Charles Wright, the managing director of branding and marketing company Wolff Olins in Dubai, is proud to have been a part of the London 2012 Olympic team. The company designed the official logo for the Olympics, which proved to be controversial when it was first revealed in June 2007. Here, Mr Wright, talks about the controversy and plans of the Omnicom Group-owned firm in the region.
Why are you talking about the controversy now?
People did not see and hear the story behind it. The [London 2012 committee] wanted to control the publicity and they have now allowed us to talk.
So, what did the logo represent?
While previous Olympics logos celebrated a city or a country, the London 2012 logo aimed to attract youth and encourage a wider participation in sports beyond the two weeks of Olympics.
We needed to take [the Games] to the streets from the winner's podium. It needed to be urban and modern. We knew there would be no stars ... leaping figures, nationalism, nostalgia. London is already famous, whereas [the 2008 Beijing Olympics] was celebrating the phenomenon that is already China. Also, the sponsors loved it because it was compact.
Your Dubai office, set up in 2008, services the Arabian Gulf and the Indian subcontinent. Where do you plan to go from here?
We are looking at markets further east than India. The economy there is still growing, people have money to spend and they have choices. Branding comes in when you have choices. There is a lot of work [in the Gulf] with the cultural institutions, such as the Qatar [national] museum. The Dubai office employs 20 people.
What are the problems when it comes to branding in the region?
Challenges include the unfamiliarity of western objects and the concept of branding. As a result budgeting is the main challenge.
[That's] because branding is not understood here and people ask, 'Why would I spend on branding?'
How developed is this region for branding?
One of the things that has always surprised me is how few international brands there are from this part of the world, given its tremendous economic resources. Perhaps this may be because economic development and prosperity reached the Gulf only in the last generation. Perhaps the free-flowing wealth from hydrocarbons crowds out other forms of business enterprise. Who knows?
But even today few of the branding briefs we receive from clients have an international ambition. Most aim to expand only in the [Gulf] or perhaps [Middle East and North Africa]. So ... the branding market in the Middle East is at best nascent.
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