eyof_final_report

9. COMMUNICATION & MARKETING
10 July
Inspiration session for Festival Makers – Galgenwaard Stadium
11 - 14 July
Torch Relay, started with a press conference for children
Due to the high numbers of visitors to the website, the website
was very slow during the event. In the week of the EYOF
Utrecht 2013 a migration to a platform with a bigger capacity
was undertaken.
HOW TO ACHIEVE THE COMMUNICATION OBJECTIVE?
The top 5 of actions we took to achieve the EYOF Utrecht 2013
communication objective: to contribute to a successful
European Youth Olympic Festival 2013.
14 - 19 July
European Youth Olympic Festival 2013
Opening press conference in EYOF
• Achmea House on 14 July with, among others, IOC President
Jacques Rogge
Opening Ceremony in Galgenwaard Stadium on 14 July
• Daily live broadcasts and press conferences in the EYOF-
Achmea House - Neude
16 July Meeting around IOC President Jacques Rogge
Utrecht Science Park
• 19 July Tribute to the Dutch team in EYOF-Achmea House,
Neude
Closing Ceremony in Olympic Village 2 on 19 July
• Send Off to Dutch team– Utrecht Science Park 20/7
5. Increase visibility
The EYOF was an unknown event. To ensure that sufficient
tickets were sold, it was absolutely essential to draw attention
to the event both nationally and internationally. As many different
channels and media as possible were used to improve the
visibility of the event, ranging from a clearly recognisable house
style to guerrilla marketing, the use of mascot Youthie, A2, A3
and AO posters, Z-Cards, a countdown clock to city dressing
and collecting the Olympic Flame from Greece, a gold medal
with a drop of ‘Good Gold’ and campaigns using print and social
media to setting up the EYOF/Achmea House at Neude.
1. Uniform message and concept
A single message was formulated which was to be conveyed
in all activities. The overall theme of EYOF Utrecht 2013 was
‘Celebrate Talent!’. This communication message was based
on the central theme: talent. From the talent of the participants
in the EYOF (upcoming top athletes) right through to the talent
of the children being introduced to a new sports or branches
of sport during the Achmea High Five Challenge. The aim was
to draw people’s attention to talent in words and images as
much as possible. This was worked out in more detail in the
concept old heroes/young heroes. The symbol of a ‘High Five’
was the connecting factor between the activities and the
translation into the image of ‘Celebrate Talent’.
Guerilla marketing: EYOF medals in the streets of Utrecht
2. Milestones in the run-up to EYOF Utrecht 2013
A number of specific milestones, PR moments, were defined in
the run-up to the EYOF. The activities of the Achmea High Five
Challenge: Urban Tour, the Sports Days, school clinics and the
Torch Relay Games played an important role in this. In addition
to the milestones around the AH5C, the following milestones
were defined for 2013:
22 January
Media café - for national and regional (sports) journalists
3. ‘Old’ hero/icon as visible tournament director
Tournament director of the EYOF Utrecht 2013, Pieter van
den Hoogenband, charismatic three times Olympic swimming
champion with international allure and also an ‘old’ hero/icon
was used to attract as much media attention as possible.
A media plan was drawn up. Interviews in the written media
and on radio and television took place around the milestone
of the EYOF Utrecht 2013.
The EYOF Achmea House
FACTS AND FIGURES
1. Print & online:
• Editorial: 800 articles in the printed media and 1,000
online articles. Advertisements in the national newspaper
De Telegraaf (six times) and dozens in regional media.
• Letter from Mayor Aleid Wolfsen to all citizens of the City
of Utrecht (137,000 addresses) which was distributed with
a door-to-door newspaper.
14 February
150 days to EYOF Utrecht 2013 – mostly on social media
7 May
Start of ticket sales and opening of information centre at
Neude Square
30 May
Visit by King Willem-Alexander and Queen Máxima to Utrecht –
meeting with Pieter van den Hoogenband and young athletes
30 May
Lighting and arrival of the Olympic Flame Athens, Greece/
Schiphol Airport
31 May
Urban Tour Mission Olympic in Amsterdam
4. Social media as an important instrument
In light of the fact that the target group was largely made up
of young people, the rapid development of technology and
the limited budget available, extensive use was made of social
media during the EYOF Utrecht 2013. The objective to become
the ‘most interactive EYOF ever’ had already been formulated in
2011. In addition to www.utrecht2013.com, Twitter, Facebook,
YouTube and Instagram, a special EYOF App was used.
All social media (also) drew attention to the website. Live streams
during EYOF were used to increase the number of visits to the
site. The rules of the various platforms were scrutinized and
these were complied with. The target groups for the various
social media were determined beforehand.
2. Radio and television
TV broadcasts during EYOF Utrecht 2013:
• Opening Ceremony - regional television covered the whole
event live. National television: 5 x item in news/current
affairs programmes
• Daily: National Television: 6 broadcasts - 4 minutes.
Regional television: Daily live broadcast from 15-19 July
(plus repeat every hour in the morning) ’Olympic Utrecht’
by RTV Utrecht (regional)
• Interviews and reports on the radio programmes. Radio ads
on Skyradio, and FunX and on Nickelodeon
3 July
Handover Dutch EYOF team, NOC*NSF meeting - Papendal
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