The word unprecedented has never been used so frequently this past year both in the UK and at the BPA. A postponed Games, no fan travel and a British public facing relentless covid related messaging meant a tough environment for the BPA, both operationally and commercially. However, despite its challenges, 2021 yielded one of the organisation’s most successful years.
For Rio 2016, the BPA had a total of 14 partners, at two levels. For Tokyo, we ended with a total of 21 partnerships across three levels, generating a significant uplift in sponsorship revenue. Success however was not just financial, with partners actively engaging in campaigns, activations and supporting our ambition to increase brand awareness and shift perceptions of disability in the UK.
The nature of the global pandemic highlighted where we needed to improve, firstly considering how we operate as a rights holder and secondly, creating additional tangible assets through making a social impact commitment. Following the postponement, we reworked our rights packages, where necessary creating ‘make goods’ and created a UK based hospitality programme. We used the platform of the Games to launch our new corporate social impact programme: ‘Beyond the Podium’ and celebrated both organisation and partner milestones alike to generate noise across social media.
Most importantly, we learnt a huge amount from the challenges and triumphs of 2021, with many of the outcomes from this turbulent year being adopted into our partnerships programme as we look ahead to Paris, LA and beyond.
