Locog boosts marketing spend to £8m

The accounts for Locog (London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games) reveal that it spent £7.87m on marketing in the period to 31 March.

In the same period for the previous year, Locog spent £2.14m on marketing.

During the period, Locog undertook significant marketing support, including press ads promoting the sale of tickets for next year’s games and promoting its volunteering scheme.

Demand for tickets for the games was so high, it resulted in a hitch on the Locog website.

Other marketing initiatives in the period included its 'Open Weekend' event, the games' one-year-to-go event, which took place in July this year and featured art, dance, film and sport events.

Marketing support was also accorded to the launch of London 2012 mascots Mandeville and Wenlock.

Locog is working with a number of agencies and companies relating to its advertising ahead of London 2012.

These include CBS Outdoor, which is handling the traditional and digital outdoor media activity; McCann Worldgroup, which is the official marketing provider, and Crystal Digital, which is providing digital imaging services for the Olympic and Paralympic games.

Overall staff costs for the year were registered at £56.09m.

Wages and salaries totalled £47.58m. Locog paid out to a total of 792 employees, 139 of whom were in sales and marketing.

Paul Deighton, London 2012 chief executive, earned nearly £700,000 in the year.

He received a basic salary of £479,873 and a bonus of £220,125, bringing his overall pay packet to £699,998.

However, Deighton declined to take his bonus, which is being donated to charity.

According to the report, Sebastian Coe, chairman of Locog, was paid £357,000 in the year.

This article was first published on marketingmagazine.co.uk