Samsung Delivers Via Wireless for Vancouver Olympics

Worldwide sponsor Samsung Electronics hopes to bring the Winter Olympics closer to the public with statistics and information delivered directly to mobile devices.

“As a global partner for the wireless telecommunication equipment, we would like to push this theme through our technology of the wireless increment and phones to the Games and as well as to the fans and the public around the Olympic Games time and onward,” Jaehoon Lee, General Manager of Samsung’s Vancouver 2010 Olympic Office, told Around the Rings.

Wireless Olympic Works (WOW) broadcasts statistics and information from the Games through a mobile device. Introduced during the 2004 Athens Games, WOW was only available to the organizing committee and Olympic Family until now.

The TOP Sponsor’s theme for Vancouver 2010 is “Discover Your Every WOW Moment with Samsung”, encouraging fans to download the WOW Public Application to gain constant coverage of the Games.

“We’d like to extend the touch points of this Game time technology, as well as information provision touch points, not only limited to the Games related personnel and workforce, but as much as extended to the general public so that they can experience the Olympics,” Lee told ATR.

Samsung also has launched its Samsung Mobile Explorers program for customers. The company chose nearly 57 students from 7,000 contest entrants from around the world to become Samsung Mobile Explorers for Vancouver. The students will share their Olympic experience by using their Samsung mobile phones to capture their experience at the Games.

“Those kinds of things are a good idea of having people volunteer into the Games through the window of Samsung’s mobile technology” Lee said.

Samsung will focus its marketing in Canada, United States, Korea, China and Russia.

“Those countries have their own significance in the Olympics Games, such as China and Russia, who happen to be the previous Games host and the future Games city, but as well as our general market,” Lee said.

Samsung will also offer its customers and clients opportunities to meet with its executives through its hospitality programs.

“Hospitality is one of the efficient and best ways to present our friendship and appreciation for the customers and clients,” Lee said.

“The executives would like to participate to meet with their best clients and customers to express their own appreciation. The hospitality program would be a good opportunity for the executives to meet with their clients and customers.”

Lee said that fans also played a role in the selection of athletes for the athlete ambassador program, “Team Samsung.”

“It seems that Canadian fansand public are very much into the sports, and they are very much associated with the sport that they invented which is called hockey. We happen to be a good partner for hockey in Canada and Canadian Olympic Committee,” Lee said.

Team Samsung for Vancouver consists of Canadian ice hockey athletes Wayne Gretzky, Hayley Wickenheiser, Jarome Iginla. It also includes ice sledge hockey athlete Jean Labonte and US snowboarder Hannah Teter.

“We happen to be already in existing friendship with those five athletic figures, and we are very much appreciative of them taking this job for us. It’s been wonderful. We can never thank them enough for the Games time marketing that they have been able to help us with us.”

Samsung in Vancouver

Olympic Rendezvous @ Samsung (OR@S), a signature of Samsung since the Sydney, will be located at David Lam Park near downtown Vancouver. OR@S will display Samsung’s mobile phones and technology and offer live entertainment.

Samsung began OR@S at the 2000 Games in Sydney but it has evolved over the years.

“It is very consistent from the previous heritage of OR@S, and also we have some differentiated points, especially to these Games. One is that we would like to present as much technology, wireless technology to our fans and visitors, to our Pavilion and also to the Olympic Games,” Lee told ATR.

“And second, this is officially the ‘Green’ Olympics. VANOC announced it’s going to be more environmental friendly than any Olympic Games that’s been played before. So we would like to incorporate that idea, which we happen to also be showing support for our business operations, as well as Olympic marketing. So we’d like to take as much environmental friendly elements and present our product,” Lee continued.

Samsung will have nearly 50 employees from around the world working in Vancouver.

The company became a TOP Sponsor during the Nagano 1998 Winter Games, and its contract continues through the 2016 Games in Rio. Global headquarters of the Samsung Group are near Seoul. Samsung is also a sponsor of the 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games.

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With reporting from Isia Reaves

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