Bringing Olympic spirit to the heart of London. BT

Challenge

We needed to create a new communication channel for BT to make an immediate media impact and continue building interest into 2012.

Insight

Putting BT at the heart of the nation required an innovative, high tech solution in a very public place.

Solution

The Olympic Games comes to London in 2012. As a Tier One sponsor, BT wanted to celebrate "1000 Days to Go", exposing the BT brand to a global media audience and establishing itself as a key Olympic partner.

We needed to provide a communications channel that would cut through and inspire Londoners, visitors and the world’s media. We also saw the opportunity to create mass-market social engagement, resulting in a positive and lasting impact on the BT brand.

Turning an iconic London landmark into a stunning, experiential communications channel, we installed a 360 degree, 282 sqm LED information band at the top of the BT Tower. The transformation took 14 weeks, following stress-testing in a wind tunnel. At 167m above street level, it is believed to be the highest 360° LED display of its size in Europe.

"1000 Days to Go" launched its first message on October 31st 2009, accompanied by a lighting and pyrotechnic display that generated extensive media attention and public interest. It will continue to display Olympic-themed, BT branded messaging until the games begin.

Results

• 5.2M viewers - some 10% of the UK population - watched "1000 Days to Go" on the National Lottery Show Live on BBC1
• It was covered in 7 national newspaper stories and received 70 TV and radio hits
• An unprompted social media spike saw BT become the 8th most popular brand on Twitter
• Experiential activity is believed to have generated £1M+ in media value