World Youth Day organisers are expecting more than 200,000 attendees from around the world to flock to Sydney from July 15-17 – making it one of the biggest single events ever staged in Australia. While the Catholic Church and the Australian and New South Wales governments are the main backers, a number of big-brand companies have seen the light and come onboard as sponsors.
The person behind the 20-plus companies involved with WYD is John Moore, the same man who lured sponsors to the 2000 Sydney Olympics. Moore, managing director of Global Brands Group Australia, says all the sponsors have provided something different to the event.
“It was logical to invite brands that already had a relationship with the church such as Telstra and Qantas. We were also looking for sponsors who provided services or goods matching the needs of the organisers. Food and beverage companies were obvious because of our need to provide more than three million meals to the pilgrims during the event.”
Moore says the sponsors provide a mix of cash, products and support for the event depending on whether they are a partner, such as Telstra, supporter or provider.
Telstra is the telco partner for WYD. And acording to spokesman Peter Taylor “it’s second nature” for Telstra to be involved when big events come to town. The telco has committed 400 employees to the event from all parts of the company, ranging from network engineers to marketers.
“Providing telecommunications for major events is always a lot of work and our experience at the Sydney 2000 Olympics, 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games, 2003 Rugby World Cup and the V8 Supercars certainly helps us to understand what it takes to host large numbers of media, attendees and meet event organisers’ requirements,” explains Talyor.
With Telstra, the Pope will be sending text messages directly to attendees, and has about 1800 customer net services to operate on the networks, along with 90 fax and 20 data services. Attendees will also be able to send messages to a fleet of 10m Digital Prayer Walls across main sites, while Telstra interactive centres will offer free internet access via the Next G network where attendees can email photo messages created in on-site green screen studios.
During the preparations for WYD there has been continuous publicity surrounding the event and the logistics of having so many visitors in Sydney. While some of the PR has been positive, a lot including the recent stand-off between the organisers and Sydney City Council over payment for use of Hyde Park, has not.
Moore says despite these squabbles, none of the companies involved have expressed any concern about negative publicity regarding WYD or its organisation.
“We can genuinely say that none of our partners have expressed concern about the event during the preparations.”
The companies involved were chosen by the event organisers after extensive conversations. For the sponsors, Moore says, the event offers the opportunity to interact and be close to a large group of 18 to 35-year-olds.
It allows sponsors to align themselves with a significant and important segment of society and to communicate with the broader community who will be looking closely at the event because of its size, he claims.
Although WYD is organised by the Catholic Church, Moore is adamant the companies aligned with the event are not openly endorsing Catholicism. “They are endorsing the gathering of people,” he says.
With so many international pilgrims expected for the event, Qantas has signed on as exclusive airline partner. Qantas is operating four charters (three from Rome and one from Los Angeles) to bring attendees to the event and is providing discounted airfares.
Rob Gurney, Qantas group general manager for sales and distribution, believes WYD will offer great opportunities to showcase Australia to a large international audience.
“Events of the magnitude of WYD provide an opportunity to showcase the best Australia has to offer, a responsibility Qantas takes seriously,” Gurney says.
Qantas has twice flown the Pope to Australia for visits and has again signed on to provide the Pontiff with travel to the event.
Pacific Magazines’ Marie Claire is also linking with WYD, asking ad agencies to send in creative for a feature to appear in this month’s edition called “Rebranding the C Word”, with agencies like Leo Burnett, McCann Sydney and The Campaign Palace taking part.
News Limited has also lent its support, with the company’s The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph keeping attendees up-to-date with an event guide and any changes in transport during WYD, while at the same time producing a pocket guide. News Ltd wants its brands to play a part in organising the event, and sees the sponsorship in the same light as other big NSW partnerships, such as its deals with the Royal Easter Show and the Sydney Festival.
“Both newspapers continually seek to align themselves with sponsorship properties or major events in NSW,” says Liza McNally, marketing and circulation director of Nationwide News. “Our newspaper plays an important role in communicating changes to transport routes, how to get around and where the best locations are for people to engage in the celebrations.”
Elsewhere, Mercedes-Benz is official automotive partner for the event, while Avis car rental is a provider for the event and will be managing the fleet of official vehicles supplied by Mercedes-Benz. Greg Petersen, Mercedes-Benz director of sales and marketing, says involvement in these events demonstrates an element of leadership in what ever industry the company is from.
And with a large crowd expected (or at least hoped for) the biggest name brands seem to happy to offer their backing to the Catholic Church’s big day out.
