When London won the Olympics in 2005 agencies across the UK capital started rubbing their hands in anticipation that this would lead to a gold rush of Californian proportions. Has it quite worked out like that? We all probably hoped so, and when the world went into recession in 2008/9 we all clung to the hope that winning the Olympics would somehow help give us a bit of a helping hand through difficult times.

In reality, my sense is that only a few agencies have seen an Olympic impact. For those agencies that have Olympic sponsors, there has undoubtedly been a flurry of activity but I imagine that agency heads of those agencies would probably have expected more investment than has been made.

Only a few PR lead campaigns have really stood out and have been sustained for a long period of time. Cadbury’s and British Airways have clearly invested significant amount of monies into their below the line campaigns but others appear to have stayed safe and stuck to above the line campaigns or athlete appearances.

Personally I have been disappointed (with the exception of British Airways) with the creativity of the campaigns that have been undertaken. Tough economic times means a heightened aversion to risk and that is understandable when marketing budgets are tight and you need to make an impact. In addition, working within the constraints of the governing bodies can be an instant blocker to some fantastic ideas.

However, to truly stand out amongst a sea of sponsors, creativity becomes a pre requisite and not a luxury. Most opinion polls show that the general public can’t name the sponsors of the large international events and this is as much the fault of the governing bodies as it is the marketing directors concerned.

The typical approach to sponsorship PR is quite a staid approach. It becomes a box checking exercise against the contract that is in place. And to manage that programme execution is relatively simple and uninspiring to the consumers that the sponsorship is designed to engage.

I hope with less than 100 days to go to the opening ceremony that the main sponsors up their own game and break out of the malaise that their programmes have become. There is still time.