The Olys

When the case studies were almost finished, James suggested doing an Olympic ad contest over the course of the Olympics and asked me if I was interested in running it. Of course, I agreed. I thought it was a fantastic idea. So that is how the Oly Awards came to be.

The Flickr Group of Ads

The first thing we did was start a Flickr group to collect some of the advertising surrounding the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. There was a ton of advertising around town, far before the Olympics even started. We organized a photowalk to get some of the initial photos in the pool. Our goal on the day of the Opening Ceremonies of the Olympics was to have 50+ members and 500+ photos. We wanted to make sure there were enough people interested in the Olympics ads project, and would be willing to submit their photos. Well, we rocked it. The Flickr group now has over 80+ members and 800+ photos.

The Brands

I started writing a blog post or two a day during the Olympics on the major brands that were Official Sponsors of Vancouver 2010. We got some feedback from some of those brands too, which was great!

The Photo Contest

The next step was creating a photo contest at OlympicAdAwards.com. We set up a Strutta-powered contest for people to submit their best photos of Olympic Advertising. Our goal was to get 100 entries by the submission deadline. We got 115 entries and knocked it out of the park again.

The Judging

We enlisted some great judges to help us out with choosing the Best Brand and the Best Photo. They were:

• Stephen Bailey, Marketing Director at Fluevog Shoes
• Mark Busse, Partner / Design Director at Industrial Brand
• Jim Southcott, Chief Strategic Officer at TBWA\Vancouver

We gave them a detailed scorecard to fill out on each of the brands. They are all Vancouverites, but they also had our Flickr group of Olympic ads for a resource in their judging. By the way, a HUGE thank you to the Judges who took the time out of their day to do this for us. They gave great feedback in the comments on some of the brands as well.

The Prizes

The 2 Prizes we sourced out to give to the winners, were original artwork by local Vancouverite Rachael Ashe. She alters books and turns them into the most unique and stunning pieces of art. The Best Brand was to receive “Swimming in a Sea of Words,” and Best Photo was to receive “The Butterfly Effect.”

The Winners

In the end, it was a tight race, but Coca-Cola with their Open Happiness campaign beat out the Hudson’s Bay Company by three points! Congratulations Coca-Cola, you did a fine job.

For Best Photo, there were 10 finalists chosen by public voting, from the 115 entries. In the end, Kim Werker‘s photo of the Hudson’s Bay Company won the popular vote. Congratulations Kim!

View AdHack’s announcement on the blog, or view the official press release.

Well, that’s that. My Olympic project has come and gone. It was a blast, and so interesting to see what developed over the 17 days of the Olympics. Not only in regards to local, national, and worldwide advertising, but in being a Canadian, and a proud Vancouverite, and witnessing the best party Vancouver has ever thrown. I am so lucky to have taken this role and to have been a part of the Olympics while they were here in Vancouver in 2010. I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.

And now… a new adventure? I think so!

It would have been much easier if I did a few posts throughout the Olympics, but alas, I am doing it all in one long post now that I have no plans taking up my evenings. This means that I will leave out a lot of details, but that’s okay.

I am not alone in my depression of the Olympics being over. My Facebook, Twitter, and blogging friends feel the same way.

Wow, where to begin? 7 years ago? Okay.

July 2, 2003. I would have been in Boston, Massachusetts working on a yacht at the time when the IOC announced in Prague, Czech Republic that Vancouver won the bid to host the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. I gloated to my American, British, Czech, Australian, and South African co-workers. Mind you, my South African friends later on won the bid to host the 2010 FIFA World Cup, so we both had reasons to celebrate.

Let’s bring things up a little closer to the present. June 12, 2009. My Mom e-mails myself, my two brothers and my sister-in-law with the subject line “Olympic Torch Bearer!” At the time, I don’t even think I realized what this meant, but I was so unbelievably excited for her. I wrote a blog post about it even!

Okay a little closer. February 3, 2010. Myself, my 2 brothers, my sister-in-law, and my nephew all made the trip from Vancouver, up to our hometown of Powell River for their Torch Relay Community Celebration. We had a few family members who performed in the Ceremony – Cousin Monica & her husband Max, and our Aunt Christine.

We then woke up at the crack of dawn to watch my Mom be the first torch bearer on February 4th, 2010 at 6:00am.

What an experience! Of course we have numerous photos (mine are here) and lots of video footage, and my brother Jordan even threw together a great video that still puts a lump in my throat everytime I watch it.

After my Mom carried the torch, it was just a few short days until the Olympics. And what a blur.

On Thursday, February 11th, I got to see the torch for the second time with some good friends, as it was carried into David Lam Park at LiveCity Yaletown. We also saw the first of many fireworks displays.

The next morning, February 12th, I walked to work taking photos along the way, and I got to see the torch relay for the third time as it traveled east on Hastings St. A lot of security was was traveling with it, as it had to divert a protest at Cambie and Hastings.

Friday night I stayed in to watch the Opening Ceremonies. I thought they were a great representation of our country from coast to coast and terrific way to welcome the world to our fine city.

The rest of my time was spent hopping around town trying to get into venues, sometimes succeeding, sometimes not. I didn’t always have my camera with me, but did manage to snag a few shots here and there. Here’s a few of Sheralyn and I on February 14th on Granville Island where we visited the Atlantic Canada House.

February 16th, I’m pretty sure I went to the Irish House, but there’s no photographic evidence to share. I’m kidding. There is, just not on my camera.

On February 18th, I watched Canada beat Sweden in men’s hockey with my friend Erin and some of her out-of-town friends at Ceili’s. This was not one of them.

I was lucky enough to see two medal ceremonies. Unfortunately though, both ceremonies were ones when Canadians were not getting medals! Of all the luck! The first one I saw on February 19th, was the night Theory of a Deadman performed. Not a big fan of them, and our seats were waaaay up in the nosebleeds. We did see Aussie Torah Bright get her gold medal for snowboarding, though – sorry Rob! And we met up with more friends afterward at Dix Brew Pub where we watched John Montgomery win gold in Skeleton!

My friend Seanna invited me to go to the Russia vs. Slovakia women’s hockey game with her and some family friends on February 20th, because her friend Natalie plays on the Slovakia team and left her four tickets at will call! W00t! Lucky me.

February 21st was the day Team Canada played against the USA in men’s hockey and lost! My friends and I watched it at Shark Club, which was a crazy, crazy scene. We didn’t lose hope though, and even made friends with some Americans.

Photo credit: Amanda Haines

I had a few quiet nights after this, and I even skipped watching the semi-final men’s hockey match vs. Slovakia (because I knew they would win anyway), and went to my second medal ceremony on February 26th to see Great Big Sea perform. And I’m so glad I did, because they were fantastic. I think there a lot of Newfoundlanders in the audience because everyone was singing, clapping, and stomping along to the music. For some reason, this was a really happy moment for me. Maybe I should have been born on the East Coast…. Nah.

After the ceremony, my friend Erica and I snuck into Library Square to share in the celebration of Team Canada making it to the gold medal match for men’s hockey. There were a few Swedish girls who had the same plan, and they were nice enough to let me take their photo.

Finally, February 28th was the gold medal men’s hockey game of Canada vs. USA, and the day of the closing ceremony. My friends and I were up bright and early to watch the game at Earls Yaletown. We drank mimosas and had a delicious buffet breakfast, then sat back to watch the best hockey game ever.

Photo credit: Stacey Parsons

I have more Olympics photos that I still have to update here.

It was a great couple of weeks Canada (& the world!), and I’m never going to forget it. Thank you Vancouver for throwing such great party.