Olympic logo agency was ‘most economic’ choice
Wolff Olins, the branding agency behind the much-derided London 2012 Olympic Games logo, won the contract to design the emblem after providing “the most economic financial proposal,” according to a letter leaked to Marketing Week.
The AAR – the advisory agency hired by the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games (Locog) to coordinate the pitch process – sent the letter to Locog’s head of marketing Chris Denny to refute reports that Wolff Olins was appointed without showing its ideas for designs.
In the letter AAR chief executive Kerry Glazer says creative pitching is not the industry norm in the search and selection of design agencies and Wolff Olins won the account after scoring the highest key performance indicators across a number of criteria set out by Locog. These included providing “the most economic financial proposal.”
Glazer would not confirm to Marketing Week whether Wolff Olins provided the best price. She says the term refers to the agency providing the best value for money: “It means it was the most economical proposal for the execution of the strategic work.” She adds that the £400,000 charged by Wolff Olins was about average for that size of project.
A Locog spokeswoman says: “The Design Business Association was involved in all this, and it was run in line with best practice.”
She would not comment on whether Wolff Olins provided the best price. She says: “Our criterion was someone who understood our way of thinking, had passion for the Games and had ideas about where the Games should go.” She added “Price was not the driving factor.”
