The public will decide Istanbul’s 2020 bid logo following the submitting of five designs for public opinion.

All five can be seen on the official website and the competition is designed to engage the public and fuel the Olympic passion in Turkey which the IOC has already reported to be at 73%. 

After the logo design is decided then all the branding will follow for the candidature files. 

Turkish businessman, Haran Arat, who is now the leader of the bid said, “Last month’s IOC Working Group report revealed that Istanbul 2020 has incredibly strong Government and Public Support and the national excitement generated by the decision to make Istanbul a Candidate City demonstrates what this means to our country. 

“The winning designer will have the honour of knowing they have created a logo that represents a bid backed by all levels of Government and enjoys the full support of the people of Turkey – the Istanbul 2020 Candidate City logo will be famous throughout our nation.” 

Arat also noted that the enthusiasm for the bid has great impetus from the youth, “Turkey is a nation filled with millions of educated, talented young people – most of whom support Istanbul 2020. So it is no surprise to see several of the shortlisted logo designs coming from our nation’s talented young designers. 

“I am sure that whichever logo is selected, it will help us to promote our national dream to host a Games that, for the first time ever, spans two continents and provides a bridge to unite and inspire the next generation all over the world.” 

Competitor cities Tokyo and Madrid have both kept their applicant phase logos and added the rings to their new candidate branding. 

The IOC will vote in Buenos Aires on September 7th 2013 for the host city of the 2020 summer Olympics.

UEFA Euro 2012 sponsors Carlsberg, buy Orange and Castrol will all increase their social media activity around this summer’s tournament to avoid being overshadowed by the likes of Coca-Cola and McDonald’s, impotent which are also sponsoring the London Olympics.

With a little more than five weeks to go until the opening match of Euro 2012 in Poland, Carlsberg has launched a Facebook campaign that encourages fans to show their support for England via a series of challenges as part of a wider multimillion campaign.

David Scott, director of marketing for Carlsberg UK, said: “We’ve never previously used Facebook on this scale to understand the England fan and talk to them about what they know and love about the game.

“Consumers tell us that the Olympics don’t give the same sense of drinking occasion that a football match does, so we’re applying this insight to drive sales in pubs and supermarkets.”

For Castrol, the growth of social media since Euro 2008 means that it can now use the predictions from its EDGE Index – the official tournament ranking system – to respond to fans in real-time on Facebook and Twitter.

A spokeswoman for Castrol said: “It’s not just about the index tools this year. We can now be far more interactive with our fans. For example, we’re extending our Tested to the Limit partnership with Portugal star Cristiano Ronaldo through a new digital and social fan activation.”

The digital presence will be supported by in-store, outdoor and press activity as the brand looks to engage with fans across multiple touchpoints.

Orange has made interaction the brand’s biggest priority for its Euro 2012 strategy. The network is focusing the bulk of its marketing on direct channels, such as using social media for its Supporters’ Cup competitions and launching the official Euro 2012 mobile app.

TV activity is also planned but John Constantinou, head of global sponsorships and partnerships at Orange, says this is more of a “nice to have” than its core focus. The brand is more interested in creating interactions.

“Big TV ads and perimeter boards in the stadia alone won’t be enough to achieve cut-through in this busy year.

“We are already a known brand and have high awareness levels so we want to add value to football fans and our customers to improve their brand preference and hopefully make them more loyal,” he adds.

Glasgow has unveiled its bid for the 2018 Youth Olympic Games hoping to capitalize on Glasgow’s status as a host city for the London 2012 Games.

The 2018 Youth Games is expected to attract more than 3,000 athletes ages 15-18, competing in all 28 Olympic sports.

Glasgow, the UK’s candidate for the Games, is competing against five countries, including Argentina, Colombia and Poland.

Officials hope Glasgow’s bid will be successful since much of the sporting, accommodation, and transport infrastructure will already be in place as a legacy of the 2014 CommonwealthGames which Glasgow is hostng.

Glasgow City Council leader Gordon Matheson said, “We face tough competition, but hosting the Youth Olympics is a very big prize. It is on a scale of a sporting event like the Commonwealth Games. It is competing to be the third largest sporting event in the world.

“And of course competition is going to be high. It should be give the prize involved – but Glasgow is in it to win it”, he added.

The host city for the 2018 Youth Games will be chosen in the summer of 2013.

UK consumers are talking more and more with their friends and relatives about the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympic games, but the rise in buzz about the games is very gradual, according to the latest findings by Keller Fay Group.

To date, football remains a much bigger talking point, particularly among men and many traditional sport fans. Buzz is also much weaker outside ofLondon and the South-East.

These are the findings of the latest consumer research on word of mouth by the Keller Fay Group. They are based on new, just released information from Keller Fay’s TalkTrack Britain study, an ongoing research programme which tracks word of mouth in the UK on a continuous basis. It is the only such research that looks at both offline as well as online conversation and was launched in the UK in July 2011.

During April 2012, 20% of UK consumers said they had discussed the Games over the previous 24 hours, which is up slightly on the March figure (18%) and considerably above the levels recorded in the latter half of 2011 (8-10%). As the Games approach, buzz will of course increase, but at this stage we are some way off from the Games capturing the attention of the entire nation.

The 20% buzz figure compares with 25-30% who typically discuss Premier League football in a 24-hour period. More broadly, issues such as holidays, shopping, food/diet and money/economic issues are generally more widely discussed.

Encouragingly for London 2012, those discussing the games are not necessarily hardcore sports fans, with women almost as likely to discuss the Games as men. But the downside is that many of the traditional sporting audience – football and rugby fans in particular – are currently more focussed on their own teams and leagues. So perhaps attention will shift to the Olympics once the football and rugby seasons finally close.

The other challenge facing LOCOG is how to engage those living far away from London and other Olympic venues. People living in London itself are around three times more likely to discuss the Games than those in Scotland or NE England.

In summarising the research results, Steve Thomson, Managing Director of Keller Fay UK, said “It’s clear that excitement aboutLondon 2012 is building, but at the moment traditional sports – football especially – are hard to dislodge from getting the main attention around the nation’s kitchen and pub tables. In England, this week has started with the focus on Roy Hodgson, and it seems that until the summer itself the Olympics aren’t yet top of the agenda.”

The Keller Fay Group is the first full-service market research company focused exclusively on word of mouth (WOM) and brand advocacy.

If Tokyo win the bid for the 2020 Olympics it bring in US$37.9 billion boost to the economy and 152,000 jobs in Tokyo, according to a research project commissioned by the campaign. 

The Tokyo bid is already backed by a guaranteed fund of $4.5 billion this research project further quantifies the value in bring the Games to Japan as a boost for the economy following last year’s earthquake and tsunami. 

Masato Mizuno, bid CEO, said, “Tokyo 2020 promises to be a financially robust Games due to vast resources guaranteed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, along with strong backing by corporate Japan. 

“Furthermore, Tokyo 2020 would bring huge economic benefits to the local, national and global economies. 

“Significantly, the economic impact would be felt not only in Tokyo, but all across Japan, including areas affected by last year’s natural disaster in northern Japan. 

“We have a responsibility to unite and inspire Japan’s entire population behind this national project and thereby widen the path to a better future.” 

The breakdown of the research shows that $21.1 billion would benefit the economic area of the city and $16.3 billion would help the national economy. New jobs are calculated at 152,000 nationwide with 84,000 in the city of Tokyo and 68,000 in other areas. 

Together with the economic advantages the city would also benefit from improved public transport, attractive new sports facilities and a variety of other valuable public amenities. 

Tokyo is also striving to attract new tourists and boost their tourism market consequently creating new jobs in the hospitality sector. 

The Japanese capital is bidding for the 2020 Games together with Istanbul and Madrid. The final vote will take place in Buenos Aires in September 2013.

A British doctors group has criticised London 2012 for allowing McDonald’s to be a Olympic sponsor as it feels the wrong message is being sent in a country with ballooning obesity.

Big Macs, fries and milkshakes will be part of McDonald’s exclusively branded menu at the Olympics and the fast-food giant will soon be opening its largest franchise in the world, a two-story cathedral-like restaurant that seats 1,500 customers, at London’s Olympic Park. McDonald’s will be the only restauranteur allowed to sell brand-name food at the games and there will also be a separate McDonald’s within the athletes’ village — in addition to three others at the Olympic Park.

Alongside McDonald’s, Coca-Cola has the exclusive right to sell non-alcoholic drinks at Olympic venues. Heineken has been named the games’ official beer.

Terence Stephenson, a spokesman for the Academy of Royal Medical Colleges, said: “It’s very sad that an event that celebrates the very best of athletic achievements should be sponsored by companies contributing to the obesity problem and unhealthy habits.”

The group is calling upon the British government to restrict advertising by McDonald’s, Coca-Cola and Heineken during the Olympic Games, which are being held in London from July 27 to Aug.12.

But that’s unlikely to happen. London Olympic organizers have defended their decision to accept McDonald’s sponsorship as a business deal.

“Sponsors provide a huge amount of the funding required to stage the games,” said a spokesman for the organizing committee in a statement. “Without our partners such as McDonald’s, the games simply wouldn’t happen.”

About one-quarter of Britons are obese and experts estimate that could jump to half by 2030. Obesity and related health ailments cost the U.K. health system about 4 billion pounds ($6.5 billion) every year.

“These brands are using the Olympics to be associated with medals and svelte, fit athletes,” he said. “They don’t want us to think of fat, unhealthy people when we think of their products.”

Britain is also battling an increasing alcohol problem, which experts warned could worsen during the Olympics.

“When any major sporting event has an official alcohol supplier, it sends out completely the wrong messages to young people, making it seem as though no major event is complete without alcohol,” said Sir Ian Gilmore, special adviser to the Royal College of Physicians on alcohol.

He said he “greatly regretted” that the London Olympics had appointed an official beer.

Some experts said advertising during the Olympics could actually cause a spike in fast food consumption, even in people not inclined to eat it.

“We cannot simply decide not to process (an ad), there is a subliminal association that is made that may affect your behavior in the future,” said Nilli Lavie, a professor of psychology and brain sciences at University College London.

McDonald’s said in a statement they expected about one-in-10 people visiting London’s Olympic Park to eat at their Golden Arches. The company has been an official Olympics sponsor since 1976 and said it would be using its expertise to provide “high-quality British food” at the Games.

Stephenson of the doctor’s group doubts if many of the competing athletes would have an appetite for the cheeseburgers, fries, and chicken nuggets that will be ubiquitous at the Games’ venues.

“I’m not sure how many of them will be eating this kind of food before competing for a medal,” he said.

Sportradar, viagra ed a supplier of sports and betting-related data, story and Infront Sports & Media, cheap have announced an agreement under which Sportradar will increase its live streaming offering by a further 4,000 sporting events.

The deal includes a broad soccer package with a total of close to 1,500 matches, including the Indonesian Super League (ISL). Beyond soccer, Sportradar have also acquired the rights to the national top-tier basketball league in Turkey, the TBF Basketball League, as well as the EHF EUROS and the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships.

All of the fixtures, subject to geographical restrictions, will be streamed through the Live Channel of Sportradar’s brand Betradar, which is available across online, mobile and tablet, providing live sports content for betting customers 24/7 and also in retail sports betting outlets to serve clients throughout the entire opening hours of these retail sites.

Sportradar’s CEO, Carsten Koerl, welcomed the deal: “Since we first began providing live streaming alongside our range of existing solutions in 2013, we have significantly extended our media rights offering for our Live Channel products. Our goal is to ensure that our customers offer their clients the most entertaining and engaging experience. Thanks to this game-changing deal with Infront, our live offer has increased to over 5,000 live events to the bookmaking industry within the first year of service.”

Stephan Herth, Executive Director Summer Sports of Infront Sports & Media, added: “This premium package of media rights includes many of the world’s most popular team sports and is a big gain for the end consumers that access the live streaming through their preferred betting channel.

“With this enhanced portfolio, its in-depth sports know-how and profound understanding of data, Sportradar is now in the position to provide the betting industry with an attractive offering. This will also enhance the exposure of these top sport properties within one of the fastest growing segments of the sports industry.”