Mike Lee – Vero – Ian Freeman – Sports Management

The last time I saw Mike Lee was in a pub in Wimbledon.

Well, I was in a pub in Wimbledon, cheering and leaping up and down as London was named host of the 2012 Olympic Games. He was on TV from Singapore, in a slightly dodgy beige suit, doing pretty much the same.

As director of communications and public affairs for London 2012, Lee was easily the most visible member of our squad, his smiling demeanour, framed by an unruly mop of blond hair, disarmingly enhancing the positives and eliminating the negatives.

So no change there, then. In his cramped office on London’s Strand, Lee, now boss of Vero, his own sports consultancy, still grins and spins on behalf of the bid. “It was a very exciting time, a great campaign to be involved in” he says – and you just know he’s said it a million times. “We achieved our goal, which was to win, but I hope we did it with a certain amount of style and substance and in a way that said good things about the UK and London.”

Lee is the consummate communications professional. Olympics involvement aside, three years at UEFA and over 15 years in various government-related roles and as a senior executive at lobbymeisters Westminster Strategy has left him with an innate knowledge of the political workings of sport and how to get his, and his clients’, stories across. He’ll be revealing some of his secrets as a speaker at November’s BISL conference.

Vero’s main focus is on campaigning communications - helping organisations develop a considered approach to the way they project themselves to their various external audiences - stakeholders, decision makers, media and consumers.

“I established Vero believing there was a gap in the sports market around strategic consultancy in media, communications and public affairs” Lee says. “We focus on applying brand disciplines to the world of more traditional sport and understanding ‘brand’ in the context of a governing body or an international federation.”

Lee and his Vero colleagues, although as plural as they come, are, quite naturally, most renowned and respected for advising countries and cities on bidding for major sports events. So why should anyone consider such a move? Is it worth the soul-searching, the brain-battering hard work…the, er, cost?

“It’s a growing market” says Lee, “and an agency like ours needs to be able to offer something in terms of the bidding environment, as so many sports events have become subject to competitive pitches. And we’re not just talking Olympic Games and World Cup here, but international championships and sports conferences.”

Lee is quick to point out the different benefits from bidding and from hosting. “Obviously the object of bidding is to win, but even by just bidding you can have impact by raising your profile internationally and putting in place new sports infrastructure.

“In a lot of cases you can see the legacy of the bid. I think much good came out of Manchester bidding for the Olympics, although it was unlikely they would win. They were successful with the Commonwealth Games in 2002 and a whole series of other events have flowed from that - a bid can be the bridge-head into the marketplace.”

Legacy can, of course, also be negative. “You should only build as a permanent structure what you can use after the event” Lee points out. “We had a mix of permanent and temporary buildings. There are certain venues where you couldn’t guarantee any legacy use – two or three of the indoor halls will be put up and taken down, such as the structures around hockey, and the equestrian facility at Greenwich Park will be a temporary venue.

“In Athens they had very good venues but there wasn’t much planning going on and some of them are now empty. Also, you have to be creative about legacy use, which can be very different to the original. When you are designing your venues, have your legacy thoughts in mind and make it easy to adapt for community use from elite use. All these venues tend to thrive within partnerships - PPPs, educational, local authority - so try to involve people early on and give them some sense of ownership.”

Lee stresses the need to be absolutely clear why you’re bidding, to understand and lend substance to the bid, making sure it’s technically sound in terms of infrastructure. “You must think clearly about what you’re offering the organisation you’re pitching to, and what you are getting out of it - are you getting good value out of the event? For London 2012, we dissected the audience and all its dimensions, not just the voters of the IOC, but the international sports federations, the national Olympic committees, the sponsors, the broadcasters, the athletes – they all had different needs.”

Measuring value is another matter. “Economic studies have been done, probably the best being after the Sydney Olympics in 2000” says Lee. “How accurate these analyses are I’m not sure, but all the indicators are that it’s worth it. There are hard and soft factors, hard being what it means to UK PLC, to leisure and tourism, with soft more related to international profile, feel-good factors, getting people more active and increasing sports participation.”

Lee will spend part of his BISL conference address discussing how to realise the legacy beyond 2012 in terms of tourism, economic benefits and the new expertise the UK can develop and take to the world. “Following the success of the Sydney games Australian companies and consultants have won almost three billion dollars of business in Beijing, so that demonstrates the potential for UK companies.”

That’s all well and good, I point out, as long as it all works. Am I a sceptic, Lee asks. “All people remember is the announcement in Singapore and cheering crowds in Trafalgar Square, but it wasn’t always like that - there was a lot of cynicism and scepticism over the bid itself. Organising committees have a rough time with the media and 2012 won’t be an easy ride, and the key thing is not to be too affected by the daily news agenda. The media won’t be cheerleading, but they’ll come on board in due course.

“Part of what it’s about is realising that if you do go into a campaign on the front foot, you always have to be prepared on the back foot, for the arrows and missiles. A good campaign consists of an offensive and defensive strategy and you have to grind out the arguments.”

Lee’s no-nonsense approach to media and government relations has won him fans across all industries. ITV plc chair, Michael Grade, who, in his previous role as BBC chairman was part of the London 2012 delegation to Singapore, says of Lee “He is a total professional, and as good an example of a corporate communicator as I have met. I am full of admiration for him.”

Lee created Vero in January 2006 and his impressive client list now includes the IAAF, Liverpool FC, Sport England, UEFA, UK Athletics and West Ham United FC. The son of a miner, he was brought up in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He achieved a degree in PPE at Oxford and trained in PR and as a psychiatric nurse before dipping his toe in the political water by becoming, in 1985, campaigns officer for the Labour party.

His summation of Westminster’s current attitude to sport is objective and realistic. “The governance of sport in this country is pretty good” he says; “we can take a lot of pride over what’s been achieved in last ten years. It’s recognised, though, that things can always be improved and if we are to achieve some of the targets around elite performance and participation in sport, there has to be improvements in the way governing bodies work.

“There are new challenges, including how to achieve a more joined-up approach across government departments - there’s still a little thinking in silos about it, and a more integrated approach is necessary.”

Lee is impressed at the sponsorship opportunities sport can offer and talks up the first tranche of corporate 2012 involvement. “Many organisations will get involved through government bodies and young talent programmes, and an array of new relationships will be formed. Sponsorship seems to be going well and the first Tier 1 sponsors, EDF and Lloyds TSB, will achieve great value from it.

“People have expected lots of sponsorship announcements, but there’s five years to go yet. Organising committees tend not to be active on all fronts until after the previous games and there’s still a year to go to Beijing!”

He admires certain brands too. “I like the work Nike and Adidas have put into sport, positioning themselves as purveyors of lifestyle and creators of events. Red Bull has done some fascinating stuff. I was working on Salzburg’s bid for the 2014 Winter Olympics and loved watching the way they used sponsorship to say something about their brand – that it’s youth orientated, fun, energetic, a bit edgy and a bit daring. There are lessons to be learned from that sort of approach.

If they do it well, who does it badly? “Not badly, really, but not quite so well” Lee laughs “Sport is such a powerful force in society. In terms of impact on schools, the health agenda and child obesity, sport offers so much. It could be that sports organisations, including governing bodies, don’t get enough credit or kudos for what they’re doing, but if they were a little bit more daring and creative, that could change.

“Thinking that sport can solve all the problems of ill health and obesity is naïve, but sport can make a difference so long as it’s tied up with good public policy, integration of work across government departments and real investment in practical programmes. There’s still a long way to go, though - the approach taken by the public sector is seen as leaden and not creative enough for people in the private sector.”

“As a nation, I think we do care about sport” Lee says. “It’s part of our national psychology and people have relationships with sport - a parent like me will have a multiple relationship as a proud father of sporty kids and as a fan of a football team.

“Success in sport is a good thing, as is the rebirth of competitive sport on the school agenda. There’s a lot of pressure on government bodies to deliver success at elite level in Beijing and London. The jigsaw is in place – it’s now our job, all of us, to put the pieces together and deliver in terms of elite success, increased participation, better facilities - and make the next five years fascinating.

ends

Mike Lee’s book “The Race For the 2012 Olympics” is published by Virgin Books at £12.99

top