Whitehouse Communications delivered the three-year political campaign for the British Olympic Association (BOA) that helped secure UK Government endorsement of London’s bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games. Through sustained early engagement with Ministers and officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the 10 Downing Street Policy Unit, followed by a political lobbying initiative targeting Conservative and Liberal Democrat Spokespersons in both Houses of Parliament, the firm helped convince the Prime Minister to endorse the bid despite its huge financial cost. In July 2005, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced London as the host city of the 2012 Olympic Games.
The challenge
The British Olympic Association (BOA) is the national Olympic body for the United Kingdom. It is responsible for selecting and taking members of Team GB to the Olympic Games, and for supporting and encouraging elite sports in Olympic disciplines.
The BOA wished to mount a bid to bring the 2012 Olympic Games to London, but knew that such a bid would only succeed with active support from the Government, the Mayor of London, and the opposition political parties. The brief called for a sustained multi-year political campaign, delivered with the sensitivity that a project of this financial scale and political salience required, to build the cross-party consensus that a successful Olympic bid would need to secure.
Our approach
Whitehouse Communications delivered a coordinated political campaign that combined early Whitehall engagement with sustained cross-party parliamentary lobbying, framed around the professionalism of the BOA’s own bid preparation and the economic benefits a successful bid would bring to the UK.
The work focused on:
- Commencing an early dialogue with Ministers and officials at the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and the 10 Downing Street Policy Unit to identify the concerns and objections the government might have to the proposal, and to work with the BOA in addressing them.
- Running a political lobbying initiative to identify, approach and brief the key Conservative and Liberal Democrat Spokespersons in both Houses of Parliament and to manage the regular submission of briefing notes to Parliamentarians prior to relevant debates.
- Creating opportunities for the BOA to disseminate its arguments about the tremendous benefits to the whole of the UK economy that a successful bid would bring.
- Helping the BOA convince the Government that the Prime Minister could confidently personally endorse the bid, despite its huge financial cost, because of the professionalism and thoroughness with which the BOA was preparing the detail of the project.
The outcome
Over three years of sensitive political lobbying and behind-the-scenes work, the Government was persuaded that it could proceed confidently to endorse the bid in the knowledge that it would have the support of the Mayor of London, the Conservative Party and the Labour Party, as well as the overwhelming majority of MPs and Peers and the people of London. In July 2005, following an inspiring campaign by the bid team, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced its selection of London as the host city of the 2012 Olympic Games.
For the British Olympic Association, Whitehouse Communications’ political campaign translated an ambitious sporting proposition into a bipartisan political commitment, and gave the bid team the cross-party parliamentary and governmental support base needed to compete and win on the international stage.
