With 48 days until Paris hosts the official opening ceremony for the Paris 2024 Olympics, France Licensing Day has confirmed a special Olympics keynote for this year’s event, which takes place 27 June at The International University City of Paris.
Edouard Bardon, licensing and retail director, Paris 2024 Olympic Games and Bruno Schwobthaler, ceo, Licensing for Growth, will present Sporting Events and Licensing: The Keys to Success, a retrospective of the Paris 2024 licensing programme, which kicked off in 2019.
As Edouard (pictured) is quick to point out: “The Olympic and Paralympic Games of Paris 2024 are a unique opportunity to address the transformation of a sporting event into an experiential brand.”
Attendees at France Licensing Day will hear about the four pillars the teams leant on for developing the Paris 2024 Olympics branding and licensing programme – the mascot (crucial for all sporting events), its French heritage, the Olympic rings and the phrase ‘allez Les Bleus’ – and how they subsequently developed the brand story and DNA to inspire the licensing programme and sell to licensees and retail.
The keynote aims to inspire other French brands and retailers to really embrace licensing, to be brave with it and to benefit from the amazing opportunities that it opens up by answering the following questions:
How do you transform – from scratch – such a high-potential project as the Olympic Games into a successful licensing programme, a project which has never been carried out in France before?
How have the different brands within the Paris 2024 licensing programme contributed to its success – from the mascot, to the emblem and even the French national team?
What lessons can sport (and non-sport) brand owners of all sizes keen to develop their own licensing business and strategy learn from the experience of Paris 2024?
“We are honoured to announce Edouard and Bruno as our keynote at France Licensing Day,” commented Matthieu Battini, France Licensing Day account director. “To have them talk about the Paris 2024 licensing programme in the host city of The Olympic Games just 48 days before the opening ceremony is incredibly special.
“Delivering a successful licensing programme requires a strong brand, an innate understanding of your audience, and the ability to bring that brand’s story to life through product. Sounds straightforward, but delivering a consumer products programme around the Olympic Games is quite unique and unlike any other sport. The Olympic Games is a moment in time – it’s a few weeks every four years, or in the case of Paris, just three – and the teams were tasked with going as broad as possible and making the most of a relatively tiny window of opportunity to create a fanbase and sell product.
“What’s more, that fan base is not a pre-existing, loyal, easy to target community. French sports and non-sports fans will love the Olympics simply because they are in Paris, plus you’re trying to sell to fans of sport all over the world, which means exploring every possible retail category. It’s going to be fascinating hearing Edouard’s story on how they created the Paris 2024 Olympics brand and licensing programme.”
Registration for both France Licensing Day and the Licensing International France Awards (which takes place in the evening on 27 June) is open at https://www.francelicensingday.com/. A France Licensing Day pass is free for all to attend. A day pass plus a ticket to the prestigious Licensing International France Awards, including drinks and canapés, is priced at €64 (€56 for Licensing International members).
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