Creative Agency Secrets

The marvelous British Olympic Association has launched its Beijing website….. and boy oh boy, it has ALL the features that were cool in 2006 and NONE of the community uptake.

A list of handy functionality and features:

    * Home page with latest news - very up to date but every 'news' item is published by the BOA's press office
    * Podcasts - 10 uploaded.  THe most recent being 30th April (Taekwondo).  Also present - beach volleyball, diving, BMX, modern pentathlon, hockey, sailing, cycling.  Three uploaded from 29 - 30 April and then the previous ones all date from 2007
    * Videos - Leon Taylor form the synchronised diving team is pretty active having uploaded 6 videos since 29th April and Barry Middleton (hockey) has done one.
    * Athlete Diaries - grand list of 3 athletes: Euan Burton, Amy Terriere, and Denise Johns.  Who manage 4 entries between them.
    * Messages of support (5 displayed - but probably huge numbers in archive!)

Then there's the background info: racing schedule, qualification, currently selected athletes, stuff about the Games, about the sports (accurate, short and scraped from another website I've previously seen), a Gallery of photos by Getty Images from past Olympiads - there are five rowing photos displayed.

And so what is the opportunity that has been lost / missed?
Well, there could be

    * A link to a twitter feed (if No10 manages it, surely the BOA can???)
    * Upload your own photos from flickr while at the Games
    * links to athletes' own sites
    * Share travel plans with others
    * Desktop viewer for instant updates customised to your sporting interests
    * News feeds from other sources for your sports
    * Plan your viewing schedule tool linking to the TV guides for the UK terrestrial and satellite broadcasters
    * Live video streaming athlete interviews
    * Forum for real discussions

And what are they doing to promote the site?  I got an email about the 'launch' because I'm on a journalist list.  Has anyone else seen it advertised, linked to from ANYWHERE?  e.g. ARA website or FISA or your local newspaper….

How on earth do they expect the general public to build the excitement behind the team (and of course get taxpayers ready to buy lottery tickets to fund the next Olympics) if they can't promote the HELL out of this event.  We want to become a world showcase in four years time.

Who is advising these monkeys and can they please get an informed digital strategist/planner onto the team, fast.

Oh, did I forget to mention the handy "countdown" tool on the header bar which says how long we have to wait until the Games open?  Neat, but old technology!