"Be Brave" on Olympic Channel -- On the Scene

(ATR) Martin Sorrell warned the IOC that failure to embrace digital innovations may lead to the Olympics "becoming irrelevant".

In the first ever keynote address to an IOC Session, the head of the world’s largest marketing and advertising company said the IOC and Olympic Movement "must continue to evolve and attract youth, including vital new audiences in fast-growth markets" such as Asia Pacific, Latin America, Africa, the Middle East and Central and eastern Europe.

Sorrell urged the IOC to embrace the technological revolution, to concentrate not only on TV distribution but also the new wave of social media and mobile telephony to tap ‘Generation Z’.

He said the IOC had taken a "very bold step" to create the Olympic Channel, which is due to launch in the first half of 2016. "My advice is to be brave, be determined, be proud to be delivering the future of the Olympic Movement through this new medium," he told IOC members in a 90-minute speech.

"You need to evolve to new consumption behaviors in both younger demographics and in fast-growth markets, more online and more mobile," he said.

"The challenge will be to deliver a solution that reaches this new audience, linking to platforms they are already engaged with and extending the window of the Games outside the two- or four-year period.

"The world is ready for a mobile first social content platform united under a powerful purpose that resonates with people around the world. And the IOC has the potential to create just that."

Sorrell warned the IOC that failure to realize this most likely would result in the Olympics "becoming irrelevant to new younger generations" and "failing to change attitudes towards sporting participation".

The WPP chief bombarded IOC members with facts and figures about the changing landscape of new media.

Speaking to an audience comprised of many members over 60, the 70-year-old noted "old people resist change and are uncomfortable to change".

Underlining the technological advances in social media over the past decade, he noted that: 1.2 billion smart phones were shipped in 2014; half the world is now connected to Facebook, with 1.5 billion users at the end of June; one billion people watch a video on YouTube each month… 40 percent of them on their mobile phone.

"You need to be everywhere that consumers are, and that means online, accessible on the devices they use, in the formats they want and in the places where they are spending time," he said.

Virtual reality could be the next big thing in the way people consume content, Sorrell said. It allows people from remote locations to put on Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear technology and experience a 360 degree video and sound of an event being staged thousands of miles away.

"Through virtual reality, we can bring spectators from around the world closer to the Games, to the athletes and to the community than ever before," he added of the possibilities of the Olympic Channel.

He referred to the IOC’s ambitions under Agenda 2020 several times, in a session that had IOC members tweeting their views from the Session auditorium. IOC president Thomas Bach had encouraged them to do so.Athletes commission chair Claudia Bokel, Tony Estanguet and Richard Peterkin were among those who seized the opportunity.

Inside the"Presentations like Sorrell's should be a regular feature of IOC Sessions. External speakers. Relevant topics. Generates great interaction," Peterkin tweeted.

Describing it as an "inspirational speech with many new ideas and food for thought", Bach said the IOC’s two new commissions – communications and Olympic Channel – had a lot of work to do when they meet for the first time in November.

IOC members were clearly fascinated, putting 12 questions to Sorrell; bizarrely on Saturday there were was not a single question about Rio 2016's trouble-hit preparations.

Amid uncertainties about the future of the Youth Olympics, beyond Lausanne 2020, Sorrell suggested the event had a future.He said the YOG was a "fantastic idea" to engage young people with the Olympic Movement: "But what has to happen, it [the IOC] has to understand those young people more effectively."

He called on the IOC to use the Youth Olympics "as an incubator, an accelerator" for digital innovations.

"I was wowed by Buenos Aires presentation yesterday," he said, remarking on how one 2018 YOG official had used the live streaming app Periscope to report to the IOC Session."If Buenos Aires uses those sorts of technologies in a constructive and progressive way, it could be immensely powerful," he added.

Reported in Kuala Lumpur by Mark Bisson

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