Stephen Wolfe

Forget, for a moment, all the kerfuffle over the London 2012 Olympics. The overspending, that logo, put it all out of your mind. Turn your gaze instead further north, to Stoke-on-Trent (it’s equidistant from Manchester and Birmingham to answer your almost inevitable question). Because here, in the middle of one of Europe’s largest housing estates, Bentilee, the 2007 Olympics is being held. But this is not your normal, run-of-the-mill, steroid-injected glamour fest. Oh no. This is the first ever park Olympics.

So expect to witness an extraordinary combination of events that will see the legendary games mated to a very urban park theme. From dog stick throwing to five-a-side tied football, newspaper reading and frisbee throwing, it is, as they say, all happening on 30 June.

You see, here at Grisdale Lesniak Swann (specialists in marketing strategy and creative communications), we were briefed to come up with a PR event to dramatise the thoroughly good regeneration work being done in Bentilee by the Epic housing organisation. In short, Epic has turned a patch of pretty unproductive land into a five-a-side pitch, a multi-games area, family picnic spot, children’s playground and a 50 seater pavilion that’s now open to the whole community. What better way, we thought, of dramatising the themes of togetherness, new green space and sport than to hold our very own Olympic games?

It’s not the first event we’ve worked on with Epic: our ‘social event’ parody, the Antisocial event, became the first ever specially assembled think tank to report directly to the government on a new national initiative, in that instance the respect agenda on antisocial behaviour. It was, incidentally, a roaring success.

And we’re confident of success with our Bentilee Olympics, because charities, social housing providers and regeneration experts are all too often persuaded to keep their heads firmly behind the parapet by agencies and PR ‘experts’ anxious to take the safe option (and a very fast buck). We, on the other hand, feel that every PR event and piece of marketing needs to stand out and be witty, engaging and memorable. We thought on a somewhat tongue-in-cheek epic scale of our Olympic event. And why not? After all, would Coca-Cola celebrate the launch of a new flavour by just getting a few kids to stand next to a vending machine and smile? I don’t think so either.

So come one, come all on 30 June from 2-4pm and support the event that, if you’ll excuse the pun, runs rings round its rivals.

Stephen Wolfe is a creative copywriter at advertising agency Grisdale Lesniak Swann, organisers of the Bentilee Olympics. Details: Amanda McDonald on 01782 749497.