’s why we will have just this year, before the Olympics, the Universiade and World Athletics Championships. After that we have the World Cup in football, hockey championships, everything. It’s very important because these major sports events attract young people to sport.

Given the size of Russia, how will you ensure that the legacy of these events spreads nationally?

Of course it is not easy but this is our challenge. Look at the Olympic torch relay: it will start from Moscow and go

of around a dozen from the ARAF, the IAAF’s member federation in Russia, bring their knowledge of previous championships and IAAF rules and regulations, the directorate is a specialist organisation designed purely to bring in and then host sports and entertainment events in Moscow. “I think they host probably more than 40 events per year,” explains Gabriel. “If you want it’s like a permanent local organising committee for the city of Moscow, which is a very interesting strategy to attract and host major sporting events.” Alexander 4 | www.sportspromedia.com

Alexander Zhukov flanked by Russian sports minister Vitaly Mutko and premier Dmitry Medvedev

all around the country, 84 regions. Look at the volunteers: it’s a great legacy of this Olympic Games. We didn’t have a volunteer movement before here in Russia. Now a lot of young people want to take part and become a volunteer, in different regions and from all regions of the country. The quantity of people engaging in sports – different kinds of sports – is growing every year, from 20 per cent to 40 per cent in the year of 2018. This is our focus.

Your focus is the Russian Olympic Committee; what kind of scope does that role have?

We’re trying to help all our sports federations. The Olympic committee of Russia is actually the union of federations, not just Olympic sports

Polinskiy heads up the directorate, harnessing 150 of his own employees, and effectively works day-to-day on combining the various strands of the organising committee.

While it might seem a touch complicated, the organising structure, from Gabriel’s point of view, works well. In his case, knowing Polinskiy well – Gabriel was the chief operating officer of Paris’s bid for the 2012 Olympics, while Polinskiy was his opposite number at Moscow’s bid for the same Games – clearly eases the process of day-to-day communication.

but all sports. That’s our main focus, to promote Olympic ideals and to help sports federations and, of course, to help organise the participation of the Russian team in the Olympics. Of course our organisation is not commercial, but we have sponsors and now we have Gazprom as the main sponsor. They granted us money to assist different Russian sports federations, to prepare Russian athletes for the Sochi Games, the London Games and the Rio Games. It’s a special time for the Russian Olympic Committee because all the rights belong to the organising committee of Sochi 2014. The organising committee has been very successful. They got US$1.5 billion from sponsors for the Olympic Games, probably the biggest amount in Olympic history.

“There are differences in the culture and in the way things are organised but at the end of the day the moment you have integration and you have an alignment and good governance, that is the most essential thing and goes beyond the cultural differences,” he says. “I think Moscow is the centre of an enormous nation and with that comes the positive of the fact that if the government and the city of Moscow – the two most powerful entities in the country – come together, you can then be assured that you will get a very strong drive. The

30 years of history 2017

London, UK

2015

Beijing, China

2013

Moscow, Russia

2011

Daegu, Korea

2009

Berlin, Germany

2007

Osaka, Japan

2005

Helsinki, Finland

2003

Paris, France

2001

Edmonton, Canada

1999

Seville, Spain

1997

Athens, Greece

1995

Gothenburg, Sweden

1993

Stuttgart, Germany

1991

Tokyo, Japan

1987

Rome, Italy

1983

Helsinki, Finland

IAAF general secretary Essar Gabriel (left), pictured during his time with the Paris 2012 Olympic bid

notion of integration was something that we addressed head on with the local organising committee, and the response was very positive and showed the teamwork between us, the IAAF, and the local organising committee.”

And yet the three-year effort that will have gone into preparations for the weeklong event in August hasn’t always been plain sailing. The Luzhniki Stadium, which will undergo substantial renovations ahead of the 2018 Fifa World Cup, has needed something of a retrofitting for Moscow 2013. Temporary structures and facilities are being installed to ensure that the venue, which has largely been a home to Russian soccer since the 1980 Games, is fit for a top-level athletics event again. The tribune for press and TV, for example, will need to be moved back from what is effectively a halfway-line perch for soccer, to in line with the finish of the 100 metres. At the time of this interview in mid-June, Gabriel is happy to report that stadium work is moving into “execution phase”. Ticket sales, however, are another matter. Although Gabriel insists that Moscow 2013 is set to “ensure that the party continues” from London 2012, with

“full stadiums and a great atmosphere”, he reports that, as of mid-June, ticket sales were at roughly 60 per cent for the afternoon sessions, with the morning sessions “good as well”. The IAAF has been meeting with local organisers every two weeks to run the numbers on the ticket sales and while Gabriel remains resolutely upbeat about all the figures, it is clear that some of his colleagues were not as happy with the situation earlier in the year.

Attending a meeting of the IAAF Council in Moscow in April, IAAF president Lamine Diack offered some choice words for the Russian press. “I’ve seen a lot of references to the Universiade [which took place in Kazan from 6th to 17th July],” said Diack. “And when I was at a sports forum in Kazan, president Vladimir Putin and prime minister Dmitry Medvedev only talked about Kazan and Sochi [where the winter Olympics are being held in early 2014]. To successfully host a competition, you need to advertise. You should make every Muscovite know that on 10th August you can come to Luzhniki.”

With Russia investing billions in sport over the next five years, the feeling along

the corridors of power at the IAAF seemed to be that certain events were almost being designated as pet projects of certain politicians, with the World Athletics Championships not necessarily receiving the focus it deserves. Gabriel is pleased to report that, since that point, things are back on track. “What needs to take place, and is in fact taking place, is a very solid and ambitious marketing and promotion plan,” he says. “We are very happy to see and be presented with such a promotion plan which totalled around US$6 million, and that was presented to us in February. Last month we had confirmation that a further €1 million would be allocated in addition to a TV campaign at a national level on RTR. As a result of that very expensive plan, as we speak today you have posters all over the city, giant posters, you have videos running in the cinemas promoting the world championship, you have also videos on the trains that go from the airport to the city, you’ve got web promotion on all the social media space in Russia, and there are 180 buses which are now decorated in the colours of Moscow SportsPro Magazine | 5

FEATURE | ATHLETICS

Usain Bolt with a TDK-branded cheque after taking sprint relay gold in 2011; the company has sponsored athletics since the 1980 world championships

2013. The peak of those adverts will come at the end of June and into July so we’re confident we will reach the target of being at full capacity for most if not all of the afternoon sessions, plus having good crowds in the morning.”

Before working on the Paris bid for 2012, Gabriel was the chief executive of the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Paris in 2003. That event is remembered as one of the best world championships and still holds the record for in-venue attendance. But the build-up was blighted with doubt. In September 2002, US sprinter Tim Montgomery set a new 100m world record in front of a paltry crowd of just a few thousand in Paris. With just months to go before the world championships, tickets for the 70,000-seater Stade de France weren’t selling and the athletics world was nervous of having a dud on their hands.

It was an experience that has kept Gabriel calm as Moscow 2013 approaches.

Athletics’ sponsors: the inside track International Association of Athletic Federations (IAAF) global sponsorships are brokered by Dentsu. Indeed, the 6 | www.sportspromedia.com

Japanese agency giant handles all the IAAF’s commercial rights for its World Athletics Series excluding European and sub-Saharan African broadcast rights sales.

Dentsu’s original deal with the organisation was signed in 2001 and was extended in 2007 until 2019. It is a partnership which has produced the IAAF’s current crop of seven official partners, one official broadcaster and an official supplier.

The nine companies snared by Dentsu on the IAAF’s behalf – Adidas, Toyota, Seiko, TDK, VTB, Sinopec, Canon, Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) and Mondo – cover a broad range of events at various levels, but it is the biennial world championships which offer the greatest activation opportunities and the greatest certainty of exposure. Moscow 2013 is a focal point for all.

Kazutoshi Kogure is a senior manager of brand communication for TDK Corporation, which has been an IAAF partner since the first world championships in Helsinki 30 years ago.

“Initially TDK’s intention was to raise awareness for TDK’s brand all over the world as a company operating in the recording media business with products such as cassette and video tapes,” he

explains. “Now, TDK has become a global electronics components company.

TDK has continued its longstanding support of the championships because we feel that athletics, which sees the world’s top athletes competing to win with great skill and spirit, has resonance with TDK’s own effort to overcome international competition through the technology and spirit of our ‘winning technology’ and TDK’s corporate motto – ‘contribute to culture and industry through creativity’.

“As a business to business enterprise,” Kogure continues, “TDK does not have consumer-branded products but our relationship with the world championships generates significant promotion of the TDK corporate logo to a worldwide audience through dedicated television broadcasts and extensive news and sport programming.”

While TDK is a B2B operation, for watch manufacturer Seiko the consumer remains king. The world championships offer the company an ideal opportunity to showcase the precision and accuracy of its timing and measuring systems. It has done so since 1985, its latest renewal coming in August 2009. “Clearly we’ve been doing it for many, many years,” says Seiko UK

Seiko sees its sponsorship of the IAAF as a branding opportunity, with its logos placed close to race finishes, and a showcase for its timing technologies

marketing manager Susan Boobyer of a technical effort which will require 50plus people on the ground in Moscow this summer, plus a sizeable investment in technology and rigorous testing beforehand, “so it’s easy for us because we have all the equipment in place.

“One of the main reasons we do

athletics is exposure and the fact that it shows us, we hope, in a favourable light in a very technically minded world, because that’s what we do best. Clearly, our exposure comes from the equipment we have at the venue, which is substantial. We get marketing rights including advertising boards, in particular the smaller

advertising board that goes on the finish line so it’s always in the TV view, and also our on-screen credit package.

“For us, it’s mainly the TV exposure you get, in practically every country in the world. There are not that many sports where you can really get that end result – it’s massive.”

Timing is everything: Seiko’s technical approach

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eiko’s bespoke technology includes starting and false-start detection systems; photofinish cameras; wind gauge systems; trackside display; and video and electronic distance-measurement systems. All will be deployed in Moscow this summer, following a rigorous testing and installation process which will begin at the Luzhniki Stadium around ten days before the start of the championships.

Susan Boobyer cites the launch, at Gothenburg 1995, of Seiko’s reaction time start system as a particular milestone in the company’s work on IAAF events.

“We were the first company to come out of the blocks, excuse the pun, using

the electronic gun, which was a real breakthrough because that did even the playing field out for athletes,” she says.

“Anyone who is a scientist will know that the sound from the gun will travel through the air at different speeds, so people are naturally disadvantaged even by small amounts. As the competitors themselves have fine-tuned their performance and the gaps between them have become even smaller, those little gaps actually make a difference.

“Another landmark for us was in Berlin [2009], where we introduced the video distance-measuring system, which was brand new. This year we are reinventing our false-start system. It’s

not a change in technology but it is everything upgraded into a new package.

We’re also launching new information boards on the infield, video information boards. That’s another step forward.

“We don’t sell any of our equipment because it’s too expensive for anyone to buy, we only build it for the IAAF and the other federation-type things we do.

These are amazing machines which will be used for the first time in Moscow – we’re very proud of them. We don’t generally go and shout about the way the technology works, I think there’s an inherent trust in everyone that when we pitch up and do something it’s fair, accurate and precise.”

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The IAAF’s other global partners

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didas, which has a history in track and field dating back to 1928, signed an 11-year partnership in November 2008, making the company an official sponsor and licensee product supplier. The deal runs until the end of 2019.

Japanese electronics giant Canon, best known for its cameras, extended its agreement as recently as last November. Its new IAAF contract, which grants it product exclusivity in various categories including cameras, video cameras, scanners and printers, runs until the end of 2016.

Last August, Toyota extended its

IAAF sponsorship, which began in 2003, to include the next three world championships in Moscow, Beijing 2015 and London 2017. As well as providing vehicles, Toyota has the rights to the athlete bibs for women’s events.

Russian bank VTB has been an IAAF partner since 2006 and has a deal, signed in March 2012, covering the next two world championships and running until 2016.

Sinopec, the China Petroleum and Chemical Corporation, became an IAAF partner in December 2010. It has a five-year agreement, which will run until after the Beijing world championships. It fills the IAAF’s oil and gas category.

Although the IAAF has broadcast deals in place across the world, the influence of Dentsu is seen in the placement of Tokyo Broadcasting System (TBS) as official IAAF broadcaster. Dentsu brokered a deal with TBS in 2009 to extend the relationship – a part-sponsorship, partbroadcast agreement – until the end of 2019. TBS has held Japanese broadcast rights to IAAF events since 1997.

The IAAF’s only official supplier is Italy-based track specialist Mondo, which has worked with the governing body since 1987. In March 2008 the company signed a deal tying it to the IAAF until at least 2019.

For the IAAF’s nine global partners, the World Athletics Championships represent an opportunity for television exposure in almost every global market

While international exposure remains an important element of TDK’s sponsorship, Kogure explains that there are other less obvious benefits too. “We have earned the trust and a first-class image for TDK with various stakeholders that positively influence our B2B operations, recruitment of employees and also provides a focus for our internal communication – because TDK group companies has increased over the years.”

In 2007 the electronics component company renewed its IAAF deal until 2019, a package which includes logos on male athlete bibs, ensuring it is one of the only brands visible on Usain Bolt’s vest at major IAAF meetings. “We were very pleased with the historical performance 8 | www.sportspromedia.com

of the championships and the future potential of the world championships and we wanted a long-term sponsorship to maintain and enhance the TDK brand as the electronic components company,” Kogure says.

“We think it is difficult to measure the success of the deal by each year but we evaluated the reports showing the exposure of TDK’s logo all over the world and the reaction of our customers as well as the number of visitors in TDK’s booth at the stadium.”

Another area in which Seiko and TDK differ is on the commercial importance of where the world championships are staged. While TDK’s Kogure calls location “a very important factor” for the

company, Boobyer insists that it makes “not a huge amount” of difference to Seiko. “There may be logistical or cultural issues that we have to overcome but we see that as our job: it’s our job to go where the IAAF sends us,” she says.

Kogure, outlining TDK’s stance, adds: “Each sponsor has a global marketing strategy, but depending on the host city its value is different. A world championships held in Moscow is important for our Russian business customers and for potential customers to get to know TDK. However, the global impact of the IAAF world championships means that TDK receives substantial marketing benefits, not only in the host market but worldwide.”